When the tides held the moon

Review by Booklist Review

Benny Caldera is a foundling who moved to New York City after Tití Luz, who found him in Puerto Rico, passed away. Doing ironwork in the early 1900s on the Irish side of the city exposes him to the blatant racism of the era, and also affords him the opportunity to construct an iron-and-glass tank for a local sideshow. When he gets injured and loses his job, Benny joins the sideshow. He helps to capture a merman, whom he names Río, and then maintains the tank Río is trapped in. Benny develops a rapport with his sideshow colleagues, and gradually gains the merman's trust and affection. While Benny's colleagues are fretting about Río putting them out of work, their boss, Samuel Morgan, is borrowing money from mobsters, putting them all in danger. As Benny and Río fall in love, Morgan's cruelty accelerates Río's decline and Benny's team of freaks dives into a rescue plan. Kelley's debut is a delightful queer romance with fantastical and historical elements--an unputdownable page-turner.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Kelley debuts with a captivating and perfectly balanced blend of history, fantasy, and good old-fashioned carnival magic. In 1911 New York City, Puerto Rican immigrant Benny makes a meager and dangerous living as an ironworker. When a commission comes in to craft the elaborate metal support for a huge glass tank, Benny seizes the opportunity to prove his worth. The satisfied customer turns out to be Samuel Morgan, owner of Coney Island's struggling Luna Park carnival. Morgan offers Benny a home with the rest of the carnies and a better job if he comes along to catch the tank's intended inhabitant: a real live merman, soon to become the star of the Luna Park sideshow. Benny is seduced by the promise of a better life and finds acceptance among the sideshow workers, but he knows that he's made a terrible mistake immediately upon meeting the merman, Rio, with whom he is able to communicate. Deep beneath Rio's fury and despair at being trapped, there is a heart as huge and untamed as the ocean. Though they're from opposite worlds, the men grow closer until Benny must choose between the only place that has ever welcomed him and a love like nothing he's ever known. The setting is transporting and the romance is heartrending. It's a triumph. Agent: Saritza Hernandez, Andrea Brown Literary. (Apr.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

DEBUT When a young Puerto Rican immigrant begins to fall for the merman he helped capture, he risks losing his career, community, and life. Only one person ever cared for orphaned Benny, his Tití Luz, who must send him to New York before she dies. There, Benny's blacksmith skills gain him the attention of a Coney Island amusement park owner--and a new job. Though the park's workers and side-show performers accept Benny into their family, he is used to hiding his true self, and it's only his interactions with the imprisoned merman Río that begin to set him free. But even if he can admit that his growing feelings are romantic, will Benny risk harming the only community he's ever felt like he belongs with? Kelley's debut novel features their own lovely illustrations, which pair well with the beautiful prose and the message that true freedom only comes with self-acceptance. Fans of C.L. Polk's Even Though I Knew the End or Ruthanna Emrys's Winter Tide will be particularly delighted by the novel's romance and worldbuilding. VERDICT Kelley's debut might draw comparisons to Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, but this powerfully queer story will stand tall in its own right on any shelf.--Matthew Galloway

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