Book Review: The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill

★★★

This review contains spoilers. Where a spoiler is mentioned, it says (SPOILER) in front, so you can avoid it and skip to the next paragraph.

Synopsis: "Deep beneath the sea, off the cold Irish coast, Gaia is a young mermaid who dreams of freedom from her controlling father. On her first swim to the surface, she is drawn towards a human boy. She longs to join his carefree world, but how much will she have to sacrifice? What will it take for the little mermaid to find her voice? Hans Christian Andersen's original fairy tale is reimagined through a searing feminist lens, with the stunning, scalpel-sharp writing and world building that has won Louise her legions of devoted fans. A book with the darkest of undercurrents, full of rage and rallying cries: storytelling at its most spellbinding"

The Surface Breaks is my first retelling! So, right off the bat, I have to admit that I don’t have another retelling to compare it to. What I did really like was the hidden references to the story, or movie in my case. For example, the fact that Gaia has a statue of a man in her room, like Ariel has the statue of Eric. I also really enjoyed the imaginative ways in which facts from the original story are reconciled with reality. For instance, that the ‘human’ items the mermaids and mermen have come from shipwrecks. As an example, Gaia’s sisters have a broken mirror in their room that has sunk from the surface.

That having said, the first issue I had was that I think Gaia was a little too young. She was described as being between fifteen and sixteen years old, which is okay for a young adult book. However, she was very naïve, which sure, is because she’s never been in the human world before, but it makes her feel even younger. As a result, it felt like I was reading a middle-grade rather than a young adult book, which is not was I was expecting when I started it.

The Surface Breaks is marketed as a feminist retelling of the Little Mermaid, and in that they are absolutely right. There is a very strong focus on patriarchy and the way women are objectified by men. Aside from never having read a retelling of a fairy tale, I have also never read a book specifically billed as ‘feminist’. This brings me to my second (and most important) issue with the book, which is that I feel like the story was sacrificed for feminism.

(SPOILER) The male characters in this book, all male characters, are flawed and the villain. Gaia’s father is controlling and possessive, Oliver is irresponsible and selfish, and Rupert is abusive and regularly sexually harasses girls. George was the only one who seemed nice throughout the whole book, but at the end he takes home a drunk girl. Arguably, you could even say that Oliver’s father was a villain for cheating on his wife. The girls on the other hand, though slightly flawed as well, all come out as heroes. Gaia’s sisters come to save her, their mother never wanted to leave them and came back for her daughters, even the Sea Witch turns out to help Gaia, and Eleanor ends up being a victim of men’s actions. That’s not the way the world works. There are mean girls, and there are nice boys.

Lastly, I feel the push to turn the story ‘feminist’ became bigger towards the end, and it ruined the ending a little bit for me. Without spoiling any of it, it just didn’t seem to be a natural ending for the story, and the characters. (SPOILER) For example, it would have been much much more realistic if Gaia would have ended up with George, because he actually noticed her and checked if she was okay. But that's just my personal opinion and need for picture perfect endings.

All in all, I don’t think this was a bad story. In fact, I read the whole thing in a little over a day, which is very quick for my standards. The story is paced well, and I was invested in it. I just think you should go into it with the right expectations. In my opinion, it is more a fun beach read than a deep, world-building fantasy novel.

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