A The Little Mermaid retelling for young adult audiences.
Dates read: 10/03/24 to 17/03/24
Word to describe: Breaking
Star rating:⭐⭐⭐
Genre: YA Fantasy
Trigger warning: Death by drowning, bodily harm, attempted sexual assault, sexual violence, and stalking.
The Surface Breaks is a modern retelling of The Little Mermaid in which a young mermaid witnesses the awful drowning a teenage girl. Or should I say mermaid Gaia watches as a young girl is thrown into the sea and drowned by sirens and only attempts to help when a blonde haired rich mamas boy goes into the water to save his girlfriend. Gaia then becomes head over heels in love with this boy and stalks him to the point of turning into a human to try and replace his dead girlfriend.
Yeah...
A feminist retelling of the little mermaid that is suspiciously dripping with patriarchal views and violence towards women and we are expected to believe that just because Gaia is a strong female lead that this translates to feminist literature? I don't know guys, my version of a feminist is not a woman hater, stalker, and submissive. tyvm.
Anyways - lets get into the actual story. The coast of Ireland houses two separate worlds, the human land and the merfolk land. Gaia is a mermaid princess and the youngest of several sisters, her father praises her for her beauty and her ability to be subservient to him, his court, and the men around her vomit. Whilst Gaia is the perfect little girl able to make her father proud by simply existing as a skinny girl who says yes always and is completely unopinionated and unable to express a single thought other than how utterly perfect and brain dead she is - she is also desperately in love with a human boy she saved from dying almost a year ago.
After being surprised with an engagement to some barely memorable guy Gaia says gee thanks Dad, I really appreciate this forced marriage with some old toad however else can I be of service to you -bleh-. With newfound courage Gaia sets off to find the sea-witch a grotesque and ugly women who is checks notes absolutely fine looking and just fat. (Because remember folks women who are fat are ugly - and in a world ruled by men this is the worst possible crime and will result in banishment so please only ever eat salad it is a must).
The sea-witch is by far the best character in this book and probably the only reason I continued listening to the audiobook. Everyone else is insufferable, the author should have just went with a book on the sea-witch and her version of events - at least then it might have actually been worth it's feminist title.
With absolutely zero reference to poor unfortunate souls , a crime by the way, Gaia is turned human for the small price of having her tongue severed from her mouth so she cannot speak. Every step will also feel like being stabbed with glass shards at an increasing intensity. Oh and of course no one is going to teach her how to walk and she'll be butt as naked. So, super wholesome if you ask me. I love it when my female main character is both absolutely insufferable and in pain the whole time just to remind you how absolutely insufferable she is.
Peeling her way out of the water and being rescued by Oliver (did I mention him? The guy who watched his girlfriend drown in front of him whilst he was helplessly torn from her grip by Gaia herself). Oliver is your typical rich white boy - dead dad, obsessive mother, house full of female only servants, and a bunch of douchebag friends that love to terrorise the workers with unwanted sexual advancements and crude remarks. But of course, Oliver isn't like the others - he totally is - but Gaia believes he is a true gentleman because checks notes she is in love with him so it must be true. To add - Oliver is a completely one dimensional character and the only interesting thing about him is that his dad is dead.
I just - ugh- there was so much potential. Being praised as the feminist retelling I was expecting a story of a mermaid princess who ran away from home and carved her own destiny which happened to have a guy she falls for, not some washed up fish who who the most anti-woman person I've ever had the pleasure of reading about who praises the men in the books for their ugly action towards women because why wouldn't they love it? She would!
It is only at the very end of the book when the sea-witch reveals to her that those sirens who drowns women only do so because they are trying to free them from the men of the world. And the sirens are abused women. And when Gaia is sexually assaulted she has this huge epiphany that oh my god women don't like it when they are sexually assaulted and you'll never guess this part maybe she wants to be a siren now because she's just like them. Gaia is just like those women that she has hated and blamed for this entire book just because she realised that the guy she was in love with didn't love her back - HELLO you are a literal stranger praying on this grieving boy. So, she kills herself. In the name of fighting against men?
-ugh-
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