Even though I still think the "rich guy heartbreaker" trope has been done to death in too many YA and NA books, I am still giving The Summer of Chasing Mermaids five stars (and I wish I could give it more). I wish I could give a copy to every YA/NA author who thinks slut shaming, whitewashing, and flunking the Bechtel Test somehow makes for compelling reading.
This year hasn't been great for my IR romance reading habit. Between the colorism fail and the endlessly tired tropes of billionaires and bikers, I've just been kind of bored. If anything, I've found more awesome heroines, especially darker-skinned heroines with natural hair styles in comics like Princeless #1, Fight Like a Girl #1 and Jem and The Holograms #1.
There are few romances that I consider really feminist. I need a heroine who may go through trials but is always strong or growing towards strength without needing a man to get her there. I need to see real female friendships. I need to see body acceptance. I DON'T need slut shaming or virginity-worshipping. I had that strong heroine in Elyse who, in her own words said: "I was in love, just like in the stories. But unlike those fairy-tale girls, love didn't save me; it changed me. Changed me into someone who could save myself."
Save herself? Give that chica a prize!!!
A tragic boating accident silenced her voice for good, and she moved to Oregon in order to heal (and perhaps to run away). And though there were times I wanted her to stop feeling sorry for herself, it made sense that she struggled but kept going on, finding a purpose to her life and finding her voice. From helping Christian restore The Queen of Cups to hunting mermaids with his adorable little brother Sebastian.
The female friendships just had me cheering. It is so great to read a novel in which the women aren't stabbing each other in the back over the hawt guy du jour. I loved how Elyse (in her way), Kirby and Vanessa talked so openly about their sexuality, owning it as something healthy. I really loved Elyse's guardian Lemon and her coven of witches who actually celebrated menstruation as a ritual. How often do we EVER read that in a YA book? In fact, how often do heroines have periods? It's like authors are terrified to write about something so natural. And I loved how the circle of women were so supportive of one another.
At first, I thought Christian would just be another in a long string of "sexy misunderstood playboy" types that the romance genre is swamped with, but Ockler gave him depth. She didn't concentrate on his past nor did she have him slut shaming the women he'd been with. And once he decided to be with Elyse, he really was WITH her. He listened to her voice, treated her no different than any other person, even though she couldn't speak, and he was vulnerable in a way that heroes of this type are seldom allowed to be. Christian had as much to learn from Elyse as she from him. I really loved his relationship with his brother too.
While Elyse and Christian were awesome, my heart was smitten by Christian's little brother Sebastian. He was just so sweet and innocent with his love of mermaids. I hated those who tried to steal his innocent joy and cheered when determined women stepped up to allow him his moment to shine. The part where Elyse, Kirby and Vanessa dressed him up to march in the mermaid parade just had me saying "you just go boy!" Sadly, there were some readers who read far more into Sebastian's wanting to dress as a mermaid as some kind of "agenda". I just saw a little boy who liked what he liked and didn't know until later that there are small-minded adults who didn't approve.
What I appreciated about Ms. Ockler is that she cared enough about writing a real character and not a stereotype. She did her research on Trinidad and Tobago. She wrote Elyse not as some "exotic" character, but as a real young woman that EVERY reader, regardless of race, can relate to in some fashion. And that's what any GOOD author would do. It was a wonderful, evocative and poetic tale of tragedy and triumph, of love and friendship and the things which matter most. It was about finding your voice when others try to keep you from speaking or ignore you. I truly loved this book.
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Beautiful story!
This book is so beautiful and packs such a power message. I love how diverse this book was, and that it was a sex positive YA book but most importantly I love how realistic and at times, painful this book was to read. These characters aren't perfect and while we do see some character development, this book isn't about making these characters perfect again. It's about how perfectly imperfect we are as humans. How sometimes there are people who aren't nice and do bad things and even though we wish they would change, even though there might a part of them that wants to change, they don't. It's about feeling powerless, feeling like you don't have a voice and like no one can hear you even when you're screaming to be heard. This book is about figuring out who you are when everything you thought you stood for is taken away from you. It's a beautiful book, but it also is sad. It's ending is hopeful but open-ended. I don't really like when books leave things open to the readers interpretation but I can understand why the author did it with this novel. I guess I can only hope that these characters find the happiness they so rightly deserve. I enjoyed this book so much but what made this book so good to me was the characters. I wanted to know them forever. I wanted to just read endless scenes of them hanging out together and learning more about their lives. The romance between Elyse and Christian was so cute but I also wish we couldn't gotten more from it. At times it felt a little rushed and since they only knew each other for the summer and with the way things end at the book, things were left a little open-ended in terms of their relationship too. Overall I'm so happy I read this book and I definitely think it's one everyone should read!
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- Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2015
- Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2015
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- Angelia KatsianosReviewed in Australia on March 10, 2017
Beautiful and Breathtaking
