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hhvintage's review against another edition
5.0
This book was very deep at times, sad at other times, but also there was so much soul and happiness to it too. I very much liked this book. I love how Sarah took some culture she didn't really know much about, researched more into it, and added it to her main characters history and personality. The romance in this book was also very cute, I didn't think it was underdone or overdone, it was a very cute quick read, and I enjoyed basically every second of it. Some parts would drag on a bit but, overall I thought it was great.
libreroaming's review against another edition
5.0
Sarah Ockler promises a dreamy and romantic version of "The Little Mermaid," loosely retold in a way that's more Disney than Andersen (mostly because: spoiler, it doesn't end in a horrifically depressing mess). Eylse is from Tobago, recovering in the Northwest Coast's Artagatis Cove after a sailing accident robbed her of her voice. There she is taken under the wing of her Aunt Ursula, a hippie witch who is not the type to sing "Poor Unfortunate Souls" so much as let Elyse cope with the trauma by silently observing the cove's summer flings and politics.
Of course that doesn't mean she doesn't get sucked up into the goings on anyway. When two of the powerful men, Mayor Katzenberg and Mr. Kane, strike up a bet over selling the land to real estate developers, Eylse finds out that she might have to help notorious playboy Christian Kane win the pirate regatta in order to keep her Aunt Ursula's home from being destroyed.
That may be the instigating plot but the novel's true focus comes in the interpersonal relationships as she is thrust into this bet. And since this is a romance, the primary one is between Elyse and Christian. At first blush, I wanted to roll my eyes at the typical playboy with a secret heart of gold they were setting up Christian to be, but he quickly shed the player status, and I was grateful for it. While he has the typical earmarks of YA love interests, Ockler keeps him from feeling too rote. Yes, he doesn't want to follow in his father's ambitious footsteps, but instead of making him a dreamy artistic type he's mostly just a privileged kid who has no ideas what to do except "not that."
The secondary characters also provide the most heart for the novel (ironic, since it's a romance). Christian's little brother, Sebastian, is a mermaid aficionado who secretly believes Eylse is a mermaid herself, and provides the major emotional moments for both Christian and Eylse to let their guard down. Sometimes he could feel like a plot device with how his desires perfectly synced up with where the story needed to go, like, for example: the scene where he insisted on a sea wedding between Christian and Eylse to get them their first kiss. But overall giving him his own struggles about wanting to be in the girls-only mermaid parade and small details made him endearing instead of exposition-y.
Eylse herself is a big draw to the story. She's already steeped in this romantic surrealism with her culture and her past, being the youngest of six sisters and born in the ocean, but the tone is consistent and her bitterness and trauma ring true. I doubt anyone expecting completely grounded narration would want to pick up a little mermaid retelling, so I found the poetic nature of her thoughts and writing to be well characterized, and I love having a narrator who came from another culture, one steeped in mysticism and music, having to find her legs again, so to speak. Readers can believe in a character who thinks in symbolism and makes pacts with the sea in this context.
Also? This book is one of the sexy ones, meaning there's talk of sex and sex positive portrayals. My personal tastes found it the perfect balance of letting it color the narrative without making it the finish line to the Eylse/Christian relationship. There's no extensive "slot A into tab B" play-by-play, but people wanting a clean read are going to be flustered from the multiple oblique references. Including the magical unicorn references of female masturbation presented as a natural matter of course with no shaming or issues whatsoever.
Awww yeah. Body language...
Ockler's story veers for muddled resolutions instead of clear-cut, and circuitous motivations instead of straightforward good and evil. It's very much the kind of summer read you bask in instead of devouring at a breakneck pace. Readers who look at the sea and imagine something underneath the surface will be the ones most rewarded with a tender and mystical retelling that's really more about rediscovering yourself through great loss than steamy hormonal flings. Although the ones reading it for steamy hormonal flings won't be disappointed either.
Worth chasing down a copy.
