"In my nineteenth year I tasted the nectar of truly living, and I might have leapt over the chasm of the ordinary into the ravishment of an ecstatic extraordinary, but I turned away from it."

Beautiful, melancholy, and well-written short story about cowardice, the sea, and a love that could never be. Read it here. I just discovered Tor short stories, and they've been quite good. Also, I often read to music in the background, and I read this to the song Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by XYLØ, which was AMAZING! Really added some atmosphere to the story.

“When you give your heart to the ocean, you either drown, or spend your life wishing you had drowned.”

This was amazing.

Men Who Wish to Drown is a fabulous companion to Monstrous Beauty- which happens to be one of my favorite books of the year.

Fama's writing is vivid and heart-wrenching and her MC of choice is provoking and genuine. I loved every second of it.

And I wish this cover were the actual cover of the novel! It's my favorite of the three!

for being as short as this was, this was emotionally devastating

I am in the minority here. Which is rather unpleasant, I tell you. I was ready to adore this short story with all my heart because MERMAIDS and THAT title is like literal #goals. MEN WHO WISH TO DROWN is written in letter-form. A very old man talks to his great-grandson about his biggest regret in life. (Which includes poor decision making, settling for the ordinary and tears of melancholia.)

This was kind of a love story. Or the moments before a love story. Or something that could've been a love story if he would've just trusted his instincts. (Which is his own fault. He knows that. Now.) Resolved (yes, that is his name) is someone I did not like. He lived a life half-empty, kept thinking about the past after he had already made his decision and it made me angry. (Very angry).

Spoiler

I was incredibly mad at his thoughts about his good wife and his great children because he never really tried to forget the mermaid, Syrenka. He choose to trust the 'sea witch' and her 'vision' and moved on but he didn't really move on, no. He idolized his five/six days with the mermaid and kept thinking about the 'what if' and how he 'loved' her. LIKE BOY PLEASE. No. If you think you love her, then choose her. If you don't choose her, move. on.

(Very angry like I said lol.) Also, the romance did nothin for me. (Oops.) WHICH IS SAD. I LOVE THE COVER AND THE TITLE BUT NOT THE STORY ITSELF. (Not at all.)

I read the short story here: http://www.tor.com/2012/08/29/men-who-wish-to-drown/?et_cid=29448600&et_rid=1476579741&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.tor.com%2fstories%2f2012%2f08%2fmen-who-wish-to-drown and I'll continue to read more short stories on there in the next week. (Because. Free. Short. Stories. I'm hooked.)

An enjoyable mashup of [a: Herman Melville|1624|Herman Melville|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1495029910p2/1624.jpg].

So, I’ve been looking for this short story for the longest time and when I finally managed to get my hands on it, I just had to give it a read straight away! And it did not disappoint!

It’s a delightfully creepy short story about a man who encountered a mermaid in his youth and how he’s been haunted by her for all the years of his life and his desires to go back to the sea to be with her again.

It’s such a refreshing point of view in a story about a mermaid, that I’m actually genuinely impressed. And it’s interesting that you never actually figure out if the Mermaid Queen was actually telling the narrator the truth or whether he embellished the warning in his mind because of his own fears. The open ending really adds to the creepy nature and feeling of this short story and I so thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I love the way this is written and was delighted to realize that this story is connected to A Monsterous Beauty a mermaid novel I have heard good things about!

I have led a life that most men envy. I achieved health and wealth almost without effort. But as a young man the future was unknown and there were two paths before me. In my nineteenth year I tasted the nectar of truly living, and I might have leapt over the chasm of the ordinary into the ravishment of an ecstatic extraordinary, but I turned away from it.

A short story about reflection and the regret of not taking a risk. It resonated with me.