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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
This book was pretty good. It builds up along the way. It's like a rollercoaster. You start flat then up then down again and then up. I think if readers like a mystery this has a pretty good mystery. And if you love the ocean and surfing and mermaids, this book has a lot of that as well.
Summary:
Lena has always drawn to the sea abnormally so, even for living in a northern California surfing community. However she has been forbidden by her father, a former surfer himself who suffered a terrible accident in the water years ago, from learning. Yet Lena is an excellent swimmer, and still dreams of one days surfing.
After turning 16, Lena begins to suspect she may be seeing a mermaid out in the waves. After her first Seeing Lena’s fascination with the sea and mermaid becomes an obsession—she begins lying and endangering herself just to possibly get a Sight of the mermaid. Then she discovers her mother’s true identity and fate lead her to an undersea world of mer-folk. She must choose between her diverging destinies; choose between the life she has always known and the one she has always dreamed of.
NOTES:
Madigan does a decent job of bringing readers from what could, at first, seem like a realistic problem-novel plot compose of nothing more than mundane family issues to an enjoyable fantasy of a girl who finds that she is only half human. The characters, whether teen, child, or adult, are well-rounded and integrated into the plot. In addition to her parents, Lena must also consider the sensibilities of her younger brother and her best friend and figure out how she feels about her two boyfriends, one human and one mer. With highly imagistic descriptions and savvy dialogue, Madigan offers a rewarding and credible story that uses fantasy elements to bare truths about family ties. Parents and educators should note that the family ties are positive ones. And although Lena and the other teens are, well teens, Madigan writes her characters in which a way that realistic, honest, refreshing and positive—something that can be enjoyed by both the teen and the adult.
My only complaint is that the novel is predictable.
Also try: “Halo” by Alexandra Adornetto; “Beastly” By Alex Finn
Lena has always drawn to the sea abnormally so, even for living in a northern California surfing community. However she has been forbidden by her father, a former surfer himself who suffered a terrible accident in the water years ago, from learning. Yet Lena is an excellent swimmer, and still dreams of one days surfing.
After turning 16, Lena begins to suspect she may be seeing a mermaid out in the waves. After her first Seeing Lena’s fascination with the sea and mermaid becomes an obsession—she begins lying and endangering herself just to possibly get a Sight of the mermaid. Then she discovers her mother’s true identity and fate lead her to an undersea world of mer-folk. She must choose between her diverging destinies; choose between the life she has always known and the one she has always dreamed of.
NOTES:
Madigan does a decent job of bringing readers from what could, at first, seem like a realistic problem-novel plot compose of nothing more than mundane family issues to an enjoyable fantasy of a girl who finds that she is only half human. The characters, whether teen, child, or adult, are well-rounded and integrated into the plot. In addition to her parents, Lena must also consider the sensibilities of her younger brother and her best friend and figure out how she feels about her two boyfriends, one human and one mer. With highly imagistic descriptions and savvy dialogue, Madigan offers a rewarding and credible story that uses fantasy elements to bare truths about family ties. Parents and educators should note that the family ties are positive ones. And although Lena and the other teens are, well teens, Madigan writes her characters in which a way that realistic, honest, refreshing and positive—something that can be enjoyed by both the teen and the adult.
My only complaint is that the novel is predictable.
Also try: “Halo” by Alexandra Adornetto; “Beastly” By Alex Finn
Oh my god this book was awesome....!!! One of my top favorites....!!! :))))Nothing much too say..!
So I read 20% of this book, and it's just...ugh, I don't even know. So the girl hero loves the sea, right? But she's never been in the sea! All her friends surf, but she barely wades in to her knees AND owns a wet suit. Dorky much? For a girl you just know is a mermaid? Yes, very...very dorky. And just so, so much more I cannot even convey. I just want to throw this book and never find out where it lands!
I had never heard of L.K Madigan when I picked up The Mermaid's Mirror at Chapters around Christmas time. I only paid $4.99 for this book and even though the synopsis looked interesting, I wasn't expecting much. But boy, was I ever impressed when I finally got around to reading it! I almost regret that it took me so long to dig into this novel. The story line really kept me going and I spent as much time as Lena did trying to figure out why her father didn't want her to learn how to surf. I rooted that girl along the entire novel and I loved how it finally ended up, despite the fact that I was super afraid of what the outcome might be!
