This was a short read. I'm glad I read this after Into the Drowning Deep. It answers the mystery that looms over that novel. It was good to get to know Anne after only knowing her through Tori's memories of her. The entire mermaid performer troupe being torn to bits soon after a different scientist makes a quip about chumming the waters was poetic and heartbreaking. The mermaids' mimicking of human speech is haunting, especially seeing how adept they become at it in the Into the Drowning Deep. In this book, they are a marvel of nature and are understood to be more animalistic than the humans would otherwise expect them to be from myth and legend. The parallels between this novella and its sequel with the kindly, older cameramen caring deeply about the people they're charged with filming puts those who are often relegated to the background or who are erased from the storytelling into the forefront of the novel as they are heroes.