Scan barcode
aelfwynfae's review against another edition
4.0
This was a 3 star read for me up until the end, which was one of the most satisfying endings I've read this year. A solid 4 stars.
I love how it's very clearly a feminist novel, and that's also one of the things I dislike about it. Even though I hate him, I find it frustrating that the Sea King has no actual name. That said, there was a fair amount of balance between the male and female characters in terms of good and bad, but there is definitely a lot of bad in the men.... I also adored the way the main characters journey is told.
Think this is one I'll be thinking about for a while for both the good and the bad. Overall, would recommend giving it a go.
I love how it's very clearly a feminist novel, and that's also one of the things I dislike about it. Even though I hate him, I find it frustrating that the Sea King has no actual name. That said, there was a fair amount of balance between the male and female characters in terms of good and bad, but there is definitely a lot of bad in the men.... I also adored the way the main characters journey is told.
Think this is one I'll be thinking about for a while for both the good and the bad. Overall, would recommend giving it a go.
jenacidebybibliophile's review against another edition
5.0
Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the publisher, Scholastic, via Edelweiss+ for an honest review.
Opinion:
“’How much you are prepared to give up for one you know so little.’”
…
This isn’t The Little Mermaid tale you know and love.
It’s dark.
It’s painful.
It’s every hurt, wound and fear in your soul that you’ve been unable to express in words.
…
This book is for the girls who need to know their worth.
For the women who need reminding.
For the boys who must learn to be gentle.
And the men who need to be shown.
“A Woman’s no can so easily be turned into a yes by men who do not want to listen.”
These waters are dark and deep, so tread carefully.
“Either I am silent above the surface, or I spend the rest of my life screaming for mercy down here, the water muffling my cries.”
Gaia knows what it means to live in silence. To listen and obey her father, the Sea King, for his word is law and he is generous. To only speak when spoken to, to keep her tail and physique in pristine condition, and to never deny the wants of a man. But what Gaia truly yearns for is to know why her mother left them for the human world. What it is like above the surface, and how to escape her arranged marriage to a brutal man who looks at her with dominance and greed in his eyes. As her fifteenth birthday nears, like all mermaids, Gaia will have the chance to break the surface and glimpse at what resides above the water. But when her desires to be free of her tail and to escape her future turns to desperation, she makes a deal that will change her life forever.
“Muireann of the Green Sea cursed me with wanderlust and a thirst for dry air that could not be quenched.”
The Surface Breaks is the heartbreaking feminist reimagining that I have been needing all year. It beautifully details the sorrows, desperation and fear that women feel on a regular basis. That they are less than, that they are only wanted for their looks, and that they must strip themselves bare in order to be pleasing, worthy or loved. It portrays the life of a young girl and her sisters who have been taught that they are decoration for the pleasure of men, and that their desires are wrong and unnatural if they do not fit into the opinions of men that have been made into law.
“Please don’t touch me, I want to say, but I know that a woman’s body may always be touched if so desired. I am blessed to attract such attention. Everyone says it, so it must be true.”
Gaia is a sweet, gentle, innocent and delicate young girl who yearns to understand why her mother abandoned her. Just like Ariel, she is deeply attracted to the human world by the trinkets and baubles that she has been able to collect on the ocean floor. Her father tells the girls that their mother was weak and gave into her obsession to reside with the humans, and it resulted in her eventual death and capture at their hands.
It was incredibly difficult experiencing Gaia’s sadness and feelings of hopelessness as she went through the motions of her life. She is one of several sisters who are forced to be subservient, to attain a certain level of constant beauty and appeal, and who are married off by the desires and convenience of their father.
“I am the diamond in my father’s crown, and he is determined to wear me as such.”
This book has a dark and nauseating undertone that is necessary to the story, but still very hard to sit with. Gaia is betrothed to a man who is beyond creepy, inappropriate and vile. He treats her as if she is nothing but a doll that has been made for his pleasure and amusement, and she has no say in the matter. I felt suffocated and sick watching her character be treated so horribly. This book touches on some VERY serious themes that may be disturbing for some, so be weary. After all, Gaia was ONLY TWELVE when her father arranged her marriage to a man in his 60’s!
