Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 352
Format: eArc
ISBN-10: 125005480X
ISBN-13: 9781250054807
Publisher: eBook | Hardcover | Audiobook
One day Simon receives a very old book. As he is a librarian he is aware of the meaning and oldness quickly. Surprised to find the name of one of his ancestors he goes digging into his family past. What he finds is not nice. It seems a lot of woman in the family have drowned at a young age. What makes it even more special is that their family is made of breathers. People who are called mermaids by others. People who can stay under water for a long time. On the quest to save his sister from her destiny a lot of family secrets and curses are brought up.
It is hard to review this book. I did enjoy the story. It holds both the story of the start of the curse way back in a small world of a travelling circus and the now where Simon is trying his best to break the curse. In a way the stories mingle just fine but still the changing period every other chapter broke my reading. I feel it is a book you have to read in one sitting anyway. i read a fair chunk in one day and was enthralled and the last 70 I was reading a few here and a few there and I failed to get back into the flow. Maybe I got cursed too.
The characters are staying a bit of a mystery. Simon is the most important one in the now story. He seems like a good guy willing to sacrifice anything to save his sister. Still I never really felt any emotion. He is telling his story but that is it. The desperate moments do not feel like that. The other characters are mostly seen trough Simon's eyes. I would have loved to know more about Enola's feelings on the whole story.
The past characters do get more of their own time. Amos is a lost soul most of the time and that does show in his part. Evangeline was much harder to connect to. Maybe it was a family thing. I was not sure about Peabody and his motives. At times he felt caring but other times he seemed not so great.
The revelations at the end do make the characteristics of the people more interesting and might even push me to read the book again with that knowledge.
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