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hulttio's review against another edition
3.0
Disclaimer: I did NOT receive a free copy of this book in exchange for a review – this review is solely because this an underrated series/author, and I would love to bring more attention to Arzu’s work. I did receive the first book in this series, Underneath, over a year ago in a Goodreads giveaway. (See my review of that here.) In any case, reading that book made me invested in the series, and I always meant to pick it back up again… now I finally did, and this is my review of the second book.
Since it has been over a year from the time I read the first book, I was a bit rusty on the characters and organizations involved. One of the strengths of this book is how Arzu portrays the detailed interactions between various governmental bodies – the United Nations, Department of Defense, private industry, etc. – and the merfolk involved. As in the first book, the focus is on the Brooks family. I could barely remember what each character did in the first book, and aside from a few remarks here or there, there was not much of a reference to the events in the first book. This is my own issue though, and probably not a consideration if you actually read the books in a more linear fashion. This made some of the characters feel a bit stagnant in this book, as their characterization continued to develop from the previous book (and which continues in the third). I was also lost on which character belonged to which organization. I could have refreshed my memory and reread the first book, but I decided to deep dive into the second right away. Gradually, I started remembering who did what, but again, if you read it in quick succession, this shouldn’t be an issue.
The plot in this novel revolves around a new villainous figure and some issues from the characters’ past, and since the plot mainly deals with this one issue, it does feel a bit abrupt from the first novel. The characters are mainly the same, aside from a few new ones, and yet the conflict is quite different. Some of the threads from the first book continue to linger in this one, so it does not yet reach a satisfactory ending… the main plot is resolved in this book, but of course there are other threads. Still, the plot was interesting and mysterious, and though it wasn’t exactly a thriller or suspense novel, it had a good amount of momentum to keep me going.
My biggest issue with the novel, and probably with the series overall, is due to the nature of it being a self-published series. Some of the stylistic choices made for dialogue seem strange and inappropriate for the character. For example, a line from one of the adult photographers in the novel: ‘“Holly crap, he just shot him!” Jeff said, clicking a thousand photographs per second.’ There are some spelling and grammatical errors, as you can see there, but there are also stylistic choices that don’t exactly seem ‘right’ for a native English speaker, especially with the high school aged kids. Some of the agency designations also don’t seem appropriate, e.g. calling members of the Navy ‘marines’. But I am not familiar with military terminology, either. I am not sure if Arzu had an editor or not; perhaps the text could have used another pair of eyes and a cultural edit as well.* (Arzu is from Guatemala according to the biography, so I can understand the difficulty in writing a foreign setting like a NYC elite private school—which is probably as foreign a setting for even many in the US!)
With that said, I liked the novel and it was a good continuation to the series. I liked reading about the various intergovernmental interactions and the diplomatic talks between the merfolk and the humans, as well as the role of young activists, and even legal jurisprudence was thrown into the mix. While the series is not as polished as it could be, it does discuss interesting legal and diplomatic themes, and brings a realistic flair to the ever-common 'mermaids' setting. I am looking forward to the third book in the series. I am not sure if this is meant to be a trilogy, or if there will be additional books, but I can only hope that Arzu keeps working on this series; I look forward to future books by this author.
* If you are reading this by chance, I would certainly volunteer!
Since it has been over a year from the time I read the first book, I was a bit rusty on the characters and organizations involved. One of the strengths of this book is how Arzu portrays the detailed interactions between various governmental bodies – the United Nations, Department of Defense, private industry, etc. – and the merfolk involved. As in the first book, the focus is on the Brooks family. I could barely remember what each character did in the first book, and aside from a few remarks here or there, there was not much of a reference to the events in the first book. This is my own issue though, and probably not a consideration if you actually read the books in a more linear fashion. This made some of the characters feel a bit stagnant in this book, as their characterization continued to develop from the previous book (and which continues in the third). I was also lost on which character belonged to which organization. I could have refreshed my memory and reread the first book, but I decided to deep dive into the second right away. Gradually, I started remembering who did what, but again, if you read it in quick succession, this shouldn’t be an issue.
The plot in this novel revolves around a new villainous figure and some issues from the characters’ past, and since the plot mainly deals with this one issue, it does feel a bit abrupt from the first novel. The characters are mainly the same, aside from a few new ones, and yet the conflict is quite different. Some of the threads from the first book continue to linger in this one, so it does not yet reach a satisfactory ending… the main plot is resolved in this book, but of course there are other threads. Still, the plot was interesting and mysterious, and though it wasn’t exactly a thriller or suspense novel, it had a good amount of momentum to keep me going.
My biggest issue with the novel, and probably with the series overall, is due to the nature of it being a self-published series. Some of the stylistic choices made for dialogue seem strange and inappropriate for the character. For example, a line from one of the adult photographers in the novel: ‘“Holly crap, he just shot him!” Jeff said, clicking a thousand photographs per second.’ There are some spelling and grammatical errors, as you can see there, but there are also stylistic choices that don’t exactly seem ‘right’ for a native English speaker, especially with the high school aged kids. Some of the agency designations also don’t seem appropriate, e.g. calling members of the Navy ‘marines’. But I am not familiar with military terminology, either. I am not sure if Arzu had an editor or not; perhaps the text could have used another pair of eyes and a cultural edit as well.* (Arzu is from Guatemala according to the biography, so I can understand the difficulty in writing a foreign setting like a NYC elite private school—which is probably as foreign a setting for even many in the US!)
With that said, I liked the novel and it was a good continuation to the series. I liked reading about the various intergovernmental interactions and the diplomatic talks between the merfolk and the humans, as well as the role of young activists, and even legal jurisprudence was thrown into the mix. While the series is not as polished as it could be, it does discuss interesting legal and diplomatic themes, and brings a realistic flair to the ever-common 'mermaids' setting. I am looking forward to the third book in the series. I am not sure if this is meant to be a trilogy, or if there will be additional books, but I can only hope that Arzu keeps working on this series; I look forward to future books by this author.
* If you are reading this by chance, I would certainly volunteer!
swajoed's review
3.0
Kept me interested for sure, but it seemed like so much of this book was just about telepathy, and that doesn’t interest me as much as the first one did.
cassandragraph's review
5.0
Better than the first
Once again this book delivers with its fascinating and believable take on merefolk. My only complaint is that I want more books!
Once again this book delivers with its fascinating and believable take on merefolk. My only complaint is that I want more books!