Hi guys. I'm Trina and this is my book
review for The Seafarer's Kiss by Julia
Ember. I was sent an early copy of this
book by the author in exchange for an
honest review and this book is coming
out on May 4th. I'm going to be telling
you my review, what I liked, what I
disliked about it, and I hope that I will
also be able to let you guys know if
this is a book that you will enjoy or
not based on some of the themes and
tropes that are included in it. As for what
this book is about, this is a Norse
mythology inspired retelling of The
Little Mermaid and we are following a
main character who in a mermaid. She
lives in this underwater mer-kingdom
that expects her to mate with this
merman that she's been best friends with
ever since they were kids, but she isn't
really interested in the life that they
have planned out for her. She's much more
interested in the human world and one
day as she is exploring the site of a
shipwreck, she comes across a human girl
who has survived and she ends up falling
in love with this human girl instead of
the merboy that she was expected to
partner up with. So this main character
is bisexual and that is #ownvoices
representation. Some other things that
are represented in this book are that
the main character is also fat, and we
have a side character who is non-binary
who uses they/them pronouns all throughout
the book. Before I get into my review I am
going to give a trigger warning for both
the book and this video as to some
content that is included in the book
that I will be discussing. This book does
portray violence in a romantic
relationship. I do want to discuss that
a little bit later in this video but I'm
going to do it without spoilers. I'll
tell you like what happened but I don't
want to give you like a lot of the
background on it or why it happened
because I definitely want this video to
be non-spoiler since the book isn't out
yet and I really want to help you guys
decide if this is one that you want to read
or not. I rated this book three and a
half stars, and what that means to me is
that there was a lot that I really liked
about this book and overall I think of
it pretty positively, but there was that
one aspect of the violence in the
romantic relationship that really knocked a
star and half off of my rating. I have
had about two weeks since finishing this
book to really reflect on my feelings on
that and I just am not happy with that
portrayal in this book so that did
affect my enjoyment of the story overall.
I'm not trying to like trash the book or
discourage you from picking it up, so I'm
actually going to move in now to some of
the things that I really liked.
I loved this book as a Little
Mermaid retelling. It is so true to the
original story because everything that
happens you can see how it parallels to
the original tale, but this book twists
the retelling. It is actually told from a
totally different angle that I was not
expecting going in - I think it's probably
pretty obvious but I didn't expect it -
and I absolutely loved it! And because it
is inspired by Norse mythology it just
felt so new and refreshing. This one just
excels as a retelling in my opinion
because it's very loyal but it also has
room for surprises. I also really love
that this with a TRUE mermaid story. This
isn't a retelling that like turns it
into a YA contemporary, or like
envisions the Ariel character as a
human, or gives her legs every summer,
and stuff like that. I don't like that.
I like mermaids! And this is a real mermaid
underwater setting and these mermaids
had scales, and tails, and gills so this
was like the mermaid story of my dreams. I
have been pretty unsatisfied with all the
other Little Mermaid retellings that I
have tried. This one definitely will fit
that for you. If you're looking for a
Little Mermaid retelling I would
DEFINTELY recommend this book. It
definitely did that part so well. The
story itself was also very fast paced
and action packed. This is a very
short book and a lot happens and I
really appreciated that once I had like
a small adjustment period to get into
the story and then it just like grabbed
me and did not let go. So it was a very
fun and engaging experience.
Something about this book that I
appreciated but didn't know if it was
done to the best of its ability is that
in the society there is kind of a
dystopian feel and this is a society
that values fertility of the mermaids.
They are all expected to mate, to lay
eggs, raise eggs. And some pretty harmful
words such as "broken" and "damaged" are
used to describe the mermaids who either
don't want to reproduce or they can't
reproduce, and that's a very sensitive
topic so has up to that. However, I did
feel like this story was trying to
challenge that idea very heavily. They
were trying to get out of that way of
thinking and it did show it as bad.
I loved that the book was taking on a sexist
culture and I definitely think that is
something that I would like to see more
of in YA books. The reason that I say I
felt kind of iffy about this element of
the story is because it's such a short
book that I didn't feel like there was
enough time able to be spent on that
topic. Like you really had a couple of
lines about it and that was it. I do
think it would have benefited the
message and the intent if a little bit
more time had been spent discussing that
because just seeing a world where women
are called broken and damaged if they
don't want to or can't reproduce, that's
pretty harmful. And so for there not to
be a lot of time spent on challenging
that, you may end up coming away from the
book just being upset by that portrayal.
So now I'm going to move into my
discussion about the abuse that was
present in this relationship. So actually,
there is a love triangle in this story
and I don't think it's very strong love
triangle. I really think only one side of
it is ever built up as a relationship.
But all three of the characters in that
love triangle are violent towards each
other within the book. Since I received an
early copy of this book then I know that
it's subject to change, so I'm not
going to read you the quote word for
word because it may not be included in
the final copy of this book - even though
I think I have a finished copy - but that
also would give you a spoiler for
something else that happens so I'm not
going to quote it for you but the main
thing that I have issue with took place on
page 191. The two characters in the main
romantic pairing get into an argument
and they punch each other IN THE FACE.
I'm not even kidding. I'm not exaggerating.
They literally punch each other in the face.
