Genera: Fantasy/Paranormal
Subjects: Mermaids, supernatural, ocean, magic, war,
California
Age/Grade Level: 12 and up
Length: 471 pgs.
HC/PB: Hardcover
List Price: $16.99
Publisher: HMH: Harcourt
Summary/ product description: “Mermaids have been
sinking ships and drowning humans for centuries, and now the government is
determined to put an end to the mermaid problem—by slaughtering all of them.
Luce, a mermaid with exceptionally threatening abilities, becomes their
number-one target, hunted as she flees down the coast toward San Francisco.
There she finds hundreds of mermaids living in exile under the docks of the bay. These are the Twice Lost: once-human girls lost first when a trauma turned them into mermaids, and lost a second time when they broke mermaid law and were rejected by their tribes. Luce is stunned when they elect her as their leader. But she won’t be their queen. She’ll be their general. And they will become the Twice Lost Army—because this is war.”
There she finds hundreds of mermaids living in exile under the docks of the bay. These are the Twice Lost: once-human girls lost first when a trauma turned them into mermaids, and lost a second time when they broke mermaid law and were rejected by their tribes. Luce is stunned when they elect her as their leader. But she won’t be their queen. She’ll be their general. And they will become the Twice Lost Army—because this is war.”
My Review: Almost as good as the 2nd book,
but not quite. I enjoyed this well-written conclusion, even though there were
some slow parts. The 1st book, Lost Voices, I didn’t really like,
and Waking Storm was so much better. This has the awesome things that were in
Waking Storms, but this book was longer.
Mixing magic and mermaids with government and
sci-fi-like stuff made for a pretty cool stories. Now that humans have learned
of the existence of mermaids, Luce wants to make peace. And she comes up with a
crazy-big wave blockade. And that get attention from the media, so Luce ends up
on the news. This kind of makes me think of Mermaids: The Body Found, except
these mermaids became mermaids because of abuse or devastation. Mermaids capturing
the public’s attention.
Luce taught other mermaids known as the Twice Lost how
to control water. It’s really cool what they can do with their voice. There are
so action-packed parts, but still the book felt slow. Not fast paced at all.
And the dialog was kind of immature, which makes sense for the younger girls. I
feel like this series is more for 12-14 year old girls that 15 and up. Luce
being only 13 herself, there’s only a little romance between her and Dorian. He’s
not really around for most of the book.
Still, this book is beautifully written. The words as
poetic, lyrical, and full of “lush” descriptions. It’s really easy to picture
the ocean scenery or even just the setting of San Francisco. A lot of the book
takes place near the Golden Gate Bridge. I’ve never even been to Cali, but I’ve
watched a ton of movies and shows set there, so I do know how it looks. Foggy
and all.
There are new characters (The Twice Lost Army) such as
Yuan and Imani. There’s old characters, like Anais and Catarina. I definitely think
Luce and Cat has a “womance” (sisterly love). They get mad at each other, but
care about each other. We get to see other character’s perspective. The head
jumping is not annoying in this book, because it’s 3rd-person
limited when it does jump perspective.
The conclusion was satisfying, but I kind of wish
there was more. I wanted to know what Luce would do. There was no epilogue, or
after-the-fact. Peace was made, but how long would it last?
Cover Art Review: The best cover out of the whole
series. The mermaids are actually beautiful here but look older than the
characters. The top one looks Asian, like one of the new mermaid Luce meets. I
love the wave patterns and the hand-rendered script title. And it’s metallic
and shiny.
