The Mermaid’s Madness

The Mermaid’s Madness (2009) Jim C. Hines

I thoroughly enjoyed The Stepsister Scheme, and so was looking forward to reading The Mermaid’s Madness. Snow (Snow White) and Talia (Sleeping Beauty) are again helping Danielle (Cinderella), this time to deal with a mermaid who has gone mad (hence the title). The mermaid in question is of Hans Christian Anderson’s tale, “The Little Mermaid” if you’re looking for the roots of the story.

As with the first story, we learn a little more about the pasts of Talia and Snow, and of course there is the take off on “The Little Mermaid”, and the characters are complex and multi-dimensional, with their own quirks and faults, so there was plenty there for me to like.

Except that I simply had a hard time getting through the story. In fact, I put the book down for more than a month, grabbed it to take to an appointment, and was going to put it back down for something else when I realized I was almost finished with the book.

It’s not like a hated the book or the story, I just found myself having a hard time caring what happened. It’s possible I would have preferred another main character for the story–Danielle is perhaps too nice and too good. Snow and Talia seemed to have far more interesting stories, so the focus on what Danielle’s growth and maturity into her position as princess was just not fascinating.

And for some reason, the mermaid portion of the story never really grabbed my attention. There weren’t any gaping flaws or errors or anything that threw me out of the story, but it also seemed to lack the certain something that grabs me and keeps me in the story. Perhaps it’s because I have not had much interest in high adventure fantasy recently–I used to love it, but in recent years, it’s done nothing for me.

So, for me, a disappointing continuation of the series, bust I still recommend going back and reading The Step Sister Scheme.
Rating: 6/10

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