The Pisces is a literary novel with a genre element, and it takes its sweet time getting to the genre element (maybe a little too much time). The genre element is well done, and I found the relationship between the human protagonist and the merman very compelling. The story goes a lot darker than I'd expected, though in retrospect, this was set up early on. However, the protagonist is a hot mess who neglects and endangers the dog in her care (with regrettable results that are no surprise). This aspect of the book is integral to the story, but yeesh. (I think this is the third novel I've read this year that features cruelty to animals, and I'd just as soon not read a fourth.) Still, the genre aspect of the novel has stuck with me in a positive way.