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A review by karleah_may
Drown: A Twisted Take on the Classic Fairy Tale by Esther Dalseno
3.0
3.5* contains spoilers
I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings, and this Little Mermaid retelling has such a gorgeous cover that I had to pick it up. I liked it's darkness and how close it was to the original, but some aspects fell short for me. I thought that the mermaid world was pretty one-dimensional, it was only described enough to know where she came from and then not really mentioned much again, even as the whole race died out. I was expecting more of a battle between her mermaid and human origins, and although it was true to Anderson's story I was really rooting for her to survive the ending and have the life she glimpsed with the Uncle who did seem to care for her.
I found the Prince a super flat character too, obviously he was supposed to be depressed, but he recovered so quickly after his suicide attempt that that didn't seem genuine either, and his depression and subsequent overcoming were just convenient to the plot. His self-harm was brushed over, and I felt that opportunities in regard to gender expectations and roles of masculinity and perceived weakness were really missed here. I felt that his attempt at drowning was used as a flip switch between two sides of his character to avoid any effort in character development. His relationship with the mermaid was confusing, because he turned away from her and chose a wife so suddenly that it was cruel, and couldn't even man up enough to apologise properly or really talk to her, and just brushed her off completely. He didn't even acknowledge their kiss, and told her that he'd only ever seen her as a friend as though it hadn't even happened. And then he married his new wife in a week and we were supposed to believe that he was content and had finally found happiness? I felt the end was pretty rushed and tied up a bit too neatly.
Overall though, this was a good, relatively easy read. I enjoyed the writing style, and was happy with a darker retelling of the story.
I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings, and this Little Mermaid retelling has such a gorgeous cover that I had to pick it up. I liked it's darkness and how close it was to the original, but some aspects fell short for me. I thought that the mermaid world was pretty one-dimensional, it was only described enough to know where she came from and then not really mentioned much again, even as the whole race died out. I was expecting more of a battle between her mermaid and human origins, and although it was true to Anderson's story I was really rooting for her to survive the ending and have the life she glimpsed with the Uncle who did seem to care for her.
I found the Prince a super flat character too, obviously he was supposed to be depressed, but he recovered so quickly after his suicide attempt that that didn't seem genuine either, and his depression and subsequent overcoming were just convenient to the plot. His self-harm was brushed over, and I felt that opportunities in regard to gender expectations and roles of masculinity and perceived weakness were really missed here. I felt that his attempt at drowning was used as a flip switch between two sides of his character to avoid any effort in character development. His relationship with the mermaid was confusing, because he turned away from her and chose a wife so suddenly that it was cruel, and couldn't even man up enough to apologise properly or really talk to her, and just brushed her off completely. He didn't even acknowledge their kiss, and told her that he'd only ever seen her as a friend as though it hadn't even happened. And then he married his new wife in a week and we were supposed to believe that he was content and had finally found happiness? I felt the end was pretty rushed and tied up a bit too neatly.
Overall though, this was a good, relatively easy read. I enjoyed the writing style, and was happy with a darker retelling of the story.