I definitely enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone. I am hoping to stumble across another novel by this author sometime soon!
I definitely enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone. I am hoping to stumble across another novel by this author sometime soon!
I have always had a fascination with mermaids. And I really enjoyed MOST of this book. I was pretty heartbroken by some of it... Like the fact that there was a beautiful love story unfolding and then there wasn't? And the ending.... Why?! None of the loose ends were tied up, and the only one who benefited from the end for the most part was her father who was able to surf again. Other than that, I was charmed. I was taken to a whole new world. And I will read whatever else this author puts out as well.
I thought this was nice youth read. I read it in a couple of hours.
I wouldn't say I had high hopes for this one but I was expecting a little more than what I got. Unfortunately, this ended up being a Did Not Finish. I let myself get to the halfway point before shutting the pages (or turning off the eReader, as it were) on it for good. When it becomes a chore to read, it's time to move on. At least with this one I wasn't trading reading for bathroom scrubbing.
I found the writing to be, at times, mechanical, like there was no heart in it. You'd think it'd be a little more whimsical, being a mermaid story and all but I didn't get that. In fact I felt that a lot of the telling (because that's what it was) was robotic, like I was watching the characters jerk around on the page, moving from one action to another without much thought other than what exactly they were doing. One character told the other character this. They surfed. They walked on the beach. They went to school. They got a ride home. I just didn't feel involved. I felt it all rather emotionless.
The story itself was drawn on what I thought was unnecessarily long. At the mid-point I was just getting to be more involved with the mermaid. And I don't mean me personally. I meant the story. She pops up (literally) a couple of times until that point but it's more as an aside than a direct involvement. She doesn't actually engage with the main character until about halfway through the book and by then I was already struggling.
And then there are the insinuations hinted at to Lena's mother. And the mermaid. Really they're blatantly obvious. Because I didn't read to the end I can't tell you if what's so blatant is actually true but it wouldn't surprise me since that was the road it was headed down when I left. And it just made the reading that much more tired. I think because it was made so obvious more than it being the storyline itself. I wasn't thrilled with it but at the same time it wasn't really written with finesse either so that didn't help.
I think the book overall needed a serious plotline shift. Move the mermaid stuff up further and stop hovering over Lena's social life for so long unless it actually played a vital role later on in the story (again, I can't answer if it did or not because I stopped reading but at the pace it was going, I doubt it). But because of such a slow pace and the uninteresting writing, I just couldn't get involved in the story. So much time was spent on Lena and her friends and her boyfriend that the mermaid part was stuffed to the side that it just wasn't interesting for me. I didn't have the patience to wait and see the mermaid aspect rise to the surface like it should have in the beginning.
If you have the patience, I'm sure you'd like the story. It seemed like it was going in an interesting direction. I know I've seen some good reviews of this one out there. But it wasn't for me. I didn't have the patience enough to wait and see.
I found the writing to be, at times, mechanical, like there was no heart in it. You'd think it'd be a little more whimsical, being a mermaid story and all but I didn't get that. In fact I felt that a lot of the telling (because that's what it was) was robotic, like I was watching the characters jerk around on the page, moving from one action to another without much thought other than what exactly they were doing. One character told the other character this. They surfed. They walked on the beach. They went to school. They got a ride home. I just didn't feel involved. I felt it all rather emotionless.
The story itself was drawn on what I thought was unnecessarily long. At the mid-point I was just getting to be more involved with the mermaid. And I don't mean me personally. I meant the story. She pops up (literally) a couple of times until that point but it's more as an aside than a direct involvement. She doesn't actually engage with the main character until about halfway through the book and by then I was already struggling.
And then there are the insinuations hinted at to Lena's mother. And the mermaid. Really they're blatantly obvious. Because I didn't read to the end I can't tell you if what's so blatant is actually true but it wouldn't surprise me since that was the road it was headed down when I left. And it just made the reading that much more tired. I think because it was made so obvious more than it being the storyline itself. I wasn't thrilled with it but at the same time it wasn't really written with finesse either so that didn't help.
I think the book overall needed a serious plotline shift. Move the mermaid stuff up further and stop hovering over Lena's social life for so long unless it actually played a vital role later on in the story (again, I can't answer if it did or not because I stopped reading but at the pace it was going, I doubt it). But because of such a slow pace and the uninteresting writing, I just couldn't get involved in the story. So much time was spent on Lena and her friends and her boyfriend that the mermaid part was stuffed to the side that it just wasn't interesting for me. I didn't have the patience to wait and see the mermaid aspect rise to the surface like it should have in the beginning.
