BOOK REVIEW: THE DROWNING WORLD BY BRENDA PETERSON
OK, before you start even reading, this is a book about Mermaids. If you, like me, are not a fan of Mermaids, you are going to struggle with getting into this book. Usually, I read young adult novels because I write young adult novels and I am very picky with what I choose to read for the simple fact that most of them follow a certain blueprint. There are just so many ways you can tell the same story over and over again, so I thought I’d step out of my comfort zone and read something that I was not too familiar with, nor was I normally drawn to. This is that book! Surprisingly, I enjoyed it.
It’s not to say that I am Mermaid prejudice. I mean, I didn’t grow up in a bubble and I could not miss the success train that The Little Mermaid was. But singing and dancing under the sea was just not my cup of tea; especially with talking crabs and pretty fish. I did however appreciate the love story elements of Ariel and the dashing hero. Thankfully, in Brenda Peterson’s novel (the first in a series) there are neither dancing crabs nor singing dolphins. There are however, talking dolphins and turtles. Peterson excelled at creating a world all her own (Aquantis) where Mer-people dwell and utilize fancy technology to navigate the sea and communicate. I appreciated her attention to detail, even down to the telepathic form of communication and tattooing. The Drowning World tells a story of future Earth in which Hurricanes have a finally put a butt whipping on the entire Eastern Sea Coast of the USA and a young Mermaid named Marina ventures on to dry land and befriends and young boy named Lukas.
Over time, she brings him to her home world of Aquantis, where he finds out that he too has special abilities. Without spoiling it for you, they are unknowingly flung through a whirl pool/worm whole ten years in the future where Lukas is in a desperate search to find his father and return back through the whole. There’s a couple of love triangles to keep the reader involved along the way, as well as some small action scenes.
As a writer, there’s nothing like playing in your own fictional world and Peterson flexes her imaginative muscle, enough to keep me interested. The problem is I felt more drawn to the environment, technology and elements, rather than the characters. Peterson switches POV from Marina and Lukas from a first person perspective and while she nailed Marina, I found it hard to distinguish between Lukas and her. Gender references like calling other characters handsome just didn’t come off too believable. Sometimes the conversations came off a little stiff and scripted. The ending of the book leaves it wide open for the sequel and I’m sure that as the series progresses, there will be time to dive more into the psyche of each character. If you are a huge fan of marine life and love stories, you need to grab this one quick. If not, there is still much to be found beneath the sea in The Drowning World. I give it a 3.5/5 Stars.