“His lips against my check, too close to my mouth. It is as if he wants to peel my skin away from my body and taste it on his tongue.”
“The nausea might subside when we are bonded”
But the theme of Gaia and the women in The Surface Breaks having zero control over their own lives is a constant! If a mermaid isn’t pretty, thin or appealing enough to the Sea King or any men in the kingdom, they are banished. Gaia is forced to give up her voice in order to be near the man she loves, and the Rusalka girls are treated as vile creatures hell-bent on bringing out destruction. The despair that these beautiful women feel is screaming through these pages, trying desperately to be heard. My heart was aching throughout this read, and I still feel a sense of loss and anger as I sit here typing away.
“’And the pain?’” I ask. ‘Will that go away?’
‘Oh no,’ she replies. ‘But women are meant to suffer.’”
The romance in this story is also an unconventional one. It has honestly left me feeling hopeless for romance in real life, and just reinforces my opinion that book boyfriends are the ONLY boyfriends you should EVER allow in your home. Because the feelings and relationship that Gaia has with Oliver will be able to resonate with EVERY female. That feeling of giving everything about yourself away to gain the attention of a boy. How we so quickly and easily shred, distort and disfigure ourselves in order to feel a glimpse of love from another.
“…I sewed my own mouth shut in the hopes that a boy I barely knew could kiss it open again.”
…
“All the things that I have ignored about this man in order to make the narrative of true love and destiny fit. I tried to make him as perfect as I needed him to be.”
I am so blown away by the love and intent that was put into this book. Every sentence is purposeful, every feeling, detailed and poetically written. I had SO many emotions racing through me while reading! I wanted nothing more than to reach into my kindle and wrap my arms around these girls. To protect them and tell them it will be okay…even when sometimes, it wouldn’t be okay. This book REALLY hits home and strikes hard.
To be honest, I could probably write this review with only quotes that I highlighted from this book, and that would be reason enough for you to want to buy it immediately. It is a beautiful and distressing tale, but it is a tale with an immensely important message. To know your worth and to stand up for yourself. To care for one another. To treat women with respect. To not shed who you are for the pleasure of another.
Please read this.
“’A woman needs to be strong to survive.’”
Opinion:
“’How much you are prepared to give up for one you know so little.’”
…
This isn’t The Little Mermaid tale you know and love.
It’s dark.
It’s painful.
It’s every hurt, wound and fear in your soul that you’ve been unable to express in words.
…
This book is for the girls who need to know their worth.
For the women who need reminding.
For the boys who must learn to be gentle.
And the men who need to be shown.
“A Woman’s no can so easily be turned into a yes by men who do not want to listen.”
These waters are dark and deep, so tread carefully.
“Either I am silent above the surface, or I spend the rest of my life screaming for mercy down here, the water muffling my cries.”
Gaia knows what it means to live in silence. To listen and obey her father, the Sea King, for his word is law and he is generous. To only speak when spoken to, to keep her tail and physique in pristine condition, and to never deny the wants of a man. But what Gaia truly yearns for is to know why her mother left them for the human world. What it is like above the surface, and how to escape her arranged marriage to a brutal man who looks at her with dominance and greed in his eyes. As her fifteenth birthday nears, like all mermaids, Gaia will have the chance to break the surface and glimpse at what resides above the water. But when her desires to be free of her tail and to escape her future turns to desperation, she makes a deal that will change her life forever.
“Muireann of the Green Sea cursed me with wanderlust and a thirst for dry air that could not be quenched.”
The Surface Breaks is the heartbreaking feminist reimagining that I have been needing all year. It beautifully details the sorrows, desperation and fear that women feel on a regular basis. That they are less than, that they are only wanted for their looks, and that they must strip themselves bare in order to be pleasing, worthy or loved. It portrays the life of a young girl and her sisters who have been taught that they are decoration for the pleasure of men, and that their desires are wrong and unnatural if they do not fit into the opinions of men that have been made into law.