Of course that doesn't mean she doesn't get sucked up into the goings on anyway. When two of the powerful men, Mayor Katzenberg and Mr. Kane, strike up a bet over selling the land to real estate developers, Eylse finds out that she might have to help notorious playboy Christian Kane win the pirate regatta in order to keep her Aunt Ursula's home from being destroyed.
That may be the instigating plot but the novel's true focus comes in the interpersonal relationships as she is thrust into this bet. And since this is a romance, the primary one is between Elyse and Christian. At first blush, I wanted to roll my eyes at the typical playboy with a secret heart of gold they were setting up Christian to be, but he quickly shed the player status, and I was grateful for it. While he has the typical earmarks of YA love interests, Ockler keeps him from feeling too rote. Yes, he doesn't want to follow in his father's ambitious footsteps, but instead of making him a dreamy artistic type he's mostly just a privileged kid who has no ideas what to do except "not that."
The secondary characters also provide the most heart for the novel (ironic, since it's a romance). Christian's little brother, Sebastian, is a mermaid aficionado who secretly believes Eylse is a mermaid herself, and provides the major emotional moments for both Christian and Eylse to let their guard down. Sometimes he could feel like a plot device with how his desires perfectly synced up with where the story needed to go, like, for example: the scene where he insisted on a sea wedding between Christian and Eylse to get them their first kiss. But overall giving him his own struggles about wanting to be in the girls-only mermaid parade and small details made him endearing instead of exposition-y.
Eylse herself is a big draw to the story. She's already steeped in this romantic surrealism with her culture and her past, being the youngest of six sisters and born in the ocean, but the tone is consistent and her bitterness and trauma ring true. I doubt anyone expecting completely grounded narration would want to pick up a little mermaid retelling, so I found the poetic nature of her thoughts and writing to be well characterized, and I love having a narrator who came from another culture, one steeped in mysticism and music, having to find her legs again, so to speak. Readers can believe in a character who thinks in symbolism and makes pacts with the sea in this context.
Also? This book is one of the sexy ones, meaning there's talk of sex and sex positive portrayals. My personal tastes found it the perfect balance of letting it color the narrative without making it the finish line to the Eylse/Christian relationship. There's no extensive "slot A into tab B" play-by-play, but people wanting a clean read are going to be flustered from the multiple oblique references. Including the magical unicorn references of female masturbation presented as a natural matter of course with no shaming or issues whatsoever.
Awww yeah. Body language...
Ockler's story veers for muddled resolutions instead of clear-cut, and circuitous motivations instead of straightforward good and evil. It's very much the kind of summer read you bask in instead of devouring at a breakneck pace. Readers who look at the sea and imagine something underneath the surface will be the ones most rewarded with a tender and mystical retelling that's really more about rediscovering yourself through great loss than steamy hormonal flings. Although the ones reading it for steamy hormonal flings won't be disappointed either.
Worth chasing down a copy.
brennadf's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 a little slow at first but I blew through it by the end!
adrianao_reads's review against another edition
4.0
¡Que preciosidad de libro!! Me ha encantado la trama y sus personajes son simplemente entrañables, sin embargo considero que el final se quedo algo corto...
dizzybell06's review against another edition
3.0
While I enjoyed this book for the most part, it was hard to get through at some parts. I liked the story and many of the characters, but I feel like the story was built up to Elyse having this big moment and then the book just ends without us knowing the result of this big moment. I was left a little bit disappointed.
charmelhart's review against another edition
5.0
I honestly couldn't put this book down. It not only broke my heart but it put it back together. It starts off kind of cheesy but it gets deep as you continue to read. It deals with modern issues including sexism and misogyny. I loved it!
laughlinesandliterature's review against another edition
3.0
This book was alternately amazing and then kind of a snoozer. I felt like I had to keep coming back to it to find out about Elyse's story and what happened, but it couldn't hold my attention for very long. There was definitely a mystical element here that I found intriguing and I think that's why even though I didn't particularly love Elyse I stayed interested.
