Read from February 18^th to 22^th (2017)

Sea Foam and Silence
by Lynn E. O'Connacht
Published on June, 11^th 2016
270 pages
Genre : Fairytale, poetry
Themes : Mogai related

Synopsis :

Be careful what you wish for...

She warned of the pain. She did.
But no warning can prepare you.
Nothing can.

How could I have known
What it is like on the dry sand?
We just watched.

It's hard, not being able to ask
Questions, though I have learned some speech
With my hands. ^_^

I miss my sisters.

I have made friends here.
I have laughed with them,
Learned with them, played with them.
I love them.

She said I would die if he loves someone else.
Will I die? At the beginning I wanted to. It hurts
So much. Life isn't easy, will never be easy, but...
I don't want to become sea foam.

Review :

All I knew was «it's an ace retelling of The Little Mermaid» and I was already sold. I had so many other books to read and so little time, so first, I just added it to my to-read-list. Then I became weak, I bought the kindle version, and I started reading few hours later.

I actually managed to find some time to read, mostly just before sleeping, and it was always hard to put it down. The novel is written in free verse, so it's a quick read. It was the first time I read a novel in verse, though I wanted to try for a long time. It was really pleasing and relaxing. It was just what I needed before going back to a huge novel full of description. The mermaid's motivations always are clear and it's very easy to drown (no (bad) pun intended) yourself in the book with her.

It's told from the mermaid's point of view. She tells us about her life as a mermaid, about her sisters and their hunts. The mermaids got their own words to talk about human's things, some very accurate words to be honest. Overall the mermaid's journey is full of innocence, even when she has to hunt, when she's lonely and confused (she often is confused). I'm not gonna talk a lot about it, even though it's a retelling and the main plot is known, it varies a lot and it's fun to discover it. Let's just say I loved it.

Concerning the asexual part, because obviously I have to talk about it : I also loved it. The mermaid's thoughts reminded me of my own old confusion. Same thing with the aro-spec part, I related so much. It wasn't there as in a dictionary, it was just.. there, showing people it's okay to be like that, you can still have your happy end. The book goes beyond the asexuality in the MOGAI themes. I.e. what I like with this mermaid thingy, is that you can read it about being transgender. And some sentences spoke to me in that level.

So if it was so sweet, if it touch my heart, if I loved it so much, why only 3 stars?

Well, first of all, it's more a 3,5.

There's the thing with the smiley in the writing. At first I was really surprised, but I started loving the idea very quickly. I was really excited to see how it would be used, but in the end I was disappointed. I thought there would be more once the mermaid lost her voice. In the same way, I think it would have been more useful during dialogues, but there weren't more in them than usual. The smileys ended up confusing me. Sometimes I didn't know how to read what she was saying because I thought she meant it in some way, but the smiley was telling me something else, and a something else which didn't make sense to me. I still like the idea and I hope to see more use of this.

So I ended up being very confused from times to times, as the mermaid. Because the mermaid is confused, a lot. And she doesn't know much. It's crystal clear -maybe too much. There were too many « I do not know » in my opinion. I like repetition a lot, but this one didn't work. It became exhausting and I felt lost, as the mermaid. So maybe it was the point, because I really felt like her.

I could add the fact I wish there were more about the prince and the princess (but it's just because I liked them so much, we often want more of the good things).

It's a few details. Overall it was a really sweet read that I'll recommend. I still have many books to read, but I'll make sure to read more from the author soon!