“Please don’t touch me, I want to say, but I know that a woman’s body may always be touched if so desired. I am blessed to attract such attention. Everyone says it, so it must be true.”
Gaia is a sweet, gentle, innocent and delicate young girl who yearns to understand why her mother abandoned her. Just like Ariel, she is deeply attracted to the human world by the trinkets and baubles that she has been able to collect on the ocean floor. Her father tells the girls that their mother was weak and gave into her obsession to reside with the humans, and it resulted in her eventual death and capture at their hands.
It was incredibly difficult experiencing Gaia’s sadness and feelings of hopelessness as she went through the motions of her life. She is one of several sisters who are forced to be subservient, to attain a certain level of constant beauty and appeal, and who are married off by the desires and convenience of their father.
“I am the diamond in my father’s crown, and he is determined to wear me as such.”
This book has a dark and nauseating undertone that is necessary to the story, but still very hard to sit with. Gaia is betrothed to a man who is beyond creepy, inappropriate and vile. He treats her as if she is nothing but a doll that has been made for his pleasure and amusement, and she has no say in the matter. I felt suffocated and sick watching her character be treated so horribly. This book touches on some VERY serious themes that may be disturbing for some, so be weary. After all, Gaia was ONLY TWELVE when her father arranged her marriage to a man in his 60’s!
“His lips against my check, too close to my mouth. It is as if he wants to peel my skin away from my body and taste it on his tongue.”
“The nausea might subside when we are bonded”
But the theme of Gaia and the women in The Surface Breaks having zero control over their own lives is a constant! If a mermaid isn’t pretty, thin or appealing enough to the Sea King or any men in the kingdom, they are banished. Gaia is forced to give up her voice in order to be near the man she loves, and the Rusalka girls are treated as vile creatures hell-bent on bringing out destruction. The despair that these beautiful women feel is screaming through these pages, trying desperately to be heard. My heart was aching throughout this read, and I still feel a sense of loss and anger as I sit here typing away.
“’And the pain?’” I ask. ‘Will that go away?’
‘Oh no,’ she replies. ‘But women are meant to suffer.’”
The romance in this story is also an unconventional one. It has honestly left me feeling hopeless for romance in real life, and just reinforces my opinion that book boyfriends are the ONLY boyfriends you should EVER allow in your home. Because the feelings and relationship that Gaia has with Oliver will be able to resonate with EVERY female. That feeling of giving everything about yourself away to gain the attention of a boy. How we so quickly and easily shred, distort and disfigure ourselves in order to feel a glimpse of love from another.
“…I sewed my own mouth shut in the hopes that a boy I barely knew could kiss it open again.”
…
“All the things that I have ignored about this man in order to make the narrative of true love and destiny fit. I tried to make him as perfect as I needed him to be.”
I am so blown away by the love and intent that was put into this book. Every sentence is purposeful, every feeling, detailed and poetically written. I had SO many emotions racing through me while reading! I wanted nothing more than to reach into my kindle and wrap my arms around these girls. To protect them and tell them it will be okay…even when sometimes, it wouldn’t be okay. This book REALLY hits home and strikes hard.
To be honest, I could probably write this review with only quotes that I highlighted from this book, and that would be reason enough for you to want to buy it immediately. It is a beautiful and distressing tale, but it is a tale with an immensely important message. To know your worth and to stand up for yourself. To care for one another. To treat women with respect. To not shed who you are for the pleasure of another.
Please read this.
“’A woman needs to be strong to survive.’”
oneanjana's review against another edition
3.0
“Love can make you foolish.”
— ★★★☆☆ (2.5/5) —
Expecting darker retelling with feminist vibes because that’s literally what I read in every review, but nah. It’s not dark, it’s just a story about a wretched world and a foolish girl.