This behavior was barely addressed, it was never challenged,
and the romantic relationship went on to
grow stronger from there, AND a few pages
later I felt that these characters were
being aggressive towards each other
again - though not in a punch you in the face
kind of way. The very brief way in which
this was addressed was that you had one
of the characters saying, "I shouldn't have done that,"
and the other character says, "I won't do that again."
I don't believe that this is addressed enough because even if
you look on like real life domestic
violence websites you will see that ONE
incident of violence in a relationship
is a red flag for an abusive
relationship, and habitual abusers often
promise that they won't do it again or
they know it's wrong, and they still keep
doing it again. Like I said, the third
character in this love triangle was also
abusive. He grabs, shakes, and pushes the
main character and then he literally
tries to kill the love interest. So yeah,
all three of the people in this romantic
pairing/trio were violent towards each
other and I didn't like it. As far as the
two female characters, I do want to say I
don't feel like either one of them are
abusers, they weren't manipulating each
other, there wasn't a power imbalance, so
you know, I'm not sitting here trying to
say "this is an abusive relationship" but
it does show a sign OF abuse that is not
addressed, that serves no purpose, that
could have been written out and the book,
and the story, and these characters would
not have suffered in any way. It didn't
need to be there and I feel like there
are a million other ways to write your
characters having conflict or even
having hot tempers without actually
making them punch their romantic partner
in the face. That is not okay. And I have
not seen any of the early reviews for
this book pointing that out so that's
one of the reasons why I am pointing it
out, because I know that I do have
viewers who are younger viewers and
they're concerned with the content in
the books they're reading, or I have
viewers who are parents of younger
readers and they're concerned with
the content in the books that they're
letting their kids read, and I have viewers
that watch my channel who are survivors
of an abusive relationship and this
would be very triggering for them. So if
that something that is sensitive to
you, if it will be triggering to you, if you
don't want to read about it, that is
included in this book. For those of
you who are just stumbling upon this
video, if you aren't familiar with me or
my channel, I have lived through an
abusive relationship in my past. It was
an emotionally abusive one, not
physically abusive, but this is something
that I point out a lot in my book
reviews because I have real life
experience with that. Even though I
really loved so much about this book I'm
not going to let it slide on the
physical abuse when it's something that
I've been pointing out and a lot of the
other book reviews that I make.
The reason that this violent act in The
Seafarer's Kiss is a concern to me is because the
main character is a teenager and this
book is, so far that I can see, it's being
marketed as a young adult book. There are
readers on the younger end of the YA
spectrum or even younger than YA who
are going to pick this book up who are
still developing their ideas on what
romance and relationships should be like.
So when they read a book that has a very
heavily romantic theme to it and the two
romantic partners are punching each
other in the face, barely addressing it,
going on to be aggressive again, and the
relationship just grows from there,
that's where it becomes a concern for me
and a lot of other readers. I definitely
don't think this book showed that action in a bad enough light.
To me it was a problematic
relationship and I could not get behind
it, and because so much of the main plot
and our main character's motivations were
driven by this romance, if you don't
support the relationship it's so
prevalent in the story it's going to
affect whether or not you enjoy the
story most likely. So with all of that said, I
know that I really disliked that one
part and I did want to discuss it and
bring it to your attention, but that does
not erase or negate the positive things
about this book. This book does have that
bi representation and I definitely think
that if you're looking for #ownvoices bi
representation of a female/female
relationship, this is probably a book
that you would really enjoy and I would
definitely recommend it to you as that.
I would also highly recommend this book
to you as a Little Mermaid retelling. I
just think it was excellent as a
retelling in terms of the story. However,
I just, I'm not going to recommend this
book as a romance. Like, there are so many
other better examples of romances out
there of even female/female bisexual
romances that don't involve any sorts of
abuse. One that I can think of off the
top of my head was Of Fire and Stars by
Audrey Colthurst. The stories are very
different but it does also show a
bisexual female/female relationship (#ownvoices)
about two princesses that fall in love
and I didn't find that relationship to
be problematic in that book. So in the
end, do I think that you would like this
book? If you like Norse mythology, if
you're looking for #ownvoices bi
representation, if you're looking for fat
representation, if you're looking for a
Little Mermaid retelling, if you love
mermaids, and you like fast-paced fantasy
stories I think you would enjoy this
book. On the other hand, if you're going
to be triggered by women's worth being
defined by their fertility or violence
in a romantic relationship, this might be
one that you want to skip. This book also
includes the tropes of the love triangle
and the not like other girls trope and if
either of those are tropes that you just
can't stand reading about then you may
not enjoy this story. But for what it's
worth, like I said, I felt if the love
triangle was very weak, and I felt that
the not like other girls trope was
challenged, but I hope that that gives
you an idea of whether or not you will
enjoy this book. So those are all my
thoughts on The Seafarer's Kiss by
Julia Ember. As you can tell I had quite
mixed opinions on this book. I did not
enjoy the relationship in it at all
because of that moment of violence but
then again this is one of my favorite
Little Mermaid retellings I have ever
read. So there's good and bad about this book
and I hope that this video has helped
you determine if it's one that you want to pick up or not.
If you have already read this one early I would
love to discuss it with you further in
the comments and if you're looking
forward to it I would love to know that
as well. Thank you guys so much for
watching and I will see you in the comments. Bye!
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