Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea

Hazel Bly has spent two years moving around the country with her surviving mother and little sister after a kayaking accident changed their family. In Rose Harbor, Maine, her mother reconnects with an old friend, unsettling the small, protective world Hazel has built around them. The friend’s daughter, Lemon, introduces her to the local legend of the Rose Maid, a mermaid whose story becomes increasingly absorbing. New friendships and an emerging crush bring possibility alongside anxiety and grief. Ashley Herring Blake’s middle-grade novel follows a child trying to understand how to live after loss, with queer self-discovery woven into a wider story about family, trauma and connection.