I Can’t Wait For…Bind Me Tighter Still by Lara Ehrlich
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Bind Me Tighter Still by Lara Ehrlich!
Bind Me Tighter Still by Lara Ehrlich Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 9th September 2025
Goodreads
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“A gorgeous, playful, thoughtful novel for feminists, for mothers and daughters, for those of us who grew up on the *other* version of mermaids, and who’ve thought from time to time that we might prefer to join the sirens rather than tie ourselves to the mast."
—Amber Sparks, author of And I Do Not Forgive You
The youngest of three siren sisters, Ceto is weary of an existence driven by hunger, no better than a fish. She trades her tail for life on land, marries the first man she meets, and bears a daughter, only to discover that domesticity is just as mundane as sirenhood.
In search of something more, she flees with her daughter Naia to the ocean, where she establishes a mermaid burlesque and recreates herself, performing as a siren in a tank built into the limestone cliffs overlooking the sea. She trains more sirens, expanding Sirenland from a roadside attraction to a national sensation she rules without opposition—until Naia, at 15, begins to push back against the world Ceto has created and the role she performs in her mother’s shows. A death at Sirenland threatens Ceto's authority and leads Naia to question whether this women-ruled kingdom is truly as empowering as her mother would have her believe. Bind Me Tighter Still explores power and hunger, sacrifice and motherhood, and celebrates the fierceness of female strength in a male-dominated world.
Honestly, ‘mermaid burlesque run by actual mermaids’ is really all I need to hear with this one!
I’m not familiar with Ehrlich’s short fiction (I don’t read a lot of short fiction and really, I should work on that) but this sounds – like something I couldn’t have come up with in a thousand years! Something about it strikes me as surreal and kind of bonkers and ridiculously cool, yes please and thank you!
(Maybe it’s the blithe tone of the blurb as it talks about sirens? The idea of sirenhood being mundane?? A siren who takes her own – ex? – identity and builds a career out of performing it as burlesque??? I can’t quite put my finger on it but I am already delighted.)
Got to wait until September, but I’m pining!
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