NOVEMBER 30TH 2016
Hello folks!
Today I want to talk about a mermaid manga/graphic novel that was released quite a few years back called Princess Mermaid, which is an incredibly dark retelling of The Little Mermaid.
English cover version:
Japanese original cover:
My sister gave this book to be as a gift after she finished reading it and I really must say that the artwork is very original and unique. Now, before you go and pick up this book for your child, the book is rated M -- Junko Mizuno is known for combining cute (kawaii) style with grotesque images like skulls, blood massacres... and in this particular manga, there are darker themes and a lot of mature subject matter such as implied sex, nudity, tons of death, murder, slavery, betrayal, torture... (this definitely isn't meant for children).
The story is about three mermaid sisters who lure sailors to eat them (yes there are visuals of them being eaten), until one of them falls in love with a human. I can't spoil too much but that is basically the synopsis. Although the premise of the story is the same as Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid, the ending to this story is very different and much darker than I was hoping (it is a very sad, bittersweet ending).
Overall I give it 3/5 stars since I'm a huge fan of "cute and macabre" and it was very enjoyable to look at. However; I feel like only a few are appreciative of this style artwork, and that a majority would find this style disturbing, especially if they aren't a fan of this style, or are concerned parents who don't want to expose their child to mature subject matter just yet; it would definitely turn a majority of people off since it isn't traditionally "cute-and-only-cute," but it also doesn't offer much in the way of character development, and the plot was pretty predictable.
If you'd like to have this book, I'd recommend adding it to your collection. It makes for a pretty interesting conversation starter. But because of it's darker themes, I wouldn't recommend this for children at least until they're mature enough to handle it.
Today I want to talk about a mermaid manga/graphic novel that was released quite a few years back called Princess Mermaid, which is an incredibly dark retelling of The Little Mermaid.
English cover version:
Japanese original cover:
My sister gave this book to be as a gift after she finished reading it and I really must say that the artwork is very original and unique. Now, before you go and pick up this book for your child, the book is rated M -- Junko Mizuno is known for combining cute (kawaii) style with grotesque images like skulls, blood massacres... and in this particular manga, there are darker themes and a lot of mature subject matter such as implied sex, nudity, tons of death, murder, slavery, betrayal, torture... (this definitely isn't meant for children).
The story is about three mermaid sisters who lure sailors to eat them (yes there are visuals of them being eaten), until one of them falls in love with a human. I can't spoil too much but that is basically the synopsis. Although the premise of the story is the same as Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid, the ending to this story is very different and much darker than I was hoping (it is a very sad, bittersweet ending).
Overall I give it 3/5 stars since I'm a huge fan of "cute and macabre" and it was very enjoyable to look at. However; I feel like only a few are appreciative of this style artwork, and that a majority would find this style disturbing, especially if they aren't a fan of this style, or are concerned parents who don't want to expose their child to mature subject matter just yet; it would definitely turn a majority of people off since it isn't traditionally "cute-and-only-cute," but it also doesn't offer much in the way of character development, and the plot was pretty predictable.
If you'd like to have this book, I'd recommend adding it to your collection. It makes for a pretty interesting conversation starter. But because of it's darker themes, I wouldn't recommend this for children at least until they're mature enough to handle it.
OCTOBER 3RD 2016
If you're looking to be immersed into a whole new world of mermaids, definitely pick up this book and allow yourself to be transported and become one with the mermaids. The next book I’ve been wanting to provide a LONG overdue review for the first book in the “Lost Voices Trilogy,” written by Sarah Porter (who is also an artist, and a free land public school teacher). The first book is called “Lost Voices” and upon purchasing the book I was immediately drawn to the beautiful cover (Yes, I am one of those people who will literally judge a book by its cover. I did read an excerpt of the story on the back of the book, and the summary on the inside flap which contributed to my decision to purchase the book). My book is a hardcover with a protective paper that has a metallic mermaid resting on a background that has a slight shiny quality to it, and even when you remove the paper cover, the actual hardcover of the book is quite lovely itself (robin’s egg blue and a sparkly navy blue spine). I’m quite happy to have such a beautiful book sit pretty on my shelf as part of my mermaid collection. It’s a wonderful piece of art to look at, really. Now time to get into the good stuff.
