Reviews

Speechless by Madeline Freeman

heather_g's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

3.75

An interesting twist on tale of people with special abilities.  This one was slightly like the Little Mermaid.  I can see potential in the series, lots of questions still to be answered at the end of book 1.

jennaaah's review against another edition

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2.0

It was a weird version of the little mermaid that did not leave me wanting to explore more of the world that was created.

renesmeewolfe's review against another edition

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5.0

surprising

I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this. It was a pleasant surprise and kept me enthralled the whole time. People forget about the original Little Mermaid story, and. I love the references to it!

Putting the Little Mermaid in a futuristic setting is something I never thought I needed, but here we are. Plus, I love that it’s a clean/non-mature story! I feel like it’s getting harder and harder to find ones like that.

I loved reading this, and can’t wait for more.

lddecker's review

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adventurous tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

library_of_alexandra_'s review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

textandtunes's review against another edition

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3.0

I found this book on my e-reader and was really intrigued by a "retelling of the little mermaid plus sci fi" (so like, Marissa Meyer vibes). Overall, it was an okay read. However, had I known it was part of a series, I would not have pushed through...

The parallels to TLM are: the protagonists have A and E initials, Aria has a lot of sisters that all have music-themed names, she can breathe underwater, she goes to a different world even though her dad tells her no, looses her voice and saves the guy from drowing. That's kinda it.
And I feel like it could have been a good baseline, but the sci fi aspect fell really flat for me, I couldn't understand or grasp it, and there were so many questions left unanswered. The pacing is also really slow and it took over half of the book for something to happen - because I thought it was a standalone, I kept going because I thought the answers would be coming soon... but they didn't and I am not invested enough to continue the series.

phoenixrulz81's review against another edition

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4.0

Twists and turns galore

People that behave based on emotion or care for others and the story is definitely a change from how it starts.

dreadwyrmtai's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

m_kayk's review against another edition

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3.0

PopSugar Challenge 2020: "A book with the same title as a movie or TV show but is unrelated to it."

This is a futuristic retelling of The Little Mermaid.

While I enjoyed the idea behind the plot and the retelling of the fairy tale, I was not overly impressed with the book. I am usually a huge fan of retellings, but this seemed like it primarily used the Disney movie instead of the original story as the source for the plot. Names were slightly altered, and it wasn't set anywhere in Europe, but I almost felt I was starting a reimagined Disney Little Mermaid when I was hoping for more of the Hans Christian Andersen.

mimiathereader's review

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4.0

Did I tell you I really like fairytale retellings? I think I already did but there’s no reason to not tell you again. Because, hey, I really really like fairytale retellings.
And, apparently, I even like futuristic fairytale retellings that have mysterious powers, stupid societies, an underwater LA, a stream of the people living on Mars, secrets and people with magical powers (definitely not the best way to put it. They’re called aberrations in this world so you get an idea how they’re treated).
If this doesn’t make want to read this book I don’t know what could. I was hooked from the beginning.
The only thing I didn’t like as much was the end because there wasn’t much resolution and just the lead to the next book in the series (which I really want to read but I can’t buy books right now).
I’ll be stalking this author to see what other thinks she comes up with.