The Mermaid by Christina Henry
From the author of Lost Boy comes a historical fairy tale about a mermaid who leaves the sea for love and later finds herself in P.T. Barnum’s American Museum as the real Fiji mermaid. However, leaving the museum may be harder than leaving the sea ever was.
Once there was a mermaid who longed to know of more than her ocean home and her people. One day a fisherman trapped her in his net but couldn’t bear to keep her. But his eyes were lonely and caught her more surely than the net, and so she evoked a magic that allowed her to walk upon the shore. The mermaid, Amelia, became his wife, and they lived on a cliff above the ocean for ever so many years, until one day the fisherman rowed out to sea and did not return.
P. T. Barnum was looking for marvelous attractions for his American Museum, and he’d heard a rumor of a mermaid who lived on a cliff by the sea. He wanted to make his fortune, and an attraction like Amelia was just the ticket.
Amelia agreed to play the mermaid for Barnum, and she believes she can leave any time she likes. But Barnum has never given up a money-making scheme in his life, and he’s determined to hold on to his mermaid.
Rating:
This is not my first Christina Henry book, I had read Alice and Red Queen before (which I enjoyed but they were too close to my favourite twisted version of Alice that it took away a little from her writing).
However, this is a unique sotrry and there was nothing to compete with it.
Amelia is not your typical sexy shell covered boobs mermaid, this is a more fierce, more sea creature, mermaid and I love it. The style of writing that is definitely Christina’s shines through this book and pulls at your heart strings.
I felt so much for a lot of the characters (both good and bad things, but I’d rather not spoil much which feelings where for whom). Jack was probably to me the wisest of them all on how to treat Amelia. And A~melia was so fresh to read as a mermaid that it was very enjoyable and there were times when tears tried to escape from my eyes.
Moon recommends
Reading The Mermaid, I also hear Lost Boy is good (it’s the only one I haven’t read yet), and if you like twisted interesting retellings of Alice then the duology works well too.
I really want to read this book! (I like the other cover better though…)