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A review by emeraldletter
The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill
2.0
=The Idealism Breaks=
I’m not quite sure what to say about this one.
It was supposed to be a feminist retelling, yet every woman was either weak and conditioned (for example, the sisters & grandmother who were too scared to stand up for anyone) or strong and morally dubious. Sure, they might've had good reason to be, but why can’t woman have morals and be powerful? A clear example was the Sea Witch, who despite seeming to have sympathy for Gaia, was not that helpful. I guess the main character was supposed to go on a journey, but I can only tell you the way it looked from here.
Almost (apart from George who seems to exist to solely stand against this particular argument I'm about to make) every man was a pig, which I think doesn’t actually reflect real life to my experience. I have had many positive male figures who are nothing like the tyrannical Sea King or the uncaring Oliver. My father for one, and my brother, for another, just to name a few.
It made a convincing argument for brutally killing the corrupt patriarchy, but somehow, I can’t seem to reconcile my conscience/morals/principles to it... Altogether, the ideas of grace, mercy and the capacity for human change were not recognised in men and sometimes even in women. Men who did the wrong thing were evil and needed to be punished and learning and human development could go down the sink.
Basically all I'm saying is that it had no nuance and is reminiscent to what some people call militant feminism. It's basically saying "You wanna take all my power? Well I'll take my power back and then take yours too so you can see how it feels!"
Ugh. No nuance at all.
To make matters worse, the author seemed to try and support ALL the prominent social movements as well (LGBTQ+, mental health, lack of self-esteem about your body, domestic abuse etc) not just feminism which made it all feel a little over complicated and the coverage of issues seemed spread too thin. Don't get me wrong, I don't have ANYTHING against these issues being represented in literature, but when people try to support too many causes at once, it makes for a messy book that seems to be more of a social comment than a novel for enjoyment. You can make a social comment and an enjoyable book at the same time, but not if you try to do too much at once.
The ending, at first thought, was fair, but I did notice some pretty obvious plot holes.
(!SPOILERS! except she, after a month+ of complacent suffering suddenly finds her powers that are apparently more powerful than everything seen thus far for no apparent reason !END SPOILERS!)
On the more general side, it wasn't a bad retelling of the original Hans Christian Anderson story; it wasn't boring or predictable and it followed the original tale to a large extent. I enjoyed seeing the actual story (sea foam, dagger, sisters and all) mirrored in a retelling rather than just the Disney version. Kept me engaged throughout
All in all, I feel like it dramatised and over exaggerated reality and I understand it probably did that to put the true and real problems discussed in this book into greater focus for readers, but I feel it, in truth, discredited the issue. I think the fact that this stuff happens in real life is terrible, but real life has a greater diversity in character and mutual respect than this book ever shows. It is disconcerting how often this is the case with YA; how often it omits the middle ground in favour of a straight-ford answer to some of life’s oldest and most entangled problems.
'Be yourself', 'accept others no matter what' and 'empower yourself' seem easy and admirable values, but all too often they clash. If being yourself means murder or if empowering yourself means putting others down, if accepting other’s quirks prevents you being yourself, what are we to do? Society is constantly contradicting itself and creating hypocrisy.
Anyway, sorry for the rant and here’s a short version of the age rating and notable content warnings. I'll give it two stars and recommend it for those who are 16+ (psychological and physical abuse - actual and implied, mature themes, swearing. If anyone wants a more specific description, feel free to contact me through commenting/emailing/etc).
Read it if you’re interested, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it. For those who are curious, it can be found on BorrowBox (depending on region probably) and online. Possibly also your local bookstore.
StoryGirl
I’m not quite sure what to say about this one.
It was supposed to be a feminist retelling, yet every woman was either weak and conditioned (for example, the sisters & grandmother who were too scared to stand up for anyone) or strong and morally dubious. Sure, they might've had good reason to be, but why can’t woman have morals and be powerful? A clear example was the Sea Witch, who despite seeming to have sympathy for Gaia, was not that helpful. I guess the main character was supposed to go on a journey, but I can only tell you the way it looked from here.
Almost (apart from George who seems to exist to solely stand against this particular argument I'm about to make) every man was a pig, which I think doesn’t actually reflect real life to my experience. I have had many positive male figures who are nothing like the tyrannical Sea King or the uncaring Oliver. My father for one, and my brother, for another, just to name a few.
It made a convincing argument for brutally killing the corrupt patriarchy, but somehow, I can’t seem to reconcile my conscience/morals/principles to it... Altogether, the ideas of grace, mercy and the capacity for human change were not recognised in men and sometimes even in women. Men who did the wrong thing were evil and needed to be punished and learning and human development could go down the sink.
Basically all I'm saying is that it had no nuance and is reminiscent to what some people call militant feminism. It's basically saying "You wanna take all my power? Well I'll take my power back and then take yours too so you can see how it feels!"
Ugh. No nuance at all.
To make matters worse, the author seemed to try and support ALL the prominent social movements as well (LGBTQ+, mental health, lack of self-esteem about your body, domestic abuse etc) not just feminism which made it all feel a little over complicated and the coverage of issues seemed spread too thin. Don't get me wrong, I don't have ANYTHING against these issues being represented in literature, but when people try to support too many causes at once, it makes for a messy book that seems to be more of a social comment than a novel for enjoyment. You can make a social comment and an enjoyable book at the same time, but not if you try to do too much at once.
The ending, at first thought, was fair, but I did notice some pretty obvious plot holes.
(!SPOILERS! except she, after a month+ of complacent suffering suddenly finds her powers that are apparently more powerful than everything seen thus far for no apparent reason !END SPOILERS!)
On the more general side, it wasn't a bad retelling of the original Hans Christian Anderson story; it wasn't boring or predictable and it followed the original tale to a large extent. I enjoyed seeing the actual story (sea foam, dagger, sisters and all) mirrored in a retelling rather than just the Disney version. Kept me engaged throughout
All in all, I feel like it dramatised and over exaggerated reality and I understand it probably did that to put the true and real problems discussed in this book into greater focus for readers, but I feel it, in truth, discredited the issue. I think the fact that this stuff happens in real life is terrible, but real life has a greater diversity in character and mutual respect than this book ever shows. It is disconcerting how often this is the case with YA; how often it omits the middle ground in favour of a straight-ford answer to some of life’s oldest and most entangled problems.
'Be yourself', 'accept others no matter what' and 'empower yourself' seem easy and admirable values, but all too often they clash. If being yourself means murder or if empowering yourself means putting others down, if accepting other’s quirks prevents you being yourself, what are we to do? Society is constantly contradicting itself and creating hypocrisy.
Anyway, sorry for the rant and here’s a short version of the age rating and notable content warnings. I'll give it two stars and recommend it for those who are 16+ (psychological and physical abuse - actual and implied, mature themes, swearing. If anyone wants a more specific description, feel free to contact me through commenting/emailing/etc).
Read it if you’re interested, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it. For those who are curious, it can be found on BorrowBox (depending on region probably) and online. Possibly also your local bookstore.
StoryGirl