Fractured glass distorts light—much like the narrative lens through which we view Shatha Ghanem’s fantasy novel Marine Stone, where reality splinters and refocuses with dizzying frequency. One moment, readers wander the streets of Chess Squares village, named for one woman’s compulsive baking; the next, they’re plunged fathoms deep where mermen with daggers for smiles plot treachery in coral chambers.

The story centers on an aqua-green stone, named “Marine Rose,” that is capable of resurrecting extinct creatures. When Flynt Lava flees his underwater home after his brothers and aunt plot against his father, he encounters Kai, the lone survivor of a catastrophic storm. Their awkward bond anchors a narrative bursting at its seams: familial daggers in backs, extinct beasts crossing timelines, conspiracies that swim in circles, and last-act revelations about bloodlines. “Why would I go to meet that son of mine who has abandoned me for some woman he is supposedly in love with?” Talon laments, exemplifying the novel’s complicated family relationships.

As the novel progresses, its complexity grows, creating reading challenges. Subplots multiply like spawning sea creatures, and what starts as a straightforward quest for redemption becomes an unwieldy net catching everything from pirate schemes to dungeon politics. The story’s climax drops a bombshell that’s difficult to swallow without the appropriate narrative bread crumbs. And the prose frequently stumbles over awkward phrasings, dialogue that explains rather than reveals, and scattered typos.

Despite its rough edges, there’s a romantic campfire charm to Ghanem’s narrative voice—as if a wild-haired village elder has grabbed readers by the sleeve to regale them with a fantastical yarn. “My, my! Alright then, come inside at least, it has been hours since we’re sitting under bare moonlit sky talking about treachery and maligned intentions…” Kai exhorts, capturing the novel’s peculiar blend of whimsy and melodrama.

This overstuffed story requires serious pruning. Still, Marine Stone glimmers with creativity and childlike wonder, infused with heartfelt reverence for the natural world.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.