meezcarrie's review
3.0
3.5 stars
The Mermaids of Lake Michigan did not at all play out the way I expected. And that’s not really a bad thing. Just different.
I had in mind that I’d be reading something a la Sarah Addison Allen and Lost Lake. And while there IS the teeniest bit of magical realism at the end, it’s really not the focus of the book at all. Yet, the theme of mermaids carries on at a deeper level than first anticipated as well.
Though not a literal mermaid, Elise is certainly a fish out of water among her family and peers. Later, as she sheds her figurative fins for walking legs, she – much like the most famous of mermaids – discovers life “on land” isn’t quite as perfect as she’d imagined.
This is a short novel, a quick read, but it never feels rushed. The author’s writing style flows smoothly, and she keeps the reader engaged with the story at every turn. Each character that Elise encounters has a purpose, whether it’s a brief meeting or a family member. These characters, as well as excellent examples of foreshadowing, all serve to advance the plot and to add more layers to Elise’s character.
No spoilers … but I felt a certain scene toward the end of the book seemed out of place. I get why it’s in there, but it threw me. And it just didn’t fit with the tone of the story up until that part. Without it, I think the ending would have been just as poignant. Maybe even more so.
Bottom Line: If you’re looking for a coming-of-age story that appeals to adolescents, young adults, and less-young adults, The Mermaids of Lake Michigan proves a compelling choice. It takes place around the 1970s so it’s not really contemporary, not really historical, but somewhere in between. Different than I expected at first glance, it continued to take me by surprise but overall I enjoyed this read.
Reviewer’s Note: Readers may want to be aware that there is some foul language in this book, as well as some implied (but not explicitly described) scenes of an intimate nature.
(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.)
see my review at Reading Is My SuperPower
The Mermaids of Lake Michigan did not at all play out the way I expected. And that’s not really a bad thing. Just different.
I had in mind that I’d be reading something a la Sarah Addison Allen and Lost Lake. And while there IS the teeniest bit of magical realism at the end, it’s really not the focus of the book at all. Yet, the theme of mermaids carries on at a deeper level than first anticipated as well.
Though not a literal mermaid, Elise is certainly a fish out of water among her family and peers. Later, as she sheds her figurative fins for walking legs, she – much like the most famous of mermaids – discovers life “on land” isn’t quite as perfect as she’d imagined.
This is a short novel, a quick read, but it never feels rushed. The author’s writing style flows smoothly, and she keeps the reader engaged with the story at every turn. Each character that Elise encounters has a purpose, whether it’s a brief meeting or a family member. These characters, as well as excellent examples of foreshadowing, all serve to advance the plot and to add more layers to Elise’s character.
No spoilers … but I felt a certain scene toward the end of the book seemed out of place. I get why it’s in there, but it threw me. And it just didn’t fit with the tone of the story up until that part. Without it, I think the ending would have been just as poignant. Maybe even more so.
Bottom Line: If you’re looking for a coming-of-age story that appeals to adolescents, young adults, and less-young adults, The Mermaids of Lake Michigan proves a compelling choice. It takes place around the 1970s so it’s not really contemporary, not really historical, but somewhere in between. Different than I expected at first glance, it continued to take me by surprise but overall I enjoyed this read.
Reviewer’s Note: Readers may want to be aware that there is some foul language in this book, as well as some implied (but not explicitly described) scenes of an intimate nature.
(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.)
see my review at Reading Is My SuperPower
engelkat's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
rickijill's review
4.0
I enjoyed the first part of this book quite a bit because Elise is coming of age during the eighties: She is in high school during my era. She has an interesting family history, and she's smart. Then the bad egg in the guise of Chiara arrives and her influence on Elise isn't good. Elise makes one poor choice after another, and then the plot slides downhill from there.
There is a slight element of fantasy (mermaids) and magical realism (fortune-telling gypsy) in the book, and I wish Kamata had explored it a bit more. Miguel's character is confusing. During the first half of the book he's full of life, music, and song. The second half: not so much. I have many questions about him that aren't answered in the story. Nevertheless, I was satisfied with the ending, and I enjoyed the book. If you enjoy family dramas and books with feminist elements, you'll enjoy this book. It's a very short read and would be perfect for a flight or a quick weekend read.
Disclosure: I received a copy of The Mermaids of Lake Michigan from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.
There is a slight element of fantasy (mermaids) and magical realism (fortune-telling gypsy) in the book, and I wish Kamata had explored it a bit more. Miguel's character is confusing. During the first half of the book he's full of life, music, and song. The second half: not so much. I have many questions about him that aren't answered in the story. Nevertheless, I was satisfied with the ending, and I enjoyed the book. If you enjoy family dramas and books with feminist elements, you'll enjoy this book. It's a very short read and would be perfect for a flight or a quick weekend read.
