Review: The Prince and the Sea Witch
You've heard of the "not like other girls" trope, but what about "not like other mermaids?" Briony starts her journey as a naive young mermaid in training for her first feast with little understanding of what that feast entails aside from what she learned in her classes with her elders. When she realizes that her mer-sisters are heartless sirens who suck out the souls of helpless sailors to keep themselves young, healthy, and beautiful, she decides that life is not for her. She swims to a secluded part of the ocean and becomes a recluse who practices magic and avoids hurting innocent people. Vicious rumors begin to spread about her among the merfolk for not participating in their deadly games. One day, she finds a human man who somehow escaped the clutches of the siren song and brings him safely to shore.
This book takes a daring risk by turning the beloved character of the little mermaid into an ignorant villainous monster who uses men for her own selfish desires. Stories that turn villains into heroes must sometimes make the original protagonist evil in order to make the villain more sympathetic, and this is one of those times. When Lyra asks Briony to turn her into a human so she can convince Prince Harlan to marry her, it is only with the intention of sharing his soul so she can live forever. She has no concept or understanding of what love is. How could she when the only thing she was ever knew was how to kill? I have mixed feelings about Lyra having no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It makes Briony's decisions easy to justify and relate to, but I think it would have been more interesting if both Lyra and Briony believed that they were doing the right thing for different reasons.
Conversely, Briony is a perfect angel. It is no wonder that Harlan falls in love with her. He enlists her services to stop the sirens forever, and she is all too eager to turn on her own kind for the sake of the humans. Her lack of ties to any of the other mermaids gives her no reason to feel remorse. The sirens only become eviler as the story goes on, blindly supporting Lyra's greed until the very end. I liked Briony enough since she gave no reason not to like her, but it would have been nice for her to have a dark side to balance out all of her light like many of the other villains from these adaptations do. However, it's hard to complain about the lack of overall nuance when the book was such a quick, easy, and pleasant read.
I'm glad A Villain's Ever After included an adaptation of my favorite fairy tale and that it was written by my favorite fairy tale author. It offers a fresh and unique perspective on "The Little Mermaid" with a unique twist that follows the original Greek mythology of mermaid lore to explore how different the story could have been if the mermaids were wicked sirens. The love story was cute and well-paced, especially for such a short book. If you enjoyed this story, you can also check out my adaptation, Of Land and Sea: The Untold Story of The Little Mermaid, on Amazon, in which I also explore this beloved fairy tale from alternative perspectives.
Comments
Thanks for the recommendation! It sounds similar to the book I wrote, Of Land and Sea. I've also been told that Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon has a similar story, but the ebook is on the expensive side. My friend said she liked mine better. She might be a little prejudice. ;)