Review: Dark Water: A Little Mermaid Reverse Fairytale by J.A. Armitage

Dark Water: A Little Mermaid Reverse Fairytale by J.A. Armitage
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an advanced copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.  This is out already, so go check it out.

I actually took the time to read the original Hans Christian Anderson version of The Little Mermaid so I could speak to the accuracy.  I'm reading a couple of retellings this summer so I figured I should do my homework.

This is a reverse fairy tale retelling of The Little Mermaid. It stays fairly true to the original tale and has its own spin as any retelling should. This young adult tale follows Princess Erica who lives in a seaside kingdom, but she has been kept far away from the ocean for her entire life. Her mother is irrationally afraid of the water, she has a good reason but I won’t spoil why. On her 18th birthday, Erica ends up in the ocean and is rescued by Ari. Ari of course is the merman of her dreams.  The sea witch makes an appearance and the rest of the story, while not the same, kind of plays out like you would expect.

There is insta-love which is not my favorite and with any YA romance we have a lot of teenage drama going on. Overall, it’s not my favorite retelling and I found it fairly predictable and has a lot of YA tropes. That being sayd I liked the magical and fantasy elements and I did like it overall, and as a series it has potential.


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