Christian and Elyse were two very different people, and that was obvious through the whole book. By the end when the full, true story of what happened to Elyse came out I understood her rage and love for her sister. How she could be thankful and resentful. Her sister made a choice that saved her, but also completely wrecked the life they were going to have and to expect Elyse to just be okay with that was too much.
Overall I give it 3 stars. Intriguing and captivating but a little slow and dull in parts.
Christian and Elyse were two very different people, and that was obvious through the whole book. By the end when the full, true story of what happened to Elyse came out I understood her rage and love for her sister. How she could be thankful and resentful. Her sister made a choice that saved her, but also completely wrecked the life they were going to have and to expect Elyse to just be okay with that was too much.
Overall I give it 3 stars. Intriguing and captivating but a little slow and dull in parts.
kmsutton4's review
5.0
I was pleasantly surprised by this book! I expected a cheesy summer romance (which I was fine with) but for that and a whole lot more. Actually, the romance isn't even really cheesy. It's all just super cute and squeal worthy. It's also really deep and handle some complex issues. For one the main character is trying to find her voice while dealing with the loss of everything she expected out of her life. Then there are complicated family dynamics, harmful stereotypes, and a little witchcraft going on as well. This is the perfect book for summer! I would definitely recommend it.
girlinthepages's review against another edition
3.0
*Actual Rating 3.5 Stars
I love fairytale retellings and adaptations, so when I discovered that The Summer of Chasing Mermaids was a contemporary story influenced by The Little Mermaid, I knew I had to read it. Contemporary novels that take influence from myths and legends are often so creative, and I deeply admire Sarah Ockler's talent at weaving in influences of the famous tale into a beautiful and emotional contemporary novel.
This book had a lot more depth than I was expecting. At first glance it may seem like a fluffy, beach read but there were so many heavy themes going on in this book, especially in regards to diversity. Elyse, the main character, is from Tabago and moves to Oregon, amongst a lot of All-American types. It was so interesting to read a main character who was not only diverse in place of origin, but also in culture; I thoroughly enjoyed Elye's descriptions of her family's cocoa farm in Tobago and her different outlook on life compared to that of the predominantly American cast. Yet Elyse never felt Othered by her differences, rather they added a beautiful layer to the story as glimpses of her culture were explored. The novel also tackles gender issues, as several of the younger characters are discouraged by adults to participate in certain activities because it's "simply not done" or "against the rules" for a certain gender to participate. I wasn't expecting the book to focus so heavily on deconstructing gender roles and it was a really pleasant surprise, and Ockler made me really emotionally engaged with the characters who were struggling against such rigid roles.
I was also surprised by touches of magical realism in this book, which mainly stem from Elyse's relationship with the ocean, and the myths of mermaids in Atargis Cove. The beautiful prose style wove in fantastical scenes with the contemporary narration, illustrating a stunning visual of Elyse's conflict with the ocean and her journey of coming to terms with it. The mermaid imagery was eerie and stunning as well. The only downside was that at time the prose became a bit too lyrical for me and I found the story to start dragging, wanting to exchange such character introspection for a faster paced plot.
The Little Mermaid elements were very fun to spot and subtle so that they didn't overwhelm the story. (For instance, there's a character named Sebastian, Elyse has a natural affinity for music and has many sisters, etc.)
Unfortunately though, not all of the elements of the story worked for me. While I loved the setting and beautiful prose, the plot sometimes dragged. I felt like I never fully connected with Elyse, and I started to lose interest as the book went on, especially in regards to fixing up the boat for the pirate regatta and Elyse's angst over returning to the water. There were elements of magic in the story that I wish were more fully explained, such as Lemon's coven that practiced magic (I would've loved to know more about her practitice, aside from just reading tarot). I was pretty shocked at the end when the full story behind the accident that robbed Elyse of her voice was finally revealed, but I wish I had received more closure about the future of Atargis cove.
