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Summary
Summary
An award-winning author tells of a mermaid who leaves the sea in search of her landish mother in a captivating tale spun with beautiful prose, lush descriptions, empathy, and keen wit.
Blood calls to blood; charm calls to charm.
It is the way of the world.
Come close and tell us your dreams.
Sanna is a mermaid -- but she is only half seavish. The night of her birth, a sea-witch cast a spell that made Sanna's people, including her landish mother, forget how and where she was born. Now Sanna is sixteen and an outsider in the seavish matriarchy, and she is determined to find her mother and learn who she is. She apprentices herself to the witch to learn the magic of making and unmaking, and with a new pair of legs and a quest to complete for her teacher, she follows a clue that leads her ashore on the Thirty-Seven Dark Islands. There, as her fellow mermaids wait in the sea, Sanna stumbles into a wall of white roses thirsty for blood, a hardscrabble people hungry for miracles, and a baroness who will do anything to live forever.
From the author of the Michael L. Printz Honor Book The Kingdom of Little Wounds comes a gorgeously told tale of belonging, sacrifice, fear, hope, and mortality.
Author Notes
Susann Cokal is the author of The Kingdom of Little Wounds, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. Her work for adults include novels, short stories, and literary criticisms and has been widely published in literary journals and the New York Times Book Review. Susann Cokal lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--Sanna is a half-landish mermaid. When she was born, the witch who delivered her cast a spell to make people, including her mother, forget her birth. Longing to find her mother, and following the ancient riddle of the sea witch Sjeldent, Sanna finds herself at a town and castle run by the ageless Baroness Thryla, a witch who steals youth and power from people. Soon, she is betrothed to the witch's useless son, Peta. Narrators Jess Nahikian and Stina Nielsen do a good job of adding a mystical element to the characters' voices. The pacing matches well with the darker fantasy plot. The slightly monotone intonations in parts of the book, however, may disengage some listeners. VERDICT A good addition to library collections where fantasy, adventure, and strong female protagonists are popular.--Kira Moody, Salt Lake County Lib. Svcs.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This immersive retelling of "The Little Mermaid" follows Sanna, a half-landish mermaid who leaves her flok to seek her human mother. Advised by the ancient, riddle-tongued sea witch Sjældent, Sanna is bound for the castle ruled by ageless and unkind Baroness Thyrla, a witch who steals youth and power from others, even her infant children. When an accidental display of magic convinces the local priest and townsfolk that Sanna is a miracle worker, she finds herself betrothed to Thyrla's attractive but useless son, but she's no closer to finding her mother or securing the undefined treasure that Sjældent requires as payment. Juxtaposed against the patriarchal culture wherein Thyrla has amassed and maintained power (one in which rape and infanticide are common), Cokal (The Kingdom of Little Wounds) creates a well-developed matriarchal mermaid mythology in which women couple, bonded by love and respect, and men are largely unnecessary. Through several voices and richly detailed prose, these markedly different worlds overlap and diverge to impart a nuanced exploration of power, family, faith, and love. Ages 14--up. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Inkwell Management. (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
Printz Award honoree Cokal (The Kingdom of Little Wounds, 2013, etc.) switches from historical fiction to historical fantasy in this loose reinterpretation of Andersen's "The Little Mermaid."The Thirty-Seven Dark Islands, remote and Scandinavian, are prosperous and bustling. Ruled by the (uncannily) long-lived Baroness Thyrla, watched over by Our Lady of the Sea, an ostensibly Christian statue, this is a place where little changes until a mysterious girl comes ashore. Half-seavish Sanna has grown up a marreminde but longs to find her landish mother. She studied magic in order to form legs and search the land, directed by her flok's ancient witch. Literary writing stuffed with interesting if ancillary historical detail moves through several perspectives. Sanna, despite her strong magic and the narrative's centering of her quest for her mother, tends toward immense passivity; Thyrla, a wicked witch who has killed her own children to prolong her life, propels most of the plot, such as it is, and more time is spent in characters' heads than with their actions or interactions. Questions of power, vanity, and faith are raised, if not always resolved, making this a book suitable for deep reading although unlikely to have wide appeal. Other options trawl similar territory more effectively, particularly Elana K. Arnold's Damsel (2018) and Margo Lanagan's The Brides of Rollrock Island (2012). All characters are white; the mermaid society is bisexual by default.Intriguing if flawed. (historical note) (Historical fantasy. 13-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Sanna has never been quite like the other mermaids in her clan--she is not as strong a swimmer, and she sometimes struggles to breathe in the water. Eventually she comes to learn that this is because her mother was landish, not seavish, but the witch in her clan cast a spell to erase all memories of the circumstances of Sanna's birth. Determined to learn more, Sanna too becomes a student of magic, eventually creating a pair of legs for herself. But on the Thirty-Seven Dark Islands she finds a baroness with dark magics of her own, a man ripe for love, and a community searching for a saint. This gorgeously designed, lushly written offering from Printz Honor winner Cokal (The Kingdom of Little Wounds, 2013), which builds upon the themes of The Little Mermaid, explores how femininity manifests in Sanna's matriarchal society and outside of it. Told by a vast chorus of voices, this is a rich and stunning story that dives to startling depths, and literary teens will savor it.