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A review by wordsbychiara
The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill
5.0
Being a lover of the Little Mermaid in all its shapes and sizes, I am constantly hoping to find retellings of this classic fairytale, and I am thrilled that so many of them are being released this year!
When approaching this book, I was expecting to find all those elements from the classic fairytale spun in an original way. I foundthat, but I also found so much more. What I was not expecting was that I would find so many important social issues woven inside it.
As a woman reading this story, I couldn’t help but feel pure, undiluted anger at the woman condition represented. I hope that in 2018, a man reading this book would also feel a sense of injustice swimming through these pages. The mer-folk live under the bigot rule of the Sea King, where the men expect the mermaids to be beautiful, meek, obedient. A mermaid who has her opinions, who speaks her mind, who has passions and desires that are not what the men choose for them is not a good mermaid, and must be exiled. Like a doll, the women must simply exist to please men and their desires. What was even more heartbreaking about all of this was that on land, things were not much better. Women must work twice as hard to have their voices heard, and even then ”you’re beautiful”, “you’re perfect”, “you’re graceful” will come before “you’re smart, “you’re hardworking” “you’re talented”.
Reading about this kind of insubordination is difficult, but when you take a step back and realize that this is what happens in the real world, where men and women still do not get the same retribution for the same jobs, where there are daughters who must still submit to their fathers, where wives must still submit to their husbands. A world where women still endure the abuses of men who do not understand the meaning of the word “no” and who think they are entitled to taking our bodies with or without our consent.
Louise O’Neill takes all this injustice and weaves it masterfully in her retelling, but she doesn’t simply limit herself to showing the problems in all their minute details. She offers a solution.
In a world that wants us all to be the same, where beautiful means silent, skinny, desirable, this book urges us to break the chain and celebrate our diversities in all their forms and in all their beauty. In a world that puts women one against the other, this book shows us that when we join forces we can bring change.
The Surface Breaks is more than just a simple fairytale retelling about giving away too much too easily. This is a story about pain, about loss, about hope, where fiction and reality merge into one and before which one cannot simply remain indifferent.
So to wrap it up, this is a book that I recommend not just to lovers of mermaids and fairytales, but to any woman and man who comes across it. Read this book, get angry and get involved to make a change into this beautiful but wounded world.
When approaching this book, I was expecting to find all those elements from the classic fairytale spun in an original way. I foundthat, but I also found so much more. What I was not expecting was that I would find so many important social issues woven inside it.
As a woman reading this story, I couldn’t help but feel pure, undiluted anger at the woman condition represented. I hope that in 2018, a man reading this book would also feel a sense of injustice swimming through these pages. The mer-folk live under the bigot rule of the Sea King, where the men expect the mermaids to be beautiful, meek, obedient. A mermaid who has her opinions, who speaks her mind, who has passions and desires that are not what the men choose for them is not a good mermaid, and must be exiled. Like a doll, the women must simply exist to please men and their desires. What was even more heartbreaking about all of this was that on land, things were not much better. Women must work twice as hard to have their voices heard, and even then ”you’re beautiful”, “you’re perfect”, “you’re graceful” will come before “you’re smart, “you’re hardworking” “you’re talented”.
Reading about this kind of insubordination is difficult, but when you take a step back and realize that this is what happens in the real world, where men and women still do not get the same retribution for the same jobs, where there are daughters who must still submit to their fathers, where wives must still submit to their husbands. A world where women still endure the abuses of men who do not understand the meaning of the word “no” and who think they are entitled to taking our bodies with or without our consent.
Louise O’Neill takes all this injustice and weaves it masterfully in her retelling, but she doesn’t simply limit herself to showing the problems in all their minute details. She offers a solution.
In a world that wants us all to be the same, where beautiful means silent, skinny, desirable, this book urges us to break the chain and celebrate our diversities in all their forms and in all their beauty. In a world that puts women one against the other, this book shows us that when we join forces we can bring change.
The Surface Breaks is more than just a simple fairytale retelling about giving away too much too easily. This is a story about pain, about loss, about hope, where fiction and reality merge into one and before which one cannot simply remain indifferent.
So to wrap it up, this is a book that I recommend not just to lovers of mermaids and fairytales, but to any woman and man who comes across it. Read this book, get angry and get involved to make a change into this beautiful but wounded world.