.:SPOILER ALERTS:. look away if you haven't read it yet! For the non-spoiler friendly, abridged version click here!
The story starts off at a steady pace. It is of a young girl who is horribly abused by a family member and one day she turns into a mermaid. Upon reading, you don’t immediately tell that she becomes one though, and it’s through the use of description that the author allows you to step into Luce’s shoes (er.. flippers) and gives you a whole new world of experience, and then afterwards you realize “wait oh my god she’s a mermaid!” When I was reading, I had thought that she had accidentally committed suicide by falling off a cliff and had entered afterlife (which wasn’t the case by the way… I mean technically she did enter some sort of “afterlife”. Moving on).
I won’t give too much away but I really absolutely love that the author was able to immerse her readers into this world as though they were, not one of the characters, but one WITH the characters. As a reader I find it extremely difficult to do especially when you’re reading about young girls that you cannot relate to, but Sarah Porter found a way to do it. I quite enjoyed the world she created and each character has their own backstory that the author clearly shows (and might I add, very integral to the plot). This world is very detailed and there is a lot of history behind every little thing, from the little mer-larvae, to the drowning of people on ships at sea.
Something else I should mention is that although most of the perspective is from Luce, it’s not written in the first person – you’re actually the fly on the wall until the author decides when you become “one with the character” in order to physically feel what they feel.
There are a lot of themes of death going around in the book from the death of children, the death of family, and the death of friends, even the way each of the characters “died” and entered their new “life after death” as mermaids. Personally for me, I’m always drawn to stories that involve a lot of death and I always like to see how each character copes.
It was definitely a page turner for me and, although I thoroughly enjoyed reading about their daily mer-life, I can’t say that I really care for the little high school cliques formed in the middle of the book and where the silly “high school” drama starts. I’m guessing she’s specifically written this book for young adult women just solely based on the fact that there is a lot of the drama floating around which makes up most of the main plot.
The ending is open for book two in the trilogy (which I don’t have yet), although judging from my friends who HAVE read the book, the drama escalates.
I give this book a solid 3 stars, just solely based on the fact that the author still kept a lot of the amazing descriptive qualities that made me love this book initially even when the drama was introduced. But I don’t think I’ll be picking up the second book anytime soon.
SEPTEMBER 6TH 2016
It certainly has been a while since I've read the book, I believe it was maybe a month ago... with that said although much time has passed I can tell you this was one of the more memorable books from Kristy's repertoire. Her writing has noticeably changed drastically, and for the better because I think this might be one of my favourite stories.
Mermaids and Mermen, I give you The Kiss That Saved Me by Kristy Nicolle.
.:SPOILER ALERTS:. look away if you haven't read it yet!
For the non-spoiler friendly, abridged version click here!
This story continues from book one, The Kiss That Killed Me, and immediately upon reading the first few pages you can definitely tell that the authors writing has improved greatly. She uses a lot more descriptors and doesn't limit herself to just a small amount of words, which I quite enjoyed.
There's a lot of character development from many recurring characters, especially the main character, Callie, compared to the first novel. In this novel she starts to explore and gets tempted by... "the dark side" let's say... so you will see her struggle with the dark side along with Azure who had just stepped away from the dark side. And if there's anything I enjoy more than a good mermaid book, it's seeing characters struggle and slip into the dark side and seeing how they deal with it muahaha *cough*. There are also introductions to new characters (one of whom I have taken a liking to named Vexus) which makes Callie's transition into the dark side a little bit more interesting. He and Callie begin pursuing a sexual relationship, and this displeases Orion because she literally swam away from him when he proposed to her. Now, I did say many of the characters have character development... but do not get me started on Orion. For the love interest of the main character, you would hope to see some sort of development. I personally hated Orion in this novel because he seemed like the only character who didn't have much character development. He spent all his time in the novel being a whining baby such as when he told Callie to go and never come back, then crying about it, then crying about how she should come back, then crying about his father.... there was just... too... much... WHINING. I found myself slightly skimming over his POVs.
