Sea Foam and Silence, Lynn E. O’Connacht

Received as a gift from the author

In favour of me enjoying this book: I love retellings, especially ones which add in a bit of diversity or something else that updates the story. Not in favour: it’s a verse novel, and in free verse at that. I’m terrible and tend to prefer really structured poetry. Oh, and Lynn chose to use emoticons in the text, which she had solid reasoning for, but I am apparently just a cranky traditionalist and it tended to pull me out of things rather than add to it — though it does add something to how to read the lines, where in some places I wasn’t sure quite how to take the tone. I wouldn’t have known whether I was right or wrong without the emoticons, so they’re not without purpose.

So what did I think overall? Despite being not-for-me in some ways, I did enjoy reading it, and I read it quite fast — I’m glad I didn’t follow the web serial version, because I am an impatient creature. There’s some awesome lines and use of imagery, and some things just come across beautifully: one example is the mermaid’s love of dancing, for instance, and another is the quiet bond between the mermaid and the prince.

I shouldn’t spoil the story, because at the time of writing (August) the web serial is still running. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed this take on the story, and especially the role of the Witch and her more complex than usual motivations.

Rating: 3/5