bookishnicole's review against another edition
4.0
I'm going to start this review by saying that I never read the other two books in the Fairytale retellings series, but that made no difference to my enjoyment of Fathomless. Each of the books in the Fairytale Retellings is a different story with different characters so you start totally new.
Pearce did a really great job of creating this new world for Mermaids. I'm not sure if its just me, but I've noticed a lot of mermaid books this year like Monstrous Beauty, The Vicious Deep, Of Posideon, Lies Beneath and Wake. I'm sure I've missed a few on that came out that year, but you get the point. What I loved about Fathomless was how different these "ocean girls" were, I loved this new take on the mermaid siren myth.
It was actually the take on the mermaids that made me rate this book the way that I did. I liked the mermaids more than I did the issues going on with Celia and her sisters. I thought that their powers were cool, but mostly irrelevant except for Celia helping Lo. I felt that Celia's sisters were insignificant to the whole plot. It was really awesome that they each had this cool power to see the past, present and future, and them being triplets was significant, just not them.
I also liked that romance wasn't the focus of this book. You saw a little bit of Jude and Celia's relationship, but it was more about Celia and Lo, and Lo and her sisters. I liked watching the relationship between Lo and Celia as Celia tries to help her remember who she used to be.
The book started off a little bit confusing because it starts off with Lo and trying to follow Lo's near schizophrenic train thought. As long as you stick with it, it proves to be a great read.
Pearce did a really great job of creating this new world for Mermaids. I'm not sure if its just me, but I've noticed a lot of mermaid books this year like Monstrous Beauty, The Vicious Deep, Of Posideon, Lies Beneath and Wake. I'm sure I've missed a few on that came out that year, but you get the point. What I loved about Fathomless was how different these "ocean girls" were, I loved this new take on the mermaid siren myth.
It was actually the take on the mermaids that made me rate this book the way that I did. I liked the mermaids more than I did the issues going on with Celia and her sisters. I thought that their powers were cool, but mostly irrelevant except for Celia helping Lo. I felt that Celia's sisters were insignificant to the whole plot. It was really awesome that they each had this cool power to see the past, present and future, and them being triplets was significant, just not them.
I also liked that romance wasn't the focus of this book. You saw a little bit of Jude and Celia's relationship, but it was more about Celia and Lo, and Lo and her sisters. I liked watching the relationship between Lo and Celia as Celia tries to help her remember who she used to be.
The book started off a little bit confusing because it starts off with Lo and trying to follow Lo's near schizophrenic train thought. As long as you stick with it, it proves to be a great read.
melissapalmer404's review against another edition
4.0
Book #8 Read in 2018
Fathomless by Jackson Pearce
This is a take on the little mermaid. Celia meets Nadia who is a girl who has become a mermaid, Lo. Nadia is struggling to maintain human memories. Lo is trying to not become a monster who will kill humans. This telling is a bit creepier than the Disney version, and for that alone, I think high schoolers will enjoy it. It has mystery, fantasy and romance elements.
Fathomless by Jackson Pearce
This is a take on the little mermaid. Celia meets Nadia who is a girl who has become a mermaid, Lo. Nadia is struggling to maintain human memories. Lo is trying to not become a monster who will kill humans. This telling is a bit creepier than the Disney version, and for that alone, I think high schoolers will enjoy it. It has mystery, fantasy and romance elements.
missprint_'s review against another edition
2.0
BEA
Eh. I really tried but I just couldn't connect with these characters. So much so that I read the second half of the book backwards (chapter by chapter from the end until it makes sense).
I'm not sure if the problem was the book (I think I just might not like mermaid stories?) or the fact that it's a series (I thought this book would stand alone and it kind of does and yet it kind of makes no sense in places like context is missing?).
I really liked Celia. But I really disliked/didn't care about Lo. And I kind of like mermaids to have tails. And . . . this just didn't work for me. Alas :(
Eh. I really tried but I just couldn't connect with these characters. So much so that I read the second half of the book backwards (chapter by chapter from the end until it makes sense).
I'm not sure if the problem was the book (I think I just might not like mermaid stories?) or the fact that it's a series (I thought this book would stand alone and it kind of does and yet it kind of makes no sense in places like context is missing?).
I really liked Celia. But I really disliked/didn't care about Lo. And I kind of like mermaids to have tails. And . . . this just didn't work for me. Alas :(
bookishbelle13's review against another edition
4.0
I've been wanting to read this book for a while. The wit was not disappointing. If you love fairytale retellings and don't mind things getting a little dark, this is the book for you.
grayreader's review
3.0
Interesting take on The Little Mermaid fairy tale, but with a sinister twist. Based more closely on the original story than most adaptations, which was refreshing. It was fresh and different, and an easy read. Down-side: I personally found the chapter-alternating first-person perspectives slightly disorienting at times, and there were plot elements that went unexplained. If you are reading the series, this would be a good installment, but on its own, it leaves gaps.
a_novel_ty's review
5.0
Celia is a triplet who doesn't quite know how to be just Celia. However that begins to change when a boy named Jude falls off of the pier, into the ocean and is rescued by a girl named Lo who lives in the ocean, trying day after day to remember who she once was and fighting what she's becoming.
