One More Review

I’m away from home so I have more time to read, so here’s one more book review.

I read Prospero’s Children by Jan Siegel because I thought it had mermaids in it. I love mermaids. Not the Disney kind. The sort I admire are real mermaids: wild, capricious, raw fish eating, dangerous creatures. Not long ago I found a painting of a real mermaid in an antique shop (thanks Mar). She (the mermaid not my friend Mar although she could do the come hither thing if she wanted to) is laying languorously on a beach with a tray of fish bones. And two glasses of wine. Two. There is no one else there. Anymore. You get the idea. So this book intrigued me, and the mermaids did not disappoint…they even had poisonous spines! And the explanation of how mermaids came to be was unique and very well done. I just wish there had been more, because the story really wasn’t about them.

But that’s OK, because the book was fabulous. Ms. Siegle weaves an atmosphere of miasma better than anyone I’ve read in a long time; the teenage angst was represented here as almost alien…that one actually changes into something else, something alien, something not quite human on the way to adulthood. Very much like the mermaid.

I also love how well this author represents a very famous city which I will not name for those who do want to read it…part of the surprise. And the way she wraps the beginning into the ending was extremely well done. And the setting…ah. Just the way I like ‘em, full, magical, dreamy, and absolutely swept me away.

There are more in this series and I will be reading them. Sigh. I do love when I find a new author.