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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Why 3 stars? Setting and imagery were wonderful (+1) and the ocean was felt. Starting and ending of character development was perfect for the premise, twisting the Hans Christian Anderson version and Disney together well (+1). Much of the writing was beautiful and held important themes for all women and especially young girls to hear (+1) [yes, this is chaste enough for young girls].
Why not 4 or 5 stars? Although lovely, the repetition started to annoy me of certain almost identical statements throughout the book. After saying a moral, lesson, or critical theme two or three times, it should be left to the reader to derive. We can figure it out ourselves at that point and I found myself thinking several times, /would you please get on with it? I read that, I understand, move along now/ Waiting for the story to be over is never a good sign, no matter how many windswept waves and magical songs there are (-1).
Also, the middle portion of character development during A’s time at the castle before Sienna—- would really have been more convincing in my opinion if A had nudged, dragged, or otherwise showcased Sienna more than the one dance number. If the goal was to get prince’s attention, she could have taught her —-friend to communicate in other ways and helped them forge a bond instead of wasting time trying to get her to —-. Self image issues aside, there has to be an unconscious (or is it subconscious?) desire to finally be the one noticed, despite explicit statements to the contrary. We former wallflowers all have our passive-aggressive ways, don’t kid yourself (-0.5).
Lastly, I disagreed that this should have been told from the future like a memory. Sometimes that works, but I didn’t need the /and ever since then/ portions liberally sprinkled throughout the already slowly meandering tale. Leave me in some suspense. It’s a retelling of a classic, and the most suspenseful element is your twist on what happened and what happens next from moment to moment. Going back and forth and giving me pieces of what should have been the epilogue just spoiled the fun a bit. As an example of how this backfired, on page 42-43 the author made a poor choice in not having one character actually be there for another character’s pivotal decision. We learn about a whole sequence of dialogue and actions as imaginative hearsay. I almost stopped reading; having the event told with “probably”, “surely” and “undoubtedly” was a big red flag that came perilously close to ruining the author-reader trust relationship (-0.5).
Recap:
+1 setting and imagery
+1 Beautiful writing and meaningful themes
+1 some strong character development and premise
Remaining 2 potential stars:
1 not given for redundancy
0.5 not given for middle character development
0.5 not given for inefficient choice or use of perspective, strong disagreement with author’s craft in one instance
Why not 4 or 5 stars? Although lovely, the repetition started to annoy me of certain almost identical statements throughout the book. After saying a moral, lesson, or critical theme two or three times, it should be left to the reader to derive. We can figure it out ourselves at that point and I found myself thinking several times, /would you please get on with it? I read that, I understand, move along now/ Waiting for the story to be over is never a good sign, no matter how many windswept waves and magical songs there are (-1).
Also, the middle portion of character development during A’s time at the castle before Sienna—- would really have been more convincing in my opinion if A had nudged, dragged, or otherwise showcased Sienna more than the one dance number. If the goal was to get prince’s attention, she could have taught her —-friend to communicate in other ways and helped them forge a bond instead of wasting time trying to get her to —-. Self image issues aside, there has to be an unconscious (or is it subconscious?) desire to finally be the one noticed, despite explicit statements to the contrary. We former wallflowers all have our passive-aggressive ways, don’t kid yourself (-0.5).
Lastly, I disagreed that this should have been told from the future like a memory. Sometimes that works, but I didn’t need the /and ever since then/ portions liberally sprinkled throughout the already slowly meandering tale. Leave me in some suspense. It’s a retelling of a classic, and the most suspenseful element is your twist on what happened and what happens next from moment to moment. Going back and forth and giving me pieces of what should have been the epilogue just spoiled the fun a bit. As an example of how this backfired, on page 42-43 the author made a poor choice in not having one character actually be there for another character’s pivotal decision. We learn about a whole sequence of dialogue and actions as imaginative hearsay. I almost stopped reading; having the event told with “probably”, “surely” and “undoubtedly” was a big red flag that came perilously close to ruining the author-reader trust relationship (-0.5).
Recap:
+1 setting and imagery
+1 Beautiful writing and meaningful themes
+1 some strong character development and premise
Remaining 2 potential stars:
1 not given for redundancy
0.5 not given for middle character development
0.5 not given for inefficient choice or use of perspective, strong disagreement with author’s craft in one instance
First of all, can we all appreciate how beautiful the cover of this book is? It's absolutely stunning!
This story is, as the title says, a retelling of the little mermaid. It's not much more than that, the setting is pretty much the same as the original story. The main difference is: Sienna is the one with the beautiful red hair and blue eyes in this story, and the mermaid who lost her tongue and gained a pair of legs. However, this story follows Ariel, who was sent after Sienna to get her back to the underwater life. It seems an easy task to get Sienna back to the big waters in the span of a year, but human life has other plans for Ariel.
The writing style used in this book was absolutely marvelous. I could vividly picture the lovely palace in my head, as well as the royal garden and the Merdom underwater where this story started. I'm also amazed how this author has managed to make such a well known story into this wonderful fairy-tale, with it's own little twists and turns but without straying too far from the original. The story is romantic, magical and tragic all at the same time. Absolutely 100% enjoyed this book, I'm surely going to read the other ones in this series!
This story is, as the title says, a retelling of the little mermaid. It's not much more than that, the setting is pretty much the same as the original story. The main difference is: Sienna is the one with the beautiful red hair and blue eyes in this story, and the mermaid who lost her tongue and gained a pair of legs. However, this story follows Ariel, who was sent after Sienna to get her back to the underwater life. It seems an easy task to get Sienna back to the big waters in the span of a year, but human life has other plans for Ariel.
The writing style used in this book was absolutely marvelous. I could vividly picture the lovely palace in my head, as well as the royal garden and the Merdom underwater where this story started. I'm also amazed how this author has managed to make such a well known story into this wonderful fairy-tale, with it's own little twists and turns but without straying too far from the original. The story is romantic, magical and tragic all at the same time. Absolutely 100% enjoyed this book, I'm surely going to read the other ones in this series!
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
The third book in the End of Ever After series retells the tale of the Little Mermaid (with a side of the Princess and the Frog!)
But this is actually the story of two mermaids: one, the youngest daughter of King Trident, the red-haired, human-obsessed Sienna; the other, Sienna’s would-be playmate, Ariel, who lives her life in the shadows, unnoticed and unremarkable.
When Sienna makes her fateful bargain with the sea witch and trades her tongue for legs, all of Merdom is shocked and offended. Fearing that the king will declare war on the humans for this betrayal, the sea witch sends Ariel after the princess to convince her to return home before it’s too late. Ariel intends to do just that and return to the sea as soon as possible.
But while she has never been discontented with her life as a mermaid, she has an appreciation for the human world that grows deeper the more time she spends on land. She never expected Sienna would be so stubborn. And she never imagined the human prince would take notice of her when no one else ever has.
Once again I’ve fallen in love with Tenenbaum’s retelling! Her characters always feel so real, and this was my favourite love story of the series so far. It felt very organic, and I found myself falling in love with both of them as they fell in love with each other. And ultimately, it is a story about learning to love yourself, which just made it even more beautiful.
Thanks to the long stretched ending and especially for the spoilers for the other books I gave this book a mediocre 3 stars. It ruined it... really.
I wanted to read the other books before this one as well but now I already know too much..
I wanted to read the other books before this one as well but now I already know too much..