A review by melslostinabook
Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon

2.0

What can I say about this book? It has been sitting on my shelves for years and maybe I should’ve left it there. I had high hopes for this little mermaid retelling, but it fell flat for me. The characters were very one dimensional, the world building was almost nonexistent. The prince was basically a jerk and both the princess and the mermaid were in love with him after being in his presence for only a few hours. The plot was underdeveloped, although this is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, rather than the Disney version, so maybe the author assumes the reader has read that version. Her descriptions of the mermaid’s world were lovely, though. There was so much potential for this retelling, and by the last quarter of the book, I had high hopes that this story would redeem itself, but unfortunately that ending was just so underwhelming. And that’s my two cents, for what it’s worth!