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patchworkbunny's review
3.0
The Surface Breaks is Louise O'Neill's retelling of The Little Mermaid. I have a love hate relationship with her writing but I thought her foray into fantasy might not be as bleak. The mermaid in question is Gaia, daughter of the Sea King, who is fast approaching the age where she can be married off.
The Sea King is all your misogynistic dictator stereotypes rolled into one. He believes that maids should be for looking at and making babies. He's a classic abuser personality, his daughters must choose their words carefully around him and he pits them against each other. He trades his youngest daughter to a war-mongering friend to help cement his position in court. Gaia is 15, her husband to be is an old man. It's really quite a grubby thing to read about.
On her birthday Gaia is permitted to swim to the surface despite the fact that her father hates humans and blames them for taking his queen. Not that him being a massive jerkwad would make her want to leave him. Gaia sees a human boy and saves him from the Salka, their mortal enemies. She is instantly besotted with him and can't stop thinking about him when she returns home.
I suppose the instalove represents a desire to escape her abusive home, but he could just as easily be as horrid as her betrothed, just younger. Anyway, you know the story, she gives up her voice so that she can go ashore. This isn't a pretty fairytale though and what she must endure to be with a man she doesn't know is extreme. The second half of the book is much stronger, it dwells a bit too long on the awfulness of merfolk society before it really gets going.
Slowly Gaia starts to question her choices. I loved the ending, it really rescued the book for me after wondering if it was just going to be another depressing outlook for women. I liked all the revelations and what Gaia finally chooses for herself. If you've ever worn shoes that have ripped your feet apart but continued to wear them, you will sympathise with Gaia, who puts up with pain in order to have the legs she thinks Oliver desires.
I do feel that feminist fiction can focus a lot on terrible things that happen to women. Why can't they be about amazing things women do or just lovely worlds where we have equality? I know the point of this is to show how the original story sets a terrible example, that you shouldn't be sacrificing yourself for a man you barely know, but it was a bit heavy-handed getting that point across.
The Sea King is all your misogynistic dictator stereotypes rolled into one. He believes that maids should be for looking at and making babies. He's a classic abuser personality, his daughters must choose their words carefully around him and he pits them against each other. He trades his youngest daughter to a war-mongering friend to help cement his position in court. Gaia is 15, her husband to be is an old man. It's really quite a grubby thing to read about.
On her birthday Gaia is permitted to swim to the surface despite the fact that her father hates humans and blames them for taking his queen. Not that him being a massive jerkwad would make her want to leave him. Gaia sees a human boy and saves him from the Salka, their mortal enemies. She is instantly besotted with him and can't stop thinking about him when she returns home.
I suppose the instalove represents a desire to escape her abusive home, but he could just as easily be as horrid as her betrothed, just younger. Anyway, you know the story, she gives up her voice so that she can go ashore. This isn't a pretty fairytale though and what she must endure to be with a man she doesn't know is extreme. The second half of the book is much stronger, it dwells a bit too long on the awfulness of merfolk society before it really gets going.
Slowly Gaia starts to question her choices. I loved the ending, it really rescued the book for me after wondering if it was just going to be another depressing outlook for women. I liked all the revelations and what Gaia finally chooses for herself. If you've ever worn shoes that have ripped your feet apart but continued to wear them, you will sympathise with Gaia, who puts up with pain in order to have the legs she thinks Oliver desires.
I do feel that feminist fiction can focus a lot on terrible things that happen to women. Why can't they be about amazing things women do or just lovely worlds where we have equality? I know the point of this is to show how the original story sets a terrible example, that you shouldn't be sacrificing yourself for a man you barely know, but it was a bit heavy-handed getting that point across.
tinynavajo's review
5.0
WOW!
Fantastic! I absolutely loved this book, it turned out so much better than I thought it would, especially how the beginning started! A feminist retelling of “The Little Mermaid” and so much more!
Fantastic! I absolutely loved this book, it turned out so much better than I thought it would, especially how the beginning started! A feminist retelling of “The Little Mermaid” and so much more!
eyleen's review
3.0
(Review contains minor spoilers!)
Phew, this was...unexpected.
This starts out very close to the Disney movie Ariel, so we get to know the sea palace and Ariel's (here Gaia's) sisters and everything is cute and interesting.
Then the author introduces the Sea King and the warlord mer-man who is Gaia's betrothed and forces us to immediately hate them because they're absolutely awful and never once say or do anything nice. There's no choice really. Two sentences about them and you have to hate them.
Prince Eric does not make an appearance. Instead Gaia spies on a party yacht on her first visit to the surface (cool idea to set this in our modern time!!) and falls in love with a guy named Oliver because she finds him attractive.
We all know how it goes on...visit to the Sea Witch...being turned into a human. Here this was done savagely with the Sea Witch cutting out Gaia's tongue and her feet bleeding and breaking with every step on shore. Ugh!! Gaia however didn't think twice about accepting these conditions.
