Gory and beautiful
Indeed, it's a hard read with all the gorgeous writing, words that are hardly in daily use, but it was the glue that held this gory, beautiful, whimsical story together. English is not my first language, but I speak it on native level and truthfully I had to Google a lot of words, and while that might be cumbersome, the whole story is set in a mythical, fairytale-ish world where sirens, selkies, kelpies and resurrectionists all exist and abide by no "happily ever after", so the words just seemed appropriate. I loved the darkness of it but still would have enjoyed a bit more explanation as to what really happened in the past. The motive I get, both the mermaid's and the plague doctor's , but a bit more detail would have been much appreciated. But all in all, a great read!