If you have the patience, I'm sure you'd like the story. It seemed like it was going in an interesting direction. I know I've seen some good reviews of this one out there. But it wasn't for me. I didn't have the patience enough to wait and see.
Cute story, that's about it. Nothing super special but nothing terrible either. It reminded me a lot of books I enjoyed when I was in fourth or fifth grade. Happy but slightly bittersweet. The family was a bit too perfect and the romance wasn't the best but it was a fun quick easy read.
Premise - 3/5
Characters - 2/5
Writing Style - 3/5
Story - 3/5
Realistic - 2/5
Enjoyment - 3/5
Average Rating - 2.6
My Rating - 3
Recommend? Not really.
Cover - I like it a lot, I think it fits the story nicely.
Premise - 3/5
Characters - 2/5
Writing Style - 3/5
Story - 3/5
Realistic - 2/5
Enjoyment - 3/5
Average Rating - 2.6
My Rating - 3
Recommend? Not really.
Cover - I like it a lot, I think it fits the story nicely.
Find this review and more on my blog Sometimes Leelynn Reads.
"By the light
of the blueberry moon
we sang this song
in Lena's room..."
I read this book as part of one of my bookclubs last year, but I only just finished it today. I'm not sure what took me a while to finally get back to finishing the book, but I finally did. I'm glad I know what happened at the end, and now I can rest easy knowing that I actually don't have to worry about this one anymore.
This book was about a girl named Lena (her full name is Selena but nobody calls her that), a girl in California who just can't get enough of the ocean. The only catch is, her father refuses to let her swim or surf because of the time where he almost died surfing many years ago. He doesn't want the same thing or worse to happen to her, but for some reason, Lena feels the ocean calling to her. On her sixteenth birthday, she goes to her favorite beach, Magic's, and as she's looking out into the ocean, she sees a mermaid.
Yep, a real-life mermaid.
At first, she thinks she's going crazy. I mean, mermaids aren't real, right? That's what Lena thought when she first saw the beautiful creature. She soon became obsessed with seeing the mermaid again, and eventually, something else happened that she would have never imagined in her entire life.
Lena was the kind of character that you wanted to support through all of her decisions, but just couldn't. There were times where I understood why she was so angry but just couldn't imagine the actions she took because of it. I wanted to tell her "NO! You don't want to do that!" or "How could you be so cruel right now?" but of course, she couldn't hear me. Lena is an interesting character though, and when you follow her journey, you know that she is the kind of girl that will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
This was a beautiful story about my favorite mythological creature in the world, and I'm sorry that there will be no more stories about Lena and her friends. I hope to visit her world again one day, and dream about life under the sea.
"By the light
of the blueberry moon
we sang this song
in Lena's room..."
I read this book as part of one of my bookclubs last year, but I only just finished it today. I'm not sure what took me a while to finally get back to finishing the book, but I finally did. I'm glad I know what happened at the end, and now I can rest easy knowing that I actually don't have to worry about this one anymore.
This book was about a girl named Lena (her full name is Selena but nobody calls her that), a girl in California who just can't get enough of the ocean. The only catch is, her father refuses to let her swim or surf because of the time where he almost died surfing many years ago. He doesn't want the same thing or worse to happen to her, but for some reason, Lena feels the ocean calling to her. On her sixteenth birthday, she goes to her favorite beach, Magic's, and as she's looking out into the ocean, she sees a mermaid.
Yep, a real-life mermaid.
At first, she thinks she's going crazy. I mean, mermaids aren't real, right? That's what Lena thought when she first saw the beautiful creature. She soon became obsessed with seeing the mermaid again, and eventually, something else happened that she would have never imagined in her entire life.
Lena was the kind of character that you wanted to support through all of her decisions, but just couldn't. There were times where I understood why she was so angry but just couldn't imagine the actions she took because of it. I wanted to tell her "NO! You don't want to do that!" or "How could you be so cruel right now?" but of course, she couldn't hear me. Lena is an interesting character though, and when you follow her journey, you know that she is the kind of girl that will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
This was a beautiful story about my favorite mythological creature in the world, and I'm sorry that there will be no more stories about Lena and her friends. I hope to visit her world again one day, and dream about life under the sea.