Disclosure: I received a copy of The Mermaids of Lake Michigan from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.
nsvinicki's review
1.0
I got so excited when I saw this book. I'm from Michigan, and I love mermaids. But this went in a direction that I wasn't envisioning. After a certain point, I'll be honest - I started jumping forward.
It's defintely more a "coming of age drama and romance" kind of story. I was hoping for more fantasy. What disappointed me was the unexpected pregnancy and tragic death aspect to the story. If this is what "coming of age" means, I need to stop reading coming of age stories. The author could have left the pregnancy out completely and it still would have been plausable.
It's defintely more a "coming of age drama and romance" kind of story. I was hoping for more fantasy. What disappointed me was the unexpected pregnancy and tragic death aspect to the story. If this is what "coming of age" means, I need to stop reading coming of age stories. The author could have left the pregnancy out completely and it still would have been plausable.
beckylej's review
3.0
Elise would much rather spend time indoors with a good book than anything else. It's a proclivity her once beauty queen mother simply can't understand. So when the neighbor's granddaughter moves in, prompting the neighbor to ask Elise to spend time with her, Elise immediately wants to say no. And yet, something prompts her to change her mind.
What she discovers is that the neighbor hopes Elise will be a good influence on Chiara. Instead, it's the other way around. And while Chiara is wild and outgoing, her influence on Elise allows the girl to finally come out of her shell and live.
The Mermaids of Lake Michigan is a character-driven coming of age tale set in the midwest in the 70s.
Elise is a great narrator. One who observes rather big occurrences even at a very young age. And so she shares some of these with very little, if any, understanding or judgement. Most of these instances pertain to Elise's mother, who the reader comes to find is actually quite unhappy with her life.
But those instances are like little glimpses through the window's of Elise's tale. The rest, the time spent with Chiara, the fascination with her great-grandmother's stories, and her budding romance, are given the full on treatment as Elise lives through them.
Suzanne Kamata's latest blends just a touch of magic and whimsy throughout, endearing readers even more to Elise as she navigates the troubled waters of young adulthood. It's a short read, but one that packs a punch.
What she discovers is that the neighbor hopes Elise will be a good influence on Chiara. Instead, it's the other way around. And while Chiara is wild and outgoing, her influence on Elise allows the girl to finally come out of her shell and live.
The Mermaids of Lake Michigan is a character-driven coming of age tale set in the midwest in the 70s.
Elise is a great narrator. One who observes rather big occurrences even at a very young age. And so she shares some of these with very little, if any, understanding or judgement. Most of these instances pertain to Elise's mother, who the reader comes to find is actually quite unhappy with her life.
But those instances are like little glimpses through the window's of Elise's tale. The rest, the time spent with Chiara, the fascination with her great-grandmother's stories, and her budding romance, are given the full on treatment as Elise lives through them.
Suzanne Kamata's latest blends just a touch of magic and whimsy throughout, endearing readers even more to Elise as she navigates the troubled waters of young adulthood. It's a short read, but one that packs a punch.
tien's review
3.0
Magical Realism is a bit of hit and miss with me. This one is somewhat of a miss because I just couldn't figure out what the whole point of the story is. The Mermaids of Lake Michigan is a coming-of-age story where a girl begins to realise that her parents aren't as infallible or perfect as she always thought they were when she was a little girl and her journey to that acceptance as she steps into her womanhood. It is told solely from the point of view of Elise Faulkner who was a loner until one summer when another girl breezed into her life and changed everything. The story itself isn't all sad even if I feel there is that tone of sadness along with exhilaration of promise as saying goodbye to previous phase of life and moving on to a new one.
annabellee's review
3.0
Overall, I enjoyed this book. The writing style and story was reminiscent of Alice Hoffman and Rebecca Wells. The plot was interesting, sprinkled with flashbacks from the main character's childhood, and the characters decently compelling. Most of them, anyway. The overall book had a rather surreal feel to it, despite the story itself being relatively mundane for the first 3/4 of its telling. It has a potential depth for it, yet seemed somehow to only scratch the surface of that depth, and for being a short and relatively simple story it managed to hook into the mind and make one ponder after it long after the back cover had closed, which is the hallmark of a good book.
