Skin Of The Sea by Natasha Bowen - Book Review

I have always found an interest in mythology and legends. Ever since I was eight, after our six weeks of learning about the myths of Greek mythology I had fallen in love. I enjoyed the idea of these stories that had gone down from generation and generation to the point that people questioned whether it was true or false.
However, it was clear in my childhood how easy it was to find books surrounding Greek, Norse, and Egyptian mythology, such as the Percy Jackson books.
Although I enjoyed these novels, it wasn’t until my late teens/early twenties that I realised a lot of these novels about legends were very white.
There’s this whole world of mythology from Thailand all the way to the Yoruba culture.

The novel follows Simidele a Mami Wata, a water spirit who helps those who have lost their soul in the water to pass on peacefully. Until one day, Simi ends up saving a human boy, something which she is not allowed to do as she is only meant to help the souls which have already passed. The consequences could harm all of the lands and thus Simi has to go with Kola (the boy she saved) to fix what she has done and ask for forgiveness for keeping him alive. 

There are many elements of this novel that I absolutely loved. For starters, I have also loved the idea of mermaids, and so when I saw this book cover and realised Bowen was inspired by The Little Mermaid, I knew I had to read this book. I really enjoyed the storyline, and I could clearly tell how one point led to another, therefore, for me, it flowed well. 
I also believe Bowen did a good job of choosing which deities to introduce in the storyline. As mentioned, the Mami Wata comes from Yoruba mythology, which originated in West Africa. There are quite a few legends about the many gods, it means when writing a novel which is inspired by this culture, it might be challenging to choose which deities to introduce. This is because you'd want to introduce as many as possible but not have them overthrow the plot. Personally, I think Bowen did well, she did not go overboard, but she did have plenty of deities from the Yoruba myths to make the reader know that she did her research. 

I understand how many people do not enjoy when books/movies/series which are centred around black characters face pain that only the black community understands because there is more than just pain when it comes to life. It might mean some people will not read this novel as they might feel it centres around black pain as this novel is set during the slave trade (which Bowen warns, something that I have only seen once before this and I am very happy more and more authors are doing this). However, even though it is set during this awful period of time, one that should never be repeated, it does not overthrow the plot. This might be happening throughout the book, but it's not in full focus and the book does go through happiness and love.

Some people might have given this book few stars than I would, but as mentioned, I have always enjoyed mythology and hate how difficult it is to find books that centre around myths that aren't Greek, Norse, or Egyptian. This is of course the result of the publishing world being extremely white, and thinking they know what the readers want without ever asking them. Hopefully, authors such as Natasha Bowen will path the road for more authors to have their novels surrounded around myths that fewer people know about to be published as well. 
On top of that, I just love that Simidele is a Mami Wata, a water spirit which I know that if I was younger and knew about them, I would have loved to be one as well. 
This is why I would give this 5/5 stars, and I cannot wait to read the second one.