ARC Review // Coral by Sara Ella

Author: Sara Ella
Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Book Review

Coral is the youngest sister in the royal family. She is going to join her sisters in the mermaid ballad as soon as she will be sixteen. As much as she is concern about this event, she worries about her sister that suffers from a Disease. She tries to support and help her somehow, but before she gets closer to her the Red Tide takes her right out of her hands. She cannot resign herself to live without her. Because of her disobedience to her father during her birthday party, he orders her to leave the castle. Her grandma is on Coral’s side and helps her during this hard time. The best way to do so is to take her away to the world of humans.

Merrick’s life isn’t as easy as it seems. His family has everything: money, class, prestige life but things like love and closeness are lacking. His father is very strict with the rules that include him and his younger sister. The hate he feels toward his father deepens when his sister tried to commit suicide. At the same time as he arrives at the hospital to see his little sister, his mom decides to leave them all for good. He can’t understand how she could do it at the time they need her the most. He decides to get his sister and run away far from the father and try to find their mother.

Brooke is in a bad place for a long time now. She is sent to the recovery place where people are supposed to help with her loss. She feels worthless and alone. Instead of trying to let people in she pushes them away. She doesn’t want to heal. She just wants to disappear in the blue sea weaves far from the pain and loneliness. One accident helps her to look differently in her life and shows her a new way how to live again.

The story brings all of them together and helps to understand the importance of family, friends, and life. Not everything looks like we see it. They need to let people in to understand they are not alone.

My thoughts:

The first time when I started to read this book, I was sure I am holding a fantasy book in my hands. However, with the time I found out how wrong I was. Instead of a beautiful fairytale about mermaids, this book was based on the mental health issues and teenage suicides. Don’t let it push you away because the story is worth reading even if it’s not fully about mermaids we love.

The book shows the effects of mental illness on the people and that it’s not always how we think how it works. To be honest, I also had no idea that about a few things that were brought in the book. It’s a complicated and hard subject but it should be the knowledge all of us should have. 

Going back to the story and its characters, it’s hard to say if you like any of them or not. It’s not kind of characters that all of us can empathize with. They reach a point in their life from which it’s hard to decide what to do next and how to live after what happened to them. Thanks to the people around them as hard as it is, they choose to recover.

I think it’s the first book I read about people that go through the mourning of close people that took their own lives. I know there is a lot of them but this one focuses on this issue and isn’t just a back story. I was surprised how the story went on because I was sure it will be a retelling of Little Mermaid. It was kind of in the beginning, but it didn’t have much connected the story we all love. However, it was a very original idea to tell a story.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I would like to thank NetGalley, Thomas Nelson and Sara Ella for providing me this book. It was a challenge to go through this book without crying but I enjoyed reading it as much as I expected.

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