What the back says... Think you know the story of The Little Mermaid? Think again...
I was introduced to Louise O'Neill's books late last year, I read her first two books in a weekend and really enjoyed them. So, when I heard about this one, of course I was going to read it.
What I quickly learned is that this was very different to the others, this is a fantastically clever retelling of The Little Mermaid story and certainly not the Disney version. Our main character in Muirgen, the youngest of the Sea King's six daughters, she is just approaching her 15th birthday where she can finally see the world above the sea. Muirgen's mother, who was also obsessed with the human world, had died when Muirgen was very young, apparently taken by humans and killed and so the six siblings were raised by their grandmother, brought up to believe girls should be seen and not listened to, that beauty and how thin they were would be their most important attributes.
I don't want to give too much of the away but it takes us on Muigen's journey and follows her as she goes from young, naive girl, following her heart, to full on strong woman, embracing female empowerment. Learning some truths along the way, this is a really fascinating and clever read, where the villan of the tale should almost be the hero.
The book finishes with a bonus chapter which should have been a book in itself - reading these last few pages and I wanted to hear more of this story and more of this characters background.
For me, this wasn't a book that was unputdownable - I needed space just to take everything in, but I wanted to finish and see where this character ended up. So, here I finished by first book of 2020, please read it a learn a different side to The Little Mermaid Story.
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