This book takes place in the 80's or 90's - long before the advent of cellphones and the widespread use of computers. Elise is a studious, introverted high school senior whose mother wants her to have more friends. Any friends, really. Her mother sets her up with a "friend date" with their elderly neighbor's granddaughter, Chiara, who is in town because her mother is going through (yet another) divorce. Chiara ends up being a bit of a loose canon, bent on enjoying her freedom after being cooped up in boarding schools for so much time. Elise is enchanted with Chiara. Through Chiara's influence, Elise is pulled out of her shell and into trouble, the trouble ultimately culminating in an illicit trip to Chicago.
This is where the story goes rather... off the rails, as far as I'm concerned, and where the author attempts to blend the fantastical with the real. Unfortunately, for me, it is not done well, as the fantastical element to the story up until now is a brief mention of a hallucination had by an oxygen-deprived wreck-diving great-grandmother (who, in my opinion, should have a book to herself because she seems like a fascinating character) a bad pickup line, and the kind of lust that can only be generated by teenage hormones.
Suddenly the plot shifts into one where "fate" is an acceptable reason for doing just about anything as Elise runs away from home in search of a musically-talented Roma man whom she has met all of three times, and who himself is wandering about the country. Eventually returning home, she herself winds up deprived of oxygen and, surprise! Has a similar hallucination to her great-grandmother's.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a quick read, and something that I think strives to be deeper than it is. I think this book, it's story, and it's characters, had great potential and I'd like to have seen everything fleshed out a bit more.
The characters were decently written, though the primary ones went through little development for a "coming of age" story. I appreciated that the writer attempted to draw parallels between Elise, her mother, and her great-grandmother, and the story being book-ended by the carnival (in three separate places) was also critically pleasing.
Written by a native Michigander, I appreciated all of the local references and the manner in which they were presented - there wasn't a, "look! I did research on this location, or maybe visited it once! And this very irrelevant tidbit is here to prove it! LOOK AT IT" feel to it, but rather it was very natural. One of the scenes in particular I enjoyed was the description of the youth group - a bunch of rambunctious teenagers being precisely what their parents/teachers/church elders want them to be while they're looking, and then doing precisely what their rambunctious teenager selves wanted to do once backs were turned. It was this scene, more than any other, that drew me into the book.
I would recommend this book for high school readers and older. There is no explicit sex or violence, and little explicit language. Three stars.
This book takes place in the 80's or 90's - long before the advent of cellphones and the widespread use of computers. Elise is a studious, introverted high school senior whose mother wants her to have more friends. Any friends, really. Her mother sets her up with a "friend date" with their elderly neighbor's granddaughter, Chiara, who is in town because her mother is going through (yet another) divorce. Chiara ends up being a bit of a loose canon, bent on enjoying her freedom after being cooped up in boarding schools for so much time. Elise is enchanted with Chiara. Through Chiara's influence, Elise is pulled out of her shell and into trouble, the trouble ultimately culminating in an illicit trip to Chicago.
This is where the story goes rather... off the rails, as far as I'm concerned, and where the author attempts to blend the fantastical with the real. Unfortunately, for me, it is not done well, as the fantastical element to the story up until now is a brief mention of a hallucination had by an oxygen-deprived wreck-diving great-grandmother (who, in my opinion, should have a book to herself because she seems like a fascinating character) a bad pickup line, and the kind of lust that can only be generated by teenage hormones.
Suddenly the plot shifts into one where "fate" is an acceptable reason for doing just about anything as Elise runs away from home in search of a musically-talented Roma man whom she has met all of three times, and who himself is wandering about the country. Eventually returning home, she herself winds up deprived of oxygen and, surprise! Has a similar hallucination to her great-grandmother's.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a quick read, and something that I think strives to be deeper than it is. I think this book, it's story, and it's characters, had great potential and I'd like to have seen everything fleshed out a bit more.
The characters were decently written, though the primary ones went through little development for a "coming of age" story. I appreciated that the writer attempted to draw parallels between Elise, her mother, and her great-grandmother, and the story being book-ended by the carnival (in three separate places) was also critically pleasing.
Written by a native Michigander, I appreciated all of the local references and the manner in which they were presented - there wasn't a, "look! I did research on this location, or maybe visited it once! And this very irrelevant tidbit is here to prove it! LOOK AT IT" feel to it, but rather it was very natural. One of the scenes in particular I enjoyed was the description of the youth group - a bunch of rambunctious teenagers being precisely what their parents/teachers/church elders want them to be while they're looking, and then doing precisely what their rambunctious teenager selves wanted to do once backs were turned. It was this scene, more than any other, that drew me into the book.
I would recommend this book for high school readers and older. There is no explicit sex or violence, and little explicit language. Three stars.
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