If maybe a world with overly done male characters—all depicted like all men is ‘red flags’—is a feminist for you, you do you then. But, I disagree that could be considered as feminist. The real feminist in my opinion is actually Ceto, The Sea Witch, and I liked her from the first time she came out. I wish she has more scenes, actually.
Even though I know the storyline (because yes, this is a retelling), I barely can stand Gaia’s way of thinking. I’m sick of her foolishness, her blind love that makes no sense at all (but that's why it's called blind, right? haha!). She’s so blinded by her love that she doesn't even want to hear the facts about her ‘sweetheart’s’ bad sides. But thankfully, she eventually turned into a strong woman and a warrior gracefully. Phew.
Ah, about the ending, too. It left me baffled and feeling dumbfounded. So many plot holes, many questions remain unanswered, and what of that ‘supreme being’ fate? Does it really end like that? I just feel like he doesn't put up much of a fight and that was absurd considering he's described as scary, feared, and powerful.
Overall, it’s not that enjoyable for me because I mostly angry with the wretched world and the foolishness. But, the Sea Witch parts are such a delight. Besides that, I liked that it got many quotable conversations, and every so often I also admire Gaia's thought of both human and underwater world.
cat_thecatlady's review against another edition
3.0
quite an interesting and captivating read but some things just feel flat to me. it’s bit too on the nose, most characters seem like caricatures and there’s a change between the underwater part and the other that didn’t sit that well with me. a good message and idea but not sure about the overall execution. one of the prettiest books I own though
djc16's review against another edition
4.0
Louise O’Neill has established herself as one of the finest and sharpest writers in Irish and international fiction since his debut Only Ever Yours and it is always interesting to see what project she chooses next. In a year where Almost Love marked Louise’s first ‘adult’ novel, The Surface Breaks sits in the YA bracket by my estimation at least, but as usual has a wide appeal.
Having seen Louise O’Neill in conversation at the CBI conference and DeptCon 4 recently in Dublin, the story of The Surface Breaks coming into being is an interesting and serendipitous one; Louise is a huge fan of the Disney adaptation of The Little Mermaid and in an unrelated move, the publisher asked if she would be interested in a retelling of the tale. In a way then, The Little Mermaid is an ideal fit for O’Neill and it is ripe for a retelling.
The Little Mermaid for me is also coloured by the Disney adaptation, full of humour and songs and targeted at a young audience. It is, however, the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale that this retelling is based on.
The darkness of the book surprised me for the reason that one is used to the flowery world of Disney, where everything will be alright in the end and nothing dwells in the mind for too long.
The Surface Breaks begins in a mirror of our society. Gaia, the eponymous mermaid of the original tale, lives under the sea with her sisters, her father the Sea King and her grandmother. Her mother’s memory is tarnished, seen as a disgrace to her people and also a tragic loss.
From this beginning we see that Gaia’s life is not all that different than a girl’s life on land would be. She states the rules of the sea kingdom as just that, rules, and she knows no different.
‘I have never been allowed to talk much.’
She is told by her grandmother,
‘It does not do a woman any good to ask too many questions.’
Gaia can only deal in small internal victories then in her day-to-day monotonous life, using them as a coping mechanism in this kingdom, where the king demands his daughters be seen to be beautiful and not heard or noticed in any other substantial way.
‘He will not stand for female insubordination.’
Her internal victories come in the form of things like knowing her true name, Gaia, though she must go by Muirgean as the former was given to her by her mother. Gaia is seemingly destined for this life of subordination, already at 14 having to put up with the advances of her soon-to-be betrothed, Zale, an absolute creep of a merman. The men are everything down there under the sea.
‘We are not allowed to laugh at the mermen, no matter how high our birth.’
And all the while, Gaia dreams of the surface, where she imagines things must be different. This is where the narrative is so effective, knowing as we do that what Gaia experiences as a woman under the sea is not much different to the treatment of women above the surface.
