Blogger’s note: I’m going through my backlog of books to review, and Washed Up [With a Kraken] is one of them. Which is to say, I read this literal months ago and am going off notes I made then. Because of that, it’ll be brief.  I’ve backdated the review to reflect when I read it.  

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Rating: 👎🏻

Washed Up [With a Kraken] by L.E. Eldridge was on my TBR for a literal year when I finally read it this June. Because who wouldn’t want a monster romance with a nonbinary lead?? (Bigots, I guess?) I thought it was going to be low-key, easy, and provide this nonbinary bb with another romance to recommend to folks when they’re looking for nonbinary romantic leads. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver.

But first, a synopsis

Culinary student Quinn gets the opportunity of her dreams when she lands an internship aboard Costal Cruises. And it’s not surprising when she woos her new bosses and lands the best role. Unfortunately, the nepo baby also on the crew is jealous as hell… so he pushes her overboard. The only thing that saves Quinn from what would be certain death, is (unbeknownst to her) her mate, Jorah, arriving just in time to rescue her. Jorah, though, is a kraken. And though they’ve led a fairly lawful life up to now, they’re finding manipulating details so their mate doesn’t leave them to be remarkably easy.

The problem with this one

Ok, so if it weren’t for one very big problem, this likely would’ve been an easy 3.5 star read for me. It was quick. It was a little bit silly. The world was imaginative if not a tiny bit boring. But it was what I look for in a palate cleanser book between heavier ones.

The problem, though, was big: Eldridge repeatedly misgenders Jorah. There were multiple instances of “he” instead of “they” and in a nonbinary romance that’s absolutely unacceptable to me. If the author had just misspelled any other words, I would’ve honestly overlooked it. And like, yes, I know Jorah isn’t real so doesn’t have any feelings about being misgendered, but instead it felt like a micro-aggression against me, the nonbinary reader. And for that reason, I cannot recommend this book to anybody, and would actually caution nonbinary and trans friends against reading it. Unintentional harm is still harm.