The Mermaid's Daughter

A Novel

De: Ann Claycomb

Narrado por: Shannon McManus, Alana Kerr Collins, Suzan Crowley, Dominic Keating

A modern-day expansion of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, this unforgettable debut novel weaves a spellbinding tale of magic and the power of love as a descendent of the original mermaid fights the terrible price of saving herself from a curse that has affected generations of women in her family.

Kathleen has always been dramatic. She suffers from the bizarre malady of experiencing stabbing pain in her feet. On her 16th birthday, she woke screaming from the sensation that her tongue had been cut out. No doctor can find a medical explanation for her pain, and even the most powerful drugs have proven useless. Only the touch of seawater can ease her pain, and just temporarily at that.

Now Kathleen is a 25-year-old opera student in Boston and shows immense promise as a soprano. Her girlfriend, Harry, a mezzo in the same program, worries endlessly about Kathleen's phantom pain and obsession with the sea. Kathleen's mother and grandmother both committed suicide as young women, and Harry worries they suffered from the same symptoms. When Kathleen suffers yet another dangerous breakdown, Harry convinces Kathleen to visit her hometown in Ireland to learn more about her family history.

In Ireland, they discover that the mystery - and the tragedy - of Kathleen's family history is far older and stranger than they could have imagined. Kathleen's fate seems sealed, and the only way out is a terrible choice between a mermaid's two sirens - the sea and her lover. But both choices mean death.

Haunting and lyrical, The Mermaid's Daughter asks: How far we will go for those we love? And can the transformative power of music overcome a magic that has prevailed for generations?

©2017 Ann Claycomb (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

GREAT STORY!

This love story is filled with mystery, intrigue, love, & folklore. I loved it! Great read.

Deserved a massive trigger warning but otherwise good

The story was compelling and unique. It was very well written. The performance was great, though the man lilting his way through the women's songs in the opera near the end was a little odd. But this book should have had trigger warnings for suicidal thoughts and ideation, as well as time spent in a mental hospital and medical trauma all over it. Sexual assault and rape mentions, too. There's a brief mention in the description of Kathleen's "breakdown" but nothing warning readers not to proceed if they are heavily triggered by what I mentioned above. Medical trauma like this is not some trivial thing to throw in for shock value. Trigger warnings exist to warn people with serious mental health conditions that they may suffer if they proceed. I would never have purchased this if I'd known how badly it would trigger my ptsd. If any of the above trigger you, please buy something else because the story is filled to the brim with them.

A slow and beautiful story

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to finish it...but then I began to fall in love with one of my old favorite stories that I've known since I was a child, but told from a different perspective. The new twist on this old tale made me fall in love with the characters. At times the characters annoyed and frustrated me but taking a step back I learned to appreciate them.

If you have an appreciation for classic tales, music and a bit of operatic drama, this is definitely a good listen/read.

One of my favorites

I listen to a lot of audio books, and sometimes struggle to really get into the story. I had no issues with this story, I didn't want to turn it off. I was very impressed with Ann Claycomb's interpretation of the Little Mermaid story, and I really loved her book. I recommend it highly.

Great premise, cop-out ending

SPOILERS! I love the premise of this book, seven generations of a curse that none were willing to pay the price to break. The sea witches narrating chapters were really cool too. Unfortunately, I did not like the changing perspectives. Hearing from Harry and Robin didn’t give the reader much insight that we wouldn’t already know from the main character’s point of view. It pulled me out of the story. I feel like more of the book was outside the main characters POV than in it. I wish it would’ve stayed in her POV more, especially during the really important parts of the story like the ending and the cave scene.

The writing was really good and it was a hard book to put down because of it. The tie ins to music were very creative and honestly taught me things about opera that I didn’t know. I loved the symbolism throughout the book.

(SPOILERS ON THE ENDING!) The ending was my least favorite part, though. It felt like a complete cop-out. Like all these women that came before Cathleen died for nothing when it would’ve been as simple as pretending to stab their lover? What happened to the blood having to cover her feet?

All in all the writing was good, the story was good, the execution...not so much.

Creative &artistic retelling w/ modern perspective

Really enjoyed hearing this take on the little mermaid story. The perspective was realistic and modern, riddled with questionable mental illness and some disbelief from the people around her. The focal point was on the human side of things, and the main characters personal story, rather than the mythical mystery surrounding mermaids in the real world. Although, I would have preferred a bit more detail regarding the mermaid lore, and magic surrounding the knife. A greater hint at the origins of the witches would have been fun too. The entirety of the main characters respond in a bit of a poetic way, and descriptions are very artistic. The performance was.. interesting. I really liked that there were multiple voice actors. The actor that plays Robin should definitely not have half sung the opera lyrics.

Hans Christen Anderson slutshames Little mermaid!

Honestly, I desperately wanted to like this. It has all the elements of something I would like: a lesbian restructured fairytale! Mermaids! Sea witches! Tons of drama! But I just didn't enjoy this book at all. The main idea of the story was great, the fairy tale curse was fascinating but the characters were hard to like and the main character was hard to feel anything for.

And the last section of the book is literally about Hans Christen Anderson slutshaming the Little mermaid because she friend zoned him - a sentence I would have happily never had to write.

Brilliantly Written!

The only thing i would remove is the use of The Most High God’s name being taken in vain .....inexcusable and unnecessary— the only thing that took away from the Book. The rest was magnificent.

Delightful!

I enjoyed this book thoroughly and did not want it to end. Now I will dream of someday hearing the music and seeing this on the big screen. So beautiful and well-written.

A fantastic listen with enchanting characters

An incredibly imaginative retelling of a timeless, classic tale through a modern lens. Each chapter woven like a perfect spell. Not for lovers of the shallows..💔