Title: Speak the Ocean
Author: Rebecca Enzor
Publisher: Reuts Publications
Pub. Date: July 9th 2019
Synopsis
Finn is a young student who was interested in the ocean all his life. He’s working at Oceanica, the place that is training mermaids to perform and entertain the audience. For many years he was waiting for the day when he will become a trainer. His dream came true when they brought new mer to train. However, it wasn’t just some other mermaid. She looked exactly like the first mer that was discovered by his father. He decided to train her in his own way, without shocking her with the loop as most of the trainers do. Thanks to his new approach he discovered that mermaids are more than dangerous fish.
Erie is a princess of Seadom. She spends her days trying to find a pattern between the disappearing of the mermaids in her kingdom. However, the dates don’t make any sense to her. Her kingdom lives in the fear and hunger. She tries to find a way to help her people, but instead of helping she is the one who’s taken away to the land. Thankfully, her loyal guard Niku didn’t leave her alone and let the landfolk to take him with her. Since there is no way back, she decides to learn the language of humans and find out why are they doing this.
Book Review
This book is an emotional rollercoaster. Erie is such a precious soul, and I couldn’t bear anyone who tried to heart her. She cares for her people more than for her own life. I loved the moments when she was showing Finn and Jen that she is smarter than they thought. It was so cute how interested she was in the Disney movies and any other new thing that they showed them. It was so easy to fall in love with her. I wanted to cry whenever someone tried to break her like other Mer. Mermaids in the Oceanica were treated worse than you can imagine. They couldn’t speak or touch each other. If they do, they were shocked until they couldn’t move. The funniest thing is that people were surprised that they are trying to attack them or kill them whenever they have a chance. After all, they do to them I would be surprised if they wouldn’t want to do that.
Finn was the only trainer that proved it. He taught Erie respectfully and kindly and he received back the same thing. He understood that mermaids are not the bad guys here and that it needs to be changed. However, this change didn’t come fast to him. Throughout most of the book, he was one of the most annoying characters in this book. It’s not that I don’t like him because I do, he’s a good guy. I feel like he’s very lost because he finally found out that everything he believed in and dreamed about was a lie. Most of the time he behaves in a way that he doesn’t even want to notice it. Moreover, he is very selfish. He thinks only about what will be good for him and he doesn’t see how much he can hurt people around him with his actions. Thankfully, my precious Erie showed him that it’s not what life is about and changed him.
The story overall is beautiful. I love the smooth changes in the characters. It was very hard for me to get through the violence with which the trainers treat the mermaids and the reasons they were stating, she’s only a fish, were completely dumb. Even if she would be only an animal or fish, it doesn’t matter you can hurt them for your own entertainment.
The thing I loved the most about this book is a presentation of the cruelty to animals/sea creatures in places like Oceanica. Even if the mermaids do not exist and this is just a fantasy book, I’m sure that animals are not treated better in places like this. I’m really grateful that the author touched on this subject since the subject seems a little bit forgotten.
Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I feel that this book deserves much more attention than it gets. It’s an amazing, well-written book that will make you forget about reality. I would like to thank NetGalley, Rebecca Enzor, and REUTS Publications for providing me with a copy of this book. I think that this book is joining the list of my favorite releases of 2020.
cafeyre 