Fathomless is definitely my favorite of the three fairytale retelling's that I've read by Jackson Pearce. It was beautiful, dark, captivating, mysterious and enthralling. I was invested in the story from the very beginning and I loved every bit of it up until the very last period. Jackson Pearce definitely brought her "A" game with this installment.
With the previous two books, there was always a little something missing that made the book just miss the mark for me in terms of pure and utter enjoyment, but after reading this book, I think that just had to do with setting up the baseline for the overall arc of the series. I say this because in Fathomless...all of the little pieces from Sisters Red and Sweetly are finally starting to fit together. Knowing all that I know of the previous books and watching everything unfold, the twists and turns that I definitely did not see coming was just so entertaining. EVERYTHING IS STARTING TO MAKE SENSE NOW!
I'm not going to go too much into the details of this book, because while it is a companion novel...mentioning certain plot points might spoil some things or make it easier to guess what is going on...and all the fun is in NOT knowing whats going on.
SO! with that being said...
What I liked about "Fathomless": A few things. I definitely liked the characters. I feel like with each book, Jackson is getting better at building a connection with her characters. In "Sisters Red," I disliked Scarlet. In "Sweetly," I didn't care about Ansel or Gretchen. In "Fathomless," I LOVED Celia, Lo, Jude, Jane, and Anne. They were all such dynamic and authentic characters. One of my issues with these books have been that some of the characters or their relationships seemed forced...that isn't the case with Fathomless. It was just really good.
I also liked that while there was a love interest in this installment, the focus wasn't on that. It was on the story and the relationship between Celia and her sisters and the friendship between Celia and Lo.
What I didn't like about "Fathomless": Some things, mainly about the ocean and the rules, weren't explained, which I guess could be attributed to the fact that the story is written in dual, first person POV's, so if the characters don't understand whats going on, then the reader doesn't understand...but I would still like to know...Why was Lo able to breathe inside and outside of the water? Why was it so painful for her to go out of the water but not impossible? What exactly was happening to her inside the water that was making her forget? And why didn't she just forget again after she remembered. There were a bunch of little things like that, that after finishing the book, i'm curious about, but while reading, I was so wrapped up in the story that the answers to those questions didn't matter. As long as I understood what was going on, and it made sense for the most part considering the circumstances.
Overall I really loved and enjoyed this book. I can't wait to read the next one and see how all of this culminates and wraps up...if Coldspell is actually the last book in this series that is...Also for those who are reading this book who may not have read the previous books...you should read them first.
This was definitely a great pick for "Mermaid May."
Fathomless is definitely my favorite of the three fairytale retelling's that I've read by Jackson Pearce. It was beautiful, dark, captivating, mysterious and enthralling. I was invested in the story from the very beginning and I loved every bit of it up until the very last period. Jackson Pearce definitely brought her "A" game with this installment.
With the previous two books, there was always a little something missing that made the book just miss the mark for me in terms of pure and utter enjoyment, but after reading this book, I think that just had to do with setting up the baseline for the overall arc of the series. I say this because in Fathomless...all of the little pieces from Sisters Red and Sweetly are finally starting to fit together. Knowing all that I know of the previous books and watching everything unfold, the twists and turns that I definitely did not see coming was just so entertaining. EVERYTHING IS STARTING TO MAKE SENSE NOW!
I'm not going to go too much into the details of this book, because while it is a companion novel...mentioning certain plot points might spoil some things or make it easier to guess what is going on...and all the fun is in NOT knowing whats going on.
SO! with that being said...
What I liked about "Fathomless": A few things. I definitely liked the characters. I feel like with each book, Jackson is getting better at building a connection with her characters. In "Sisters Red," I disliked Scarlet. In "Sweetly," I didn't care about Ansel or Gretchen. In "Fathomless," I LOVED Celia, Lo, Jude, Jane, and Anne. They were all such dynamic and authentic characters. One of my issues with these books have been that some of the characters or their relationships seemed forced...that isn't the case with Fathomless. It was just really good.
I also liked that while there was a love interest in this installment, the focus wasn't on that. It was on the story and the relationship between Celia and her sisters and the friendship between Celia and Lo.
