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sidodevilleduval's review against another edition
1.0
This is one of my very few reviews so please bear with me!
To begin with, I wasn't sure of Piper's age. At first I thought she was a teenager, then I saw an illustration of her and thought she looked more like a child. Once I had this mindset, I saw her relationship with Astrid as more maternal. However, when it went down a romantic, sexual path, I became uncomfortable as I had the underlying worry that she was a child. However, it was purely speculation as Piper's age was never confirmed and is up for debate so I chose to believe that she was of legal age to have a romantic relationship with an adult. Of course if it turned out that Piper was a child, then my rating would go down as the quality of the story doesn't outweigh romanticising paedophilia.
Onto the actual book, the author's descriptions were really detailed and she's clearly very talented. The illustrations were beautiful and really added to the story.
As the book progressed I liked Astrid less and less. I found her to be possessive and creepy so personally I wasn't really rooting for her and Piper as a couple. Since Astrid was the first person, since her parents had died, to be kind to Piper, it made sense that she was so easily manipulated by Astrid and sort of idolised her. It seemed to me that their relationship had the makings of a toxic one as Piper seemed blind to her faults, even when Astrid violently killed three people, Piper justified it and continued to date her. To be fair, Piper did teach Astrid about boundaries, which she did make an effort to follow in an attempt to make Piper more comfortable.
Furthermore, I felt that the book was building to something that ultimately led nowhere. When the characters fled on the yacht, it seemed like they were going to find a way to help the people and mermaids of Illyria who were under Jasper's tyrannical rule. And it especially felt this way when they ended up having to return to Illyria because of Piper's infection. However, through sheer luck and none of their own doing, the characters avoided a conflict and things were resolved. Scarlet killing Jasper was a turning point in her arc but it all happened so fast and as he was the villain of Illyria, it seemed like the moment deserved more.
In addition, Falké never got a proper redemption. It was leading in that direction when he came to the realisation of what he'd done, yet he still never apologised to Piper, which left me feeling apathy towards his eventual death. He was clearly a very damaged person, yet his character wasn't explored enough for me to look past the domestic abuse towards Piper and feel much sympathy for him. As well as Elvira's death which didn't really advance the plot of the story, it was just Esther's revenge for the murder of Falké, which led me to believe that its sole purpose was to make life easier for Piper and Astrid when they returned. In fairness, I was neither hoping nor expecting a happy ending for Elvira, much less for her to realise the error of her ways and seek to rectify her mistakes. So it does make sense that once Piper had moved on, she wasn't part of her story anymore. Yet it's still a bit unsatisfying and doesn't really offer her character much closure.
As for Prince Holt, I liked him when he was on Illyria, though out at sea, after the shipwreck, he became bratty and I didn't really understand why. It just seemed so far from the person he was only a few chapters before. I wondered if it was going to be leading up to an opposites-attract romantic storyline with Caspian, and Holt needed to be approachable in the beginning to get Piper to trust him. But when this didn't occur I was confused as to why he had had such a sudden personality shift.
Personally, I found the ending a bit frustrating as there were far too many loose ends for me to feel satisfied. Firstly, Piper never found out that Astrid and her father had been connectors, that their relationship had contributed to his suicide, or that Astrid was keeping his reconstructed skeleton in her undersea house. All of these things are far too major for them to have remained secret past the end. As well as Prince Holt's marriage since, although he's friends with his future wife and they got along, he was reluctant to go through with the wedding and it seemed like he deserved a happier ending than the one he was given. In addition, I was left with many questions as to the outcome of Illyria after Jasper's death, since he left so much behind- such as the mermaid experiments, did they cease after he died; and the families of the test subjects were still misinformed about the deaths of their loved ones, and did they remain so? For me, Scarlett and Esther's ending was the only one I was satisfied with as I felt that their stories were at an end and they had achieved closure from their lives on Illyria.
This isn't to say that the author isn't very talented and I think the book had great potential; for me, the plot just needed refining. Mina Rose shows great promise and I'm looking forward to see how she develops as an author.
Edit:
Since writing my review, I have found out that this book's going to be the first in a series. So that explains why everything wasn't properly finished and explained by the end. However, I highly doubt that I'll read the rest of the series as I'm not invested enough in the characters to really care what happens to them.
To begin with, I wasn't sure of Piper's age. At first I thought she was a teenager, then I saw an illustration of her and thought she looked more like a child. Once I had this mindset, I saw her relationship with Astrid as more maternal. However, when it went down a romantic, sexual path, I became uncomfortable as I had the underlying worry that she was a child. However, it was purely speculation as Piper's age was never confirmed and is up for debate so I chose to believe that she was of legal age to have a romantic relationship with an adult. Of course if it turned out that Piper was a child, then my rating would go down as the quality of the story doesn't outweigh romanticising paedophilia.
