Title: The Mermaid
Author: Christina Henry
Publisher: Berkley 2018
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 325
Rating: 3/5 stars
Reading Challenges:
Once there was a mermaid called Amelia who could never be content in the sea, a mermaid who longed to know all the world and all its wonders, and so she came to live on land.
Once there was a man called P. T. Barnum, a man who longed to make his fortune by selling the wondrous and miraculous, and there is nothing more miraculous than a real mermaid.
Amelia agrees to play the mermaid for Barnum and walk among men in their world, believing she can leave anytime she likes. But Barnum has never given up a money-making scheme in his life, and he's determined to hold on to his mermaid.
I was excited for a dark retelling of a mermaid story. What I got was a bit of a bore. Barnum is not a great historical figure or book character. He’s definitely a bit of a villain. Despite all of that, I was fairly interested in that story. Seeing how a real life mermaid becomes an exhibit for Barnum’s museum could have been a good novel. And yet, Henry decided to interject a big romance plot line and lost me. The romance plot line was plodding and boring and really dragged down the story. I got to the end without my dark storyline and felt very disappointed.
Next up on the TBR pile:
