...(book review) the surface breaks by louise o'neill

Deep beneath the cold, stormy sea, Gaia is a mermaid who dreams of freedom from her controlling father. On her first swim to the surface, she is drawn towards a human boy. Gaia longs to join his carefree world, but how much will she have to sacrifice? 

What will it take for the little mermaid to find her voice?

THE SURFACE BREAKS by Louise O'Neill
Published: 2018
Genre: YA Fantasy Fiction, Fairy Tale Reimagining
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was a fantastical, dark, feminist, and at times angry reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. The original story comes with its own streak of darkness: a mermaid who exchanges her voice for legs, upon which each step she takes feels like she walking on broken glass. But The Surface Breaks delves deeper, making the original concept seem mild by comparison. It painfully highlights what a women is capable of enduring, and pushing herself through. Gaia does not simply trade her voice, but consents to having her tongue grotesquely cut from her mouth, forever and irreversibly losing her means of speech, and song.

She trades her most treasured possession for a chance to escape her fathers tyranny, and live on land where she can be with the boy she assumes to be her true love. But as any non-fairytale dweller knows, love is tainted and imperfect and sometimes unrequited. Sometimes you can see a person through rose coloured glasses for so long that it blinds you to their true nature, disguising their many flaws.

"Do you know what it feels like to be comfortable in your own skin? Have you ever known?"

The blatant feminism in this book grabbed me by the throat and made me sit up and pay attention. I quickly realised that for Gaia, the tragedy of this story is not only losing her voice, but not feeling able to use it in a way that mattered when she still had it in her possession. Her world is controlled my men and their whims, both beneath the ocean and on land it seems. She doesn't stand up to them because she doesn't know she can. And when the realisation occurs, she no longer has the voice to do so.

It takes the juxtaposition of the Sea Witch to show her that there's another way to live. That a woman exists who isn't thin, silent or obedient to the will of men. She belongs to no one but herself. And she will rely on no one else to save her.

Living true is the most important things any woman can do.

It wasn't the writing or the characters that endeared me to the story. It was solely the message it sends. I encourage women and men alike to read this book. I think there is something to be gleamed from it, no matter who you are. It's thought provoking beyond words.

Let me know your thoughts if you do read The Surface Breaks, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks as always for reading. You can find me in between blogs on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Zuzu 🖋