Jennifer (bunnyreads)'s Reviews > The Stone Mermaid

I read this for SPFBO. To find out more about the SPFBO contest and to see the participating bloggers/authors and reviews follow the links below

3.5


I was very excited to get this in my group. I have an undying love of fairytales and retellings.
There was a lot I enjoyed about this retelling starting with the changes. Aisha Urooj kept enough of the elements of the originals to recognize it without actually making this a blow-by-blow retelling. In fact, it kept enough of that darker feel to the story in the beginning (coupled with that title) to make me worry about which way this tale would go - Disney or sadly. This was one time I was grateful for reading on kindle because if this had been a paperback, I probably would have popped-ahead for spoilers.

The story is in two parts and in this tale- Ariana’s (the little mermaid) mother Helena, was human and her father The Sea King, stole her and brought her to live in his kingdom under the sea (so hard not to sing that last bit). Helena’s stories of home are what sparks Ariana’s interest in the wonders of the world above.

The Sea Witch has a son named Victor, who is enamoured with Ariana. I liked that a lot of the tale was from his perspective. Especially because his pov. just makes the whole thing feel fresh to our eyes.

There are a lot of new and fun elements to the story- Victor is helping Ariana win the heart of her prince Ivan (and being incredibly jealous while doing so), all the while hoping she will eventually see himself, as a potential love interest. There are additional cast on land, with Ivan and his family. And a dark force rising in the ocean, with Victor and Ariana’s destinies tied into its outcome. Also, there are fun little nods to Disney’s flounder and Sebastian.

The first part somewhat tells the story we know (to a point) but part two, veers away and builds off all those tidbits of backstory that the author used to pad and revamp the original. I loved how incredibly creative it was and all the additional story in the second book but I did wish the two parts had a more cohesive blending of their parts together.

The first part, definitely felt stronger than second part which was a bit more all over the place, filling in more details of the story and introducing characters to give us a clear path for the main characters to gain their ending. I wondered why more of the details hadn’t been included in the main body, earlier, as I felt it would have been a smoother story all around. As it was, part two felt like it was written at a later time (and maybe that was the case).

That said, I still say this was one of the more imaginative retellings I’ve read in a while, and I enjoyed it a lot for that reason (and also for making me doubt for a while which way the end would go). If you like retellings like I do, it’s worth checking this one out just for that reason alone.




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