Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Fathomless by Jackson Pearce



Hardcover, 304 pages
Published September 4th 2012 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN 0316207782 (ISBN13: 9780316207782)
Series: Fairytale Retellings #3
Rating: 3 (3.4)


My Review:

Fathomless is a retelling of The Little Mermaid. It is not at all how I thought it would be because I was thinking of the Disney version. However, it is based on the Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid. All the basic elements of the original story is there with Pearce's added twists.

Celia is the youngest of a set of triplets. She is able to see a person’s past with just a touch. Her sister Anne can see the present and the other sister Jane can see the present. She don’t see the value in her gift until she meets Lo.

Lo is an ocean girl. She don't remember how she became an ocean girl and she don’t remember much of her life as a human. Each day they grow older and more beautiful until the day they drift away and become angels…or so they believe. When a new girl joins them they tell her that the only way to become human again is to have a boy fall in love with her and then take his soul as her own. All the ocean girls have fallen for this story but Lo can not bear to see it happen. She saves the boy. Taking him to the shore where Celia is.

Throughout the story Celia is learning how to be her own person while balancing the triplet bond. Jude the boy they saved coming to terms with his near death experience and falling in love with Celia. At the center of this story is the ocean girl with multiple personalities. Lo is the ocean girl. She loves the water. She loves the other ocean girls. She wants to grow old and eventually become an angel. Lo is also Naida. Naida is who Lo used to be…the human girl. Naida longs to be human again. She wants to go back to her family, back to the life she once had.

In the end, Lo finds out that the ocean girls don’t become angels but monsters. They become the same monsters made them into ocean girls, in the first place. Celia finds out that it was Lo but Naida’s desperation that may end her life. All involved learn that to find peace you have to first be okay with yourself.

Challenges:

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