Oh, did you want to hear about a mermaid story?
No, not the delayed live-action Disney movie remake... I'm talking about the horrifying Jackson Pierce retelling of the Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. Half of this book is so, so good.
And the other half is just...okay.
That's actually a great way to describe the main character Lo. Lo is a water nymph-- not explicitly a mermaid-- who dwells with her sisters beneath the ocean waves.
Lo and her sisters used to be mortal human girls before the ocean swallowed them whole-- but their mortal lives, memories, and identities have slowly eroded in the wake of their eternal hedonistic lives that the nymphs enjoy under the sea.
The water nymphs will shed their humanity underwater for as long as it will take. Once a water nymph has shed the last of her humanity, she'll ascend the waves and become part of the ocean.
But after Lo rescues a mortal boy from drowning, she begins to realize she's curious about the person she'd been before she became a water nymph. Her burgeoning curiosity compels her to seek out the surface, and the strangers that live the way she must have once lived.
This is a teen/young adult novel. There's a love triangle, there's a crisis of identity (will Lo even want to bring her former memories and life back from oblivion? Will this make her feel whole?). It's a little formulaic for such an interesting premise and setting.
I liked this story, but I've read some pretty great novels this year. So I'll cut this review short in favor of leaving the verdict about this story to you guys.
If this sounds pretty good to you, check it out at your local library!