Onto the actual book, the author's descriptions were really detailed and she's clearly very talented. The illustrations were beautiful and really added to the story.
As the book progressed I liked Astrid less and less. I found her to be possessive and creepy so personally I wasn't really rooting for her and Piper as a couple. Since Astrid was the first person, since her parents had died, to be kind to Piper, it made sense that she was so easily manipulated by Astrid and sort of idolised her. It seemed to me that their relationship had the makings of a toxic one as Piper seemed blind to her faults, even when Astrid violently killed three people, Piper justified it and continued to date her. To be fair, Piper did teach Astrid about boundaries, which she did make an effort to follow in an attempt to make Piper more comfortable.
Furthermore, I felt that the book was building to something that ultimately led nowhere. When the characters fled on the yacht, it seemed like they were going to find a way to help the people and mermaids of Illyria who were under Jasper's tyrannical rule. And it especially felt this way when they ended up having to return to Illyria because of Piper's infection. However, through sheer luck and none of their own doing, the characters avoided a conflict and things were resolved. Scarlet killing Jasper was a turning point in her arc but it all happened so fast and as he was the villain of Illyria, it seemed like the moment deserved more.
In addition, Falké never got a proper redemption. It was leading in that direction when he came to the realisation of what he'd done, yet he still never apologised to Piper, which left me feeling apathy towards his eventual death. He was clearly a very damaged person, yet his character wasn't explored enough for me to look past the domestic abuse towards Piper and feel much sympathy for him. As well as Elvira's death which didn't really advance the plot of the story, it was just Esther's revenge for the murder of Falké, which led me to believe that its sole purpose was to make life easier for Piper and Astrid when they returned. In fairness, I was neither hoping nor expecting a happy ending for Elvira, much less for her to realise the error of her ways and seek to rectify her mistakes. So it does make sense that once Piper had moved on, she wasn't part of her story anymore. Yet it's still a bit unsatisfying and doesn't really offer her character much closure.
As for Prince Holt, I liked him when he was on Illyria, though out at sea, after the shipwreck, he became bratty and I didn't really understand why. It just seemed so far from the person he was only a few chapters before. I wondered if it was going to be leading up to an opposites-attract romantic storyline with Caspian, and Holt needed to be approachable in the beginning to get Piper to trust him. But when this didn't occur I was confused as to why he had had such a sudden personality shift.
Personally, I found the ending a bit frustrating as there were far too many loose ends for me to feel satisfied. Firstly, Piper never found out that Astrid and her father had been connectors, that their relationship had contributed to his suicide, or that Astrid was keeping his reconstructed skeleton in her undersea house. All of these things are far too major for them to have remained secret past the end. As well as Prince Holt's marriage since, although he's friends with his future wife and they got along, he was reluctant to go through with the wedding and it seemed like he deserved a happier ending than the one he was given. In addition, I was left with many questions as to the outcome of Illyria after Jasper's death, since he left so much behind- such as the mermaid experiments, did they cease after he died; and the families of the test subjects were still misinformed about the deaths of their loved ones, and did they remain so? For me, Scarlett and Esther's ending was the only one I was satisfied with as I felt that their stories were at an end and they had achieved closure from their lives on Illyria.
This isn't to say that the author isn't very talented and I think the book had great potential; for me, the plot just needed refining. Mina Rose shows great promise and I'm looking forward to see how she develops as an author.
Edit:
Since writing my review, I have found out that this book's going to be the first in a series. So that explains why everything wasn't properly finished and explained by the end. However, I highly doubt that I'll read the rest of the series as I'm not invested enough in the characters to really care what happens to them.
mothica's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Every time I picked up the book I was on the edge of my seat excited to see what happens next. This novel isn't your average "Little Mermaid" story. The way the author's writing style is honestly so unique in my opinion. Definitely unlike anything I've read before. You never know what the characters will do next and they are very unpredictable which makes the story even more shocking. Daria Cohen (the illustrator) truly displayed Mina's ideas perfectly. Definitely recommend buying the illustrated version. It gives you more context to the scenes and overall look at all the intricate characters. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is bored with basic fairytale mermaid stories and wants some spice up their reading with some angst. I can't wait to read the second book when it comes out!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Alcohol, Murder, Violence, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Toxic relationship, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Bullying, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
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