Overall: The Summer of Chasing Mermaids is a beautifully written novel that is very creatively influenced by The Little Mermaid. The imagery and setting were breathtaking, the touches of magical realism were unexpected yet stunning, and the secondary characters felt warm, relateable, and well-rounded (I particularly loved Christian and Vanessa). However, the plot at times was slow and my interest ebbed at certain parts, and I found myself at times preferring the secondary characters over Elyse. This is a solid novel with progressive themes and beautiful writing, and fans of The Little Mermaid and heavier contemporaries will definitely appreciate it.
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I love fairytale retellings and adaptations, so when I discovered that The Summer of Chasing Mermaids was a contemporary story influenced by The Little Mermaid, I knew I had to read it. Contemporary novels that take influence from myths and legends are often so creative, and I deeply admire Sarah Ockler's talent at weaving in influences of the famous tale into a beautiful and emotional contemporary novel.
This book had a lot more depth than I was expecting. At first glance it may seem like a fluffy, beach read but there were so many heavy themes going on in this book, especially in regards to diversity. Elyse, the main character, is from Tabago and moves to Oregon, amongst a lot of All-American types. It was so interesting to read a main character who was not only diverse in place of origin, but also in culture; I thoroughly enjoyed Elye's descriptions of her family's cocoa farm in Tobago and her different outlook on life compared to that of the predominantly American cast. Yet Elyse never felt Othered by her differences, rather they added a beautiful layer to the story as glimpses of her culture were explored. The novel also tackles gender issues, as several of the younger characters are discouraged by adults to participate in certain activities because it's "simply not done" or "against the rules" for a certain gender to participate. I wasn't expecting the book to focus so heavily on deconstructing gender roles and it was a really pleasant surprise, and Ockler made me really emotionally engaged with the characters who were struggling against such rigid roles.
I was also surprised by touches of magical realism in this book, which mainly stem from Elyse's relationship with the ocean, and the myths of mermaids in Atargis Cove. The beautiful prose style wove in fantastical scenes with the contemporary narration, illustrating a stunning visual of Elyse's conflict with the ocean and her journey of coming to terms with it. The mermaid imagery was eerie and stunning as well. The only downside was that at time the prose became a bit too lyrical for me and I found the story to start dragging, wanting to exchange such character introspection for a faster paced plot.
The Little Mermaid elements were very fun to spot and subtle so that they didn't overwhelm the story. (For instance, there's a character named Sebastian, Elyse has a natural affinity for music and has many sisters, etc.)
Unfortunately though, not all of the elements of the story worked for me. While I loved the setting and beautiful prose, the plot sometimes dragged. I felt like I never fully connected with Elyse, and I started to lose interest as the book went on, especially in regards to fixing up the boat for the pirate regatta and Elyse's angst over returning to the water. There were elements of magic in the story that I wish were more fully explained, such as Lemon's coven that practiced magic (I would've loved to know more about her practitice, aside from just reading tarot). I was pretty shocked at the end when the full story behind the accident that robbed Elyse of her voice was finally revealed, but I wish I had received more closure about the future of Atargis cove.
Overall: The Summer of Chasing Mermaids is a beautifully written novel that is very creatively influenced by The Little Mermaid. The imagery and setting were breathtaking, the touches of magical realism were unexpected yet stunning, and the secondary characters felt warm, relateable, and well-rounded (I particularly loved Christian and Vanessa). However, the plot at times was slow and my interest ebbed at certain parts, and I found myself at times preferring the secondary characters over Elyse. This is a solid novel with progressive themes and beautiful writing, and fans of The Little Mermaid and heavier contemporaries will definitely appreciate it.
Follow Me: Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads
dearestdorian's review against another edition
It just wasn't working out for me. Maybe I'll try again some other time.