Speaking of POVs, I've found that Kristy does an amazing job at giving characters their own voices compared to when she wrote the first book, whose voices all seemed muddled together. You can clearly hear that they have their own personalities and their own quirks.
This is one of the books I had to reread certain passages of the book a few times over just because I didn't want to miss any details. In the first book I found myself skimming a lot and, although I skimmed, I thought the story moved very slowly. This book on the other hand kept me on my toes and kept me turning and returning the pages. It is very action packed from the start, and seemed less like a romance (something I obviously do not enjoy). The plot progression, unlike in the first novel, is fresh and you definitely won't see things coming from pages and pages away... although there were two characters I was highly suspicious of just because their names sounded so similar (Solustus and Saturnus). In the back of my mind I kept thinking "the two are definitely connected somehow, their names are too similar."
Overall, Kristy does an absolute superb job at keeping all her cards hidden and doesn't reveal anything about the characters or how the plot will thicken, until the very end when it comes to fish slap you in the face.
The ending of the novel is also open for the third book in the trilogy which I absolutely cannot wait for because we'll be finally introduced to MERS OF COLOUR (yess)! I have great expectations for this just because there is not enough portrayal of coloured mers, and with the introduction of the Inuit mers in this book Kristy also introduces different body types as well as opposed to the first half of the book (even the story) where every mer introduced is white and thin, So not only will we get coloured mers, we'll also get to see mers of different sizes!
I give this book a respectable 4.5 stars.
I enjoyed it! The book is infinitely better than the first novel. Definitely pick this book up and have a read.
SEPTEMBER 6TH 2016
On June 26th, I finished reading Kristy Nicolle's first book in the Tidal Kiss Trilogy, The Kiss that Killed Me.
.:SPOILER ALERTS:. look away if you haven't read it yet!
For the non-spoiler friendly, abridged version, click here!
As most of you probably know by now, I'm not a huge romance person. So after much thought I'd decided to give it a try (can't hate something you've never tried it right?)
To start, as I was reading I thought the plot progression was pretty predictable, for example when Callie gives in to Orion and becomes a mermaid to be with him. I found that some of the language was very repetitive as well (such as the words sexy and gorgeous) which put me off at times ... also I believe I have also found the authors personal taste in all things lilac, silver, and aqua...
The book was also in first person which was somewhat of a personal peeve of mine because I prefer third person, especially because it would also change perspectives to a certain characters depending on the situation. The narrative would flip back and forth between Callie and Orion quite often. As such, Orion's language (although it's from his perspective) would sound a lot like the main character's language in that he sometimes sounded like a young teenager. I'm not sure if it was just me, I'm a very picky person, and that what I was able to pick out.
There was also implied sex which made me slightly uncomfortable to read because... I'm not sure. It might be a cultural thing for me personally because anything that even implies sex in Asian media is still so taboo within our community. So I needed to somehow get used to it and continue the story, although I will admit I did skim those scenes super quickly and didn't make much of an effort (so unfortunately no reviews for the steamy make-out scenes). BUT!!!! Good on you, Kristy, for writing them though, I'm sure others will enjoy it much more than I did!
I did very appreciate how detailed the descriptions of places, people and items were.. like the descriptions of weapons, how the water felt on your skin, what someone feels when they take a breath of air (or water) and you could REALLY feel it yourself. That was really enjoyable! In all the mermaid novels I have read, I really enjoyed placing myself into this world and "feeling everything."
Overall I give this book a 3 out of 5 star fishes.
The book also leaves an open ending for book two, (which I finished reading weeks ago) and goes into more detail about the things that were left out in book one.
Although this wasn't my cup of tea, the story itself is not so bad. Descriptors helped greatly! If you're into romance and fantasy and want a good strong female character, with just a sprinkle of sex, definitely give this a go!
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