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A review by persphones
The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is a dark/feminist retelling of the little mermaid.
From the get go, you can see how patriarchal and sexist the mermaid society is. It might be a bit too on the nose, but still, it works and it's a good critique.
The instalove trope is obviously there - it's the little mermaid, guys - and while a bit annoying, you can see some underlying tones that things will go wrong in the future for our protagonist.
Gaia (our Ariel) is a young girl who is in love with a pretty dude she has never met. That said, it can be kind of annoying, but that is kind of the point of the story.
I liked the construction of the mermaid society, but I do think the writing could have been a bit better. Again, a bit too on the nose for me, all the plot twists a bit too obvious and the foreshadowings were not that subtle.
I did like the book - I like retellings, especially dark ones, and I love the little mermaid original story. This one is as brutal and painful (and gorey, if that's not something you're into!) as the original.
But I Think Elana K Arnold's dark retellings set a standard too high for me to truly love this book.
Some CW for the book are rape, gore, violence.
From the get go, you can see how patriarchal and sexist the mermaid society is. It might be a bit too on the nose, but still, it works and it's a good critique.
The instalove trope is obviously there - it's the little mermaid, guys - and while a bit annoying, you can see some underlying tones that things will go wrong in the future for our protagonist.
Gaia (our Ariel) is a young girl who is in love with a pretty dude she has never met. That said, it can be kind of annoying, but that is kind of the point of the story.
I liked the construction of the mermaid society, but I do think the writing could have been a bit better. Again, a bit too on the nose for me, all the plot twists a bit too obvious and the foreshadowings were not that subtle.
I did like the book - I like retellings, especially dark ones, and I love the little mermaid original story. This one is as brutal and painful (and gorey, if that's not something you're into!) as the original.
But I Think Elana K Arnold's dark retellings set a standard too high for me to truly love this book.
Some CW for the book are rape, gore, violence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual violence, Violence, and Child abuse