The Sea King engages in classic patriarchal behaviours, playing the daughters off one another and referring to his enemy Ceto as the Sea Witch. Gaia later finds that Ceto has been given this name as ‘a term that men give women who are not afraid of them, women who refuse to do as they are told.’
This is a clear parallel to our world, where women are routinely discredited by labelling them as ‘crazy’ or ‘a bitch’ or a ‘feminazi’ because they don’t bend to a man’s every whim or disagree in some way with their opinions.
Gaia is given a glimmer of hope when she manages to make her way to land, where she falls in love with the mortal Oliver.
The story from there should not be spoiled at this point, though it is worth echoing the buzz around the ending to the narrative. Depending on your reading of the story, it’s either a realistic or a hopeful ending, a primal rallying call that speaks to us all. Either way, it’s effective in driving home a powerful story, born from an ancient tale, but one that is more relevant now than ever.
Having seen Louise O’Neill in conversation at the CBI conference and DeptCon 4 recently in Dublin, the story of The Surface Breaks coming into being is an interesting and serendipitous one; Louise is a huge fan of the Disney adaptation of The Little Mermaid and in an unrelated move, the publisher asked if she would be interested in a retelling of the tale. In a way then, The Little Mermaid is an ideal fit for O’Neill and it is ripe for a retelling.
The Little Mermaid for me is also coloured by the Disney adaptation, full of humour and songs and targeted at a young audience. It is, however, the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale that this retelling is based on.
The darkness of the book surprised me for the reason that one is used to the flowery world of Disney, where everything will be alright in the end and nothing dwells in the mind for too long.
The Surface Breaks begins in a mirror of our society. Gaia, the eponymous mermaid of the original tale, lives under the sea with her sisters, her father the Sea King and her grandmother. Her mother’s memory is tarnished, seen as a disgrace to her people and also a tragic loss.
From this beginning we see that Gaia’s life is not all that different than a girl’s life on land would be. She states the rules of the sea kingdom as just that, rules, and she knows no different.
‘I have never been allowed to talk much.’
She is told by her grandmother,
‘It does not do a woman any good to ask too many questions.’
Gaia can only deal in small internal victories then in her day-to-day monotonous life, using them as a coping mechanism in this kingdom, where the king demands his daughters be seen to be beautiful and not heard or noticed in any other substantial way.
‘He will not stand for female insubordination.’
Her internal victories come in the form of things like knowing her true name, Gaia, though she must go by Muirgean as the former was given to her by her mother. Gaia is seemingly destined for this life of subordination, already at 14 having to put up with the advances of her soon-to-be betrothed, Zale, an absolute creep of a merman. The men are everything down there under the sea.
‘We are not allowed to laugh at the mermen, no matter how high our birth.’
And all the while, Gaia dreams of the surface, where she imagines things must be different. This is where the narrative is so effective, knowing as we do that what Gaia experiences as a woman under the sea is not much different to the treatment of women above the surface.
The Sea King engages in classic patriarchal behaviours, playing the daughters off one another and referring to his enemy Ceto as the Sea Witch. Gaia later finds that Ceto has been given this name as ‘a term that men give women who are not afraid of them, women who refuse to do as they are told.’
This is a clear parallel to our world, where women are routinely discredited by labelling them as ‘crazy’ or ‘a bitch’ or a ‘feminazi’ because they don’t bend to a man’s every whim or disagree in some way with their opinions.
Gaia is given a glimmer of hope when she manages to make her way to land, where she falls in love with the mortal Oliver.
The story from there should not be spoiled at this point, though it is worth echoing the buzz around the ending to the narrative. Depending on your reading of the story, it’s either a realistic or a hopeful ending, a primal rallying call that speaks to us all. Either way, it’s effective in driving home a powerful story, born from an ancient tale, but one that is more relevant now than ever.
electricteal's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
0.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Rape
aliceinbabylon's review against another edition
3.0
2.5
I think the story was good but sometimes I found it really boring.
I think the story was good but sometimes I found it really boring.
xcrissy67x's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5