The strangest love story
I've read about.
'The Shape of Water'
by Guillermo del Toro
From the description of the book and movie I expected a sci-fi story, maybe with tiny elements of romance. 'The Shape of Water' is, despite the appearances, a fully romance book with the dark fairy tale vibes.
It's the story of the mute cleaner, Elisa, who meats unexpected being in the pool of the area of the government institution where she works. American scientists manage to capture Deus Branquia - a mythical creature living in the waters of the Amazon River.
He is an amphibian being worshipped by the indigenous tribes of the Brazilian part of the Amazonia and his name in Portuguese means literally The God of Gills. (In the stills Deus Branquia looks so scary for me, I am so grateful I've chosen reading instead of watching 'The Shape of Water'...).
Is the romance offensive?
The creature and Elisa fall in love with each other and their romance is the main plotline of the book. As I've read, some critics find their relationship offensive for the disabled community. It is claimed that del Toro conveyes readers that the disabled are not capable of love from every person and they need an other half being as unconventional as them. Honestly, I don't know what do I think about it. Well, I'm sure that it wasn't del Toro's intention to offend any person by creating that romance.
I do
find it romantic?!
For me, the fact that Elisa is mute only deepen the spirituality of the bond between the woman and amphibian creature which I find definitely romantic. But, on the other hand, I'm not a physically disabled, so maybe I can't understand some things.
And on the third hand, I want to mark how funny my instincts were going insane while reading 'The Shape of Water'. As I said, generally I liked the romance between Elisa and Deus Branquia but my animal instinct definitely not. It was quietly whispering to me that it's something unnatural for a human to be in love with an amphibian or any other species than human race.
I felt sightly uneasiness while reading which once again remind me that at the end of the day, we are just prisoners of our animal bodies and any beautiful love story is capable of changing this. So, if you are not afraid of controversial, interspecies romance - feel urged to read 'The Shape of Water'. However, if you feel uneasy by my description of this book - it may not be for you.
Cover image: From THE SHAPE OF WATER by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus. Text copyright © 2018 by Necropolis, Inc. Illustrations copyright © 2018 by James Jean. Used by permission of Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