What I didn't like about "Fathomless": Some things, mainly about the ocean and the rules, weren't explained, which I guess could be attributed to the fact that the story is written in dual, first person POV's, so if the characters don't understand whats going on, then the reader doesn't understand...but I would still like to know...Why was Lo able to breathe inside and outside of the water? Why was it so painful for her to go out of the water but not impossible? What exactly was happening to her inside the water that was making her forget? And why didn't she just forget again after she remembered. There were a bunch of little things like that, that after finishing the book, i'm curious about, but while reading, I was so wrapped up in the story that the answers to those questions didn't matter. As long as I understood what was going on, and it made sense for the most part considering the circumstances.
Overall I really loved and enjoyed this book. I can't wait to read the next one and see how all of this culminates and wraps up...if Coldspell is actually the last book in this series that is...Also for those who are reading this book who may not have read the previous books...you should read them first.
This was definitely a great pick for "Mermaid May."
pidgeon's review against another edition
2.0
Fathomless is about two girls, the first is an "ocean girl" named Lo who has lost her memories of her past life as a human who tries to hold on
to as many memories as her human self while fighting the change of forgetting her past completely and becoming another
ocean girl like her "sisters" who were also once human but have ended up like Lo and have forgotten their human past and embraced their new ocean life.
The second girl is Celia. Celia has a special power of being able to see someone's past just by touching them. She along with her two sister who also have a power,Jane can see someone's future and read minds, and Anne can see someone's present. They're all parent-less triplets each with a unique power.
One night a boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, he begins to drown but instead of drowning him, Lo decides to save him and bring him to shore. There she meets Celia who was also trying to save the boy. Celia accidentally touches and reads Lo's past and finds out that her name is Naida, Lo's previous human name. From there on Celia comes back to the same spot where she and Lo both saved the boy, to try and figure out who Lo was in her human life, and what she is now.
I received this as an ARC, and I was so excited when I received it in the mail. A few chapters in I got bored, and annoyed. This was like a mismatched re-telling of the Little Mermaid. I felt like the story was all over the place with all the different paranormal characters, especially
Another thing that bothered me was Lo's/Naida's double personality narrative. It got on my nerves, especially near the end when Naida tells Celia to not trust Lo, but then Lo says to not trust Naida. It was so confusing and I dreaded any chapter with from Lo or Naida's POV.
Despite what other reviewers think about the ending, I think it was flat and boring. It was obvious that
2 stars just for an interesting plot idea.
to as many memories as her human self while fighting the change of forgetting her past completely and becoming another
ocean girl like her "sisters" who were also once human but have ended up like Lo and have forgotten their human past and embraced their new ocean life.
The second girl is Celia. Celia has a special power of being able to see someone's past just by touching them. She along with her two sister who also have a power,Jane can see someone's future and read minds, and Anne can see someone's present. They're all parent-less triplets each with a unique power.
One night a boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, he begins to drown but instead of drowning him, Lo decides to save him and bring him to shore. There she meets Celia who was also trying to save the boy. Celia accidentally touches and reads Lo's past and finds out that her name is Naida, Lo's previous human name. From there on Celia comes back to the same spot where she and Lo both saved the boy, to try and figure out who Lo was in her human life, and what she is now.
I received this as an ARC, and I was so excited when I received it in the mail. A few chapters in I got bored, and annoyed. This was like a mismatched re-telling of the Little Mermaid. I felt like the story was all over the place with all the different paranormal characters, especially
Spoiler
the werewolves who actually kidnapped the girls in the ocean and turned them into what they were. For what exactly? The author never explained why, and it made me really frustrated. What was the point in kidnapping girls, murdering their twin in the process, and then throw them into the ocean?Another thing that bothered me was Lo's/Naida's double personality narrative. It got on my nerves, especially near the end when Naida tells Celia to not trust Lo, but then Lo says to not trust Naida. It was so confusing and I dreaded any chapter with from Lo or Naida's POV.
Despite what other reviewers think about the ending, I think it was flat and boring. It was obvious that
Spoiler
Celia wasn't going to die like her sister predicted, and neither did Lo. However, I was glad that Lo didn't magically become a human all of the sudden and be able to walk on land without and pain.2 stars just for an interesting plot idea.
the_lilrunaway's review
5.0
My favourite book of the series so far. I finished it in an afternoon. I loved reading a retelling of The Little Mermaid. I could not put it down!
Also because I read it on my kindle I could pretend it didn't have a different cover to the rest of the series.
Also because I read it on my kindle I could pretend it didn't have a different cover to the rest of the series.
emilyc99's review
3.0
Meh, this book was okay. I mean it didn't have that much action in it and the ending was not as great as it should have been but it kept me interested and I finished it so it was a good book. One thing I love about this book was Jude, he is so cute and *sigh* I wish he was a real person and not just a character..