There is a new threat to the kingdom – the seas around
the nation are becoming impassable due to rampaging mermaids and, worse, Queen
Bea herself has been injured and lays dying. It falls to Princess Danielle,
Snow and Talia to set out again, the only ones who can to try and save Bea’s
life – and her very soul – and preserve not just the kingdom but all seafaring
nations
But it’s a complex task and finding who the actual
villain is proves more complex than previously imagined. It begs the question –
even if the villain is the victim, can they afford to be merciful?
And all because the Little Mermaid didn’t get her Happily Ever After
I do like how this series challenges a lot of assumptions
about fairytales, a lot of the staples we’ve all grown up on that are, frankly,
dubious to say the least. In this book we have a very strong challenge to the
whole love-at-first sight trope that so dominates fairytales. Why should that
prince you’ve barely met and hardly know turn out to be a nice guy? How can you
be so sure of his affections after such a short time knowing him? Or that,
occasionally, that guy you fall for turns out to be a brutal, manipulative,
arsehole?
So when the Little Mermaid decides to give up her family,
her people, everything for the sake of the love of a human she has known for a
week – is it any surprise that it ends badly or one applies reality rather than
fairytale rules? This story is a tragedy through and through because Lirea is,
in many ways, a victim as much as she is a perpetrator. Ultimately, she was a
very young woman who fell hard for the wrong man and was badly used by people
who were older and wiser than her who sought to exploit her for their own ends.
I like how this is even applied to Danielle’s own story – Talia pointing out
just how lucky she was that Armand was a good man since they married after
knowing each other for so little time. Danielle is presented as having made a
very naïve, very silly decision that, luckily, worked out; this is even more
stark when you consider that out of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and The Little
Mermaid, Cinderella is the only one who managed her Happily Ever After.
This book does a very good job of preserving that nuance,
partly through the lens of Danielle’s near infinite compassion and the pleas of
Lirea’s family, but also through the much harsher and more cynical gazes of
Snow and Talia who recognise the real bad guy. At the same time, this doesn’t require
anyone to be a saint or ruin the story with people being just so damn nice that
you have to wipe the sugar off your tablet screen. While there’s sympathy for
Lirea, there’s equally not much forgetting that she has killed people, she is
threatening the nation and she has hurt Queen Bea. Compassion and
acknowledgement of her victimhood does not translate into automatic forgiveness
– certainly not from Talia, nor does it stop the 3 princesses from doing what
they consider necessary to save Queen Bea. And if that means everyone doesn’t
get a happy ending – well, so be it; not everyone’s promised one.
Even the behind-it-all villain is presented with a level
of nuance. Ultimately her actions stem from the widely held belief that
mermaids are lesser people; a belief they took to heart and sought a way to
save themselves and their people from. No-one is just a villain, and even bad
people have people who care about them.
I like Danielle as a character, I think she has grown a
lot since the first book and in interesting ways. She was very naïve and
apolitical and lost back then and has learned from her experiences. But here
learning doesn’t mean becoming a super-jaded cynic as we so often see as a
stand in for learning. She’s still good, she’s still ultimately caring – but she’s
also gained a level of competence and understanding to leaven that goodness and
caring. She brings compassion to the political agenda – confronting princes and
kings with the fact that the disposable “red shirts” dying around them are people
with families as well, appealing to common sense, to compassion, to mutual good
while still being ready to lay down the law and put her foot down if necessary.
And I really like how Talia makes her see not only the disadvantages of growing
up poor and not understanding political matters, but also the advantage of not
being a coddled princess and not having the expectation that everything should
serve her, everything should suit her and that nothing bad can possibly happen
to her.
I can also see Danielle stepping more into a leadership
role for reasons beyond her rank, even though both Talia and Snow have
abilities that far exceed hers. Danielle
counters their flaws, maintains hope in the face of Talia’s cynicism and
focused on task when Talia is impetuous or Snow is easily distracted. She
balances them well and completes the three of them despite having no obvious
shiny skills to add to the pot.
On a world building front, love how the undine/mermaids
have been created. They’re not just humans with fish tails, they’re a
distinctly different species with not just a separate culture but an entirely separate
biology. It’s an extra touch of world building I appreciate.
The story itself is generally good – it’s well paced with
some decent twists and the nuance is maintained throughout. It’s not simplistic
and the characters alone prevent it from being linear. I still can’t say it’s a
plot line that enthrals me, but equally I have trouble saying exactly why it
doesn’t. It’s a good storyline, it’s well written, the balance between
description and keeping the story moving; it’s just not a story that would kill
me if I couldn’t finish it.
We do have several strong female characters in this book –
it’s kind of the focus of the book. But they’re all strong in different ways
and in ways that go beyond their powers or skills. Talia is strong beyond her
combat abilities – but also in her confidence and endurance. Snow is strong
beyond her magic – she’s intelligent and educated and fun. They’re also not
flawless – Talia is prone to despair and is deeply jaded, Danielle has crises
of confidence, Snow is easily distracted and has bouts of almost cruelty in her
disregard of people. I love how, while people are worried about their safety,
absolutely no-one doubts their competence for a single second. There’s no
suggestion that anyone could do it better, no suggestion that the prince and
king should be going, no-one doubts that they’re quite capable of saving the
day – they’ve proven themselves and they don’t have to repeat that just because
they’re women
Talia is a woman of colour – and we see that reflected
not just in her skin colour, she does have a different language a different
culture and a different cuisine, all of which are referred to without making a
complete obsessive fetish out of it. She’s also a lesbian to add further
inclusion – though I do wish we’d see more of her affection than her unrequited
pining for a straight woman that she finds so very very very distracting;
especially now I wonder where the relationship goes from here.
In many ways I find myself in the same position at the
end of this book as I found myself at the end of the last book. Every element
is there. Everything I can point to and say “this is good, this is good.” I don’t
have anything I can point to and say “that wasn’t done very well.” Because it
was all done incredibly well – but if it were done incredibly well, shouldn’t I
be giving it 4 fangs or more? But I’m not; because while I like the book, like
it a lot (and definitely like it more than the first book), the story just didn’t
consume me. It was a fun story, it was a good story, it was a story I’m happy I
read and never bored me, but it didn’t leave me feeling I need to pick up book
3 as soon as possible; nor would it make me really sad if I couldn’t pick up
book 3.
It’s a good solid book that continues to have excellent
potential with some great characters and a fun world overlaying a very
interesting concept.