She stays with Oliver's family, numbing her constant pain with some mysterious draught the maid brings her and is constantly miserable, because she realizes (very slowly!) that Oliver is an asshole and a terrible person and moreover he definitely doesn't want to "touch her in that new spot between her legs" which she finds VERY fascinating and talks about a lot. She's super-horny for a long period in the book and it kind of freaked me out, because she is 15 and hardly knows the guy and the whole story has nothing to do with love, but only lust.
There are many passages in this book about the empowerment of women, which is a good idea in itself, but terribly done here in my opinion, because with only one (side character) exception all men is this book are terrible and cruel and stupid and all women are treated as pretty ornamentations best kept quiet. That's so far from reality.
And Gaia is so passive throughout pretty much the complete book and never really does anything intelligent to empower her. She makes such stupid choices and is always unhappy. I'm not sure what kind of message this sends to young girls reading this...
The ending didn't seem consistent with the rest of the story to me, but at least sent a slightly better message.
All in all the writing was good and I was always hooked to see how the story would continue, but I think this book got just really weird at a certain point and never got back on track to what I expected to read about.
Phew, this was...unexpected.
This starts out very close to the Disney movie Ariel, so we get to know the sea palace and Ariel's (here Gaia's) sisters and everything is cute and interesting.
Then the author introduces the Sea King and the warlord mer-man who is Gaia's betrothed and forces us to immediately hate them because they're absolutely awful and never once say or do anything nice. There's no choice really. Two sentences about them and you have to hate them.
Prince Eric does not make an appearance. Instead Gaia spies on a party yacht on her first visit to the surface (cool idea to set this in our modern time!!) and falls in love with a guy named Oliver because she finds him attractive.
We all know how it goes on...visit to the Sea Witch...being turned into a human. Here this was done savagely with the Sea Witch cutting out Gaia's tongue and her feet bleeding and breaking with every step on shore. Ugh!! Gaia however didn't think twice about accepting these conditions.
She stays with Oliver's family, numbing her constant pain with some mysterious draught the maid brings her and is constantly miserable, because she realizes (very slowly!) that Oliver is an asshole and a terrible person and moreover he definitely doesn't want to "touch her in that new spot between her legs" which she finds VERY fascinating and talks about a lot. She's super-horny for a long period in the book and it kind of freaked me out, because she is 15 and hardly knows the guy and the whole story has nothing to do with love, but only lust.
There are many passages in this book about the empowerment of women, which is a good idea in itself, but terribly done here in my opinion, because with only one (side character) exception all men is this book are terrible and cruel and stupid and all women are treated as pretty ornamentations best kept quiet. That's so far from reality.
And Gaia is so passive throughout pretty much the complete book and never really does anything intelligent to empower her. She makes such stupid choices and is always unhappy. I'm not sure what kind of message this sends to young girls reading this...
The ending didn't seem consistent with the rest of the story to me, but at least sent a slightly better message.
All in all the writing was good and I was always hooked to see how the story would continue, but I think this book got just really weird at a certain point and never got back on track to what I expected to read about.
sindri_inn_arsaeli's review against another edition
4.0
A little heavy handed with the moralizing points on occasion, but a highly engaging retelling nonetheless.
laineyb's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
stella_and_the_sea's review against another edition
5.0
I love Disney movies. They're my childhood, they're a part of me. As you can imagine it has been a struggle as a feminist. It's quite the guilty pleasure. I love them despite their flaws, despite all the problematic things they represent. They do not align with my worldview, but I adore them anyway.
This book is a gift. It has the nostalgia. The story of the girl under the sea who doesn't feel like she belongs in her world. The girl who wished to go up, because of a boy, yes, but also because of so many other things.
Then, suddenly, it's not that story at all. Then, it's a story about women being oppressed, no matter where they go. It's about sisters and their bond and how society sets them up against each other. So many important aspects are discussed. It's so creatively done. It makes my feminist heart swell but still gives a nod to my childhood (movie).
I'm writing this review long after I've devoured this book, and now I want to read it again.
This book is a gift. It has the nostalgia. The story of the girl under the sea who doesn't feel like she belongs in her world. The girl who wished to go up, because of a boy, yes, but also because of so many other things.
Then, suddenly, it's not that story at all. Then, it's a story about women being oppressed, no matter where they go. It's about sisters and their bond and how society sets them up against each other. So many important aspects are discussed. It's so creatively done. It makes my feminist heart swell but still gives a nod to my childhood (movie).
I'm writing this review long after I've devoured this book, and now I want to read it again.
juliabittorf's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
cosy_novel_niche's review
4.0
For this one a video review is coming because I have too many thoughts. I read it in just two or three days and it made me think quite a bit about our society and why we act and speak the way we do. It was not an exceptional book, but if it made me analyse our current society it is worth 4 stars for me.