Book Review: Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of "The Little Mermaid" by Debbie Viguie

Review: Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of "The Little Mermaid"
Author: Debbie Viguie
No of Pages: 198
Release Date: 24 October 2006

In a quiet fishing village, one lone fisherman rescued a child from the sea seventeen years ago. He and his wife raised the girl, Pearl, as their own daughter, never allowing themselves to wonder long about where she came from -- or notice her silver hair, usually pale skin, and wide, dark blue eyes.

Pearl grows from a mysterious child into an unusual young woman, not always welcomed in the village. As all the other girls her age find husbands, she has only one friend to ease her loneliness. One very special, secret companion: Prince James.

But their friendship is shaken when trouble erupts in the kingdom -- a conspiracy against the royal family combines with an evil enchantment from beneath the sea. Now, just when Pearl and James need each other most, bewitching magic and hints about Pearl's past threaten to tear them apart...forever.

My Thoughts:

The Little Mermaid is one of my favourite fairytales and Midnight Pearls did it justice in its own way.

Pearl was found at sea by her father when she was five years old; she always knew she was different based purely on her looks and her troubles with walking. Not many people have silver-blue hair and trip over absolutely everything.

It has been hard for Pearl, growing up shunned by most and gawked at by the rest. The only person who doesn’t treat her differently is Prince James, her best friend. Their friendship developed at a young age but always kept a secret.

The friendship is tested though with the arrival of Kaye. Kaye is the real Little Mermaid, being the woman who traded her tail for legs after falling in love with the prince. This devastates Pearl at first because she is starting to fall in love with him.

Midnight Pearls tells the story from the land dwellers point of view instead of the mer-peoples. A lot of people think that Pearl is the Little Mermaid but it is clear about a third of the way through that she isn’t. She is an extra character that was turned into a main. Friend to the Prince who falls in love with a mermaid who saves his life.

The story is what sticks in my mind when it comes to Midnight Pearls; the characters are just blips of info dumps. It is interesting reading The Little Mermaid from a completely different view, and the story is definitely engaging.

What detract the most from Midnight Pearls though is the drawn out beginning and the lightning fast finish. We spent half the book on Pearl and her problems and the last quarter on the actual Little Mermaid story. Everything happens so quickly that it leaves you definitely wanting more, but not in the best of ways.

Midnight Pearls is a very quick read and a nice fresh perspective on a classic. Nice and light, good for a beach read, if you feel like having mermaid fantasies for the rest of the day.

Book Review: The Swan Kingdom by Zoe Marriott

Review: The Swan Kingdom
Author: Zoe Marriott
No. Of Pages: 258
Release Date: 11th March, 2008

Shadows have fallen across the beautiful and lush Kingdom. The queen was attacked by an unnatural beast, and the healing skills of her daughter, Alexandra, cannot save her. Too soon the widowed king is spellbound by a frightening stranger – a woman whose eyes reflect no light. In a terrifying moment, all Alexandra knows disappears, including her beloved brothers, leaving her to a barren land unlike her own.

Alexandra has more gifts than even she realizes as she is confronted with magic, murder, and the strongest of evil forces. She is unflinchingly brave and clever as she struggles to reclaim what she knows is rightfully hers.

My Thoughts:

I have always loved the story of The Wild Swans by Hans Christen Andersen. This book does not disappoint.

The Swan Kingdom in itself, is a very well written tale, the underlying tones of The Wild Swans just makes it that much better.

As with all retellings, The Swan Kingdom does take many aspects from The Wild Swans but not so much as to not make it unique. I read Marriott’s reasons as to how and why she wrote the book, answering questions she asked when first reading The Wild Swans and I can understand where she is coming from, although I would have preferred it if she had stuck a little closer to the story.

Alyxandra is a good, strong character. She is a little dumb in the fact that she never actually explored her powers like any normal child would, but she makes up for it with her intelligence of getting away from the forest and back to where she needed to be.

The secondary characters aren’t fleshed out as much; Alyxandra gives us a brief description of her brothers and the guy she meets. But other than that it was all Alyxandra, which can get a little boring at times, she was very colourful, whereas all the other characters and her world, were black and white, and sometimes a little blurry.

I don’t get why it was added, but I loved the power from the earth aspect and how she could bring greenery back to life with her thoughts and touch. The part she played in this aspect of the story was a little far-fetched though towards the end.

Overall, The Swan Kingdom was a wonderful revisit to one of my favourite childhood stories. Although not as good as the original, it makes its mark as a strong story of its own, and one that many who like myself love Hans Christen Anderson’s work, will love this as well.

Available at:
Amazon
Book Depository

Book Review: Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale by Donna Jo Napoli

Review: Hush: An Irish Princess’ Tale

Author: Donna Jo Napoli

No. Of Pages: 340

Release Date: 21 October 2008

A SILENT GIRL. AN AWESOME POWER.

Melkorka is an Irish Princess, the first daughter of a magnificent kingdom – but this all changes the day she is kidnapped and taken aboard a marauding slave ship. Trapped in a world both unfamiliar and cruel, Melkorka finds that her powerlessness gives her clarity. That she is master of what she says. Choosing to take a vow of silence, Melkorka becomes an object of fascination to her captors. And then she realizes that any power, no matter how little, can make a difference.

My Thoughts:

The synopsis promises such an adventurous tale. It lied.

Hush is based on a Scandinavian story about a slave who wouldn’t talk, when she was finally overheard speaking Gaelic to her two year old son one day and asked of her story she told her master that she was an Irish princess before her captor, this is where Hush stems from, her journey into slavery.

I’m still having mixed feelings about Hush. Melkorka isn’t a strong character at all, she is a brat in my opinion. Her eight year old sister Brigid was a better character, pity she only stayed for the first half.

The book was made up of three parts, part one was in Ireland or Eire as the book refers to it, the second is on the boat of her first captor, the third on the boat of the man who buys her.

There is a clear difference in the quality of the story during the three parts. The first part of the story I was completely disappointed in, the writing was poor and disjointed. The timeline wasn’t clearly expressed so we were jumping erratic periods of time with no notice, it was only until you had to re-read and work out that you were a month or a week ahead.

The second part of the story was better written, like the author walked away for a few years and came back after writing more novels so had a bit more of a grip on her writing. By the time we got to the third part, which I had to force myself to get to, the story picked up and completely engrossed me because I had to know what happened.

Melkorka like I said was portrayed as a weak brat. She’s a fifteen year old princess (which is considered old enough for the time) who doesn’t have a brain in her head. Her eight year old sister was a wonderful character for the time she spent in the pages of the book, Brigid was smart, compassionate, quick-witted and resourceful. Melkorka on the other hand is the complete opposite, she really isn’t a likeable character. It took her until the third part of the book until she accepted being a slave and started acting like one, instead of a princess. Fair enough that she grew up as a princess but letting the other slaves wash you on a ship? That’s a bit much in my opinion.

Even the Hush bit, the whole point of the story wasn’t her idea, it was Brigid’s, and when Brigid left the story it was another slave that told her to keep her mouth shut.

This story didn’t take me on a journey which I thought might happen, because I adore novels about the old sailing ships of which this novel was primarily set on.

It was the other characters that made this story for me. Brigid in particular, if there were a story about Brigid I would definitely read it. Maeve, one of the slaves was another interesting character, she is a mystery, she knows so much about all of the countries they go to and is quick witted. Gilli, or Clay Man as Melkorka refers to him, is another good character, he is the one who originally kidnaps her, and it is interesting to read about his suspicions of Melkorka.

So overall when I sum up the story in my head, it isn’t a memorable one, but the secondary characters make it interesting and worth the read.

2/5