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:
