The Mermaid's Daughter

A Novel

By: Ann Claycomb

Narrated by: Shannon McManus, Alana Kerr Collins, Suzan Crowley, Dominic Keating

A modern-day expansion of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, this unforgettable debut novel weaves a spellbinding tale of magic and the power of love as a descendent of the original mermaid fights the terrible price of saving herself from a curse that has affected generations of women in her family.

Kathleen has always been dramatic. She suffers from the bizarre malady of experiencing stabbing pain in her feet. On her 16th birthday, she woke screaming from the sensation that her tongue had been cut out. No doctor can find a medical explanation for her pain, and even the most powerful drugs have proven useless. Only the touch of seawater can ease her pain, and just temporarily at that.

Now Kathleen is a 25-year-old opera student in Boston and shows immense promise as a soprano. Her girlfriend, Harry, a mezzo in the same program, worries endlessly about Kathleen's phantom pain and obsession with the sea. Kathleen's mother and grandmother both committed suicide as young women, and Harry worries they suffered from the same symptoms. When Kathleen suffers yet another dangerous breakdown, Harry convinces Kathleen to visit her hometown in Ireland to learn more about her family history.

In Ireland, they discover that the mystery - and the tragedy - of Kathleen's family history is far older and stranger than they could have imagined. Kathleen's fate seems sealed, and the only way out is a terrible choice between a mermaid's two sirens - the sea and her lover. But both choices mean death.

Haunting and lyrical, The Mermaid's Daughter asks: How far we will go for those we love? And can the transformative power of music overcome a magic that has prevailed for generations?

©2017 Ann Claycomb (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

GREAT STORY!

This love story is filled with mystery, intrigue, love, & folklore. I loved it! Great read.

Deserved a massive trigger warning but otherwise good

The story was compelling and unique. It was very well written. The performance was great, though the man lilting his way through the women's songs in the opera near the end was a little odd. But this book should have had trigger warnings for suicidal thoughts and ideation, as well as time spent in a mental hospital and medical trauma all over it. Sexual assault and rape mentions, too. There's a brief mention in the description of Kathleen's "breakdown" but nothing warning readers not to proceed if they are heavily triggered by what I mentioned above. Medical trauma like this is not some trivial thing to throw in for shock value. Trigger warnings exist to warn people with serious mental health conditions that they may suffer if they proceed. I would never have purchased this if I'd known how badly it would trigger my ptsd. If any of the above trigger you, please buy something else because the story is filled to the brim with them.

A slow and beautiful story

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to finish it...but then I began to fall in love with one of my old favorite stories that I've known since I was a child, but told from a different perspective. The new twist on this old tale made me fall in love with the characters. At times the characters annoyed and frustrated me but taking a step back I learned to appreciate them.

If you have an appreciation for classic tales, music and a bit of operatic drama, this is definitely a good listen/read.

One of my favorites

I listen to a lot of audio books, and sometimes struggle to really get into the story. I had no issues with this story, I didn't want to turn it off. I was very impressed with Ann Claycomb's interpretation of the Little Mermaid story, and I really loved her book. I recommend it highly.

Great premise, cop-out ending

SPOILERS! I love the premise of this book, seven generations of a curse that none were willing to pay the price to break. The sea witches narrating chapters were really cool too. Unfortunately, I did not like the changing perspectives. Hearing from Harry and Robin didn’t give the reader much insight that we wouldn’t already know from the main character’s point of view. It pulled me out of the story. I feel like more of the book was outside the main characters POV than in it. I wish it would’ve stayed in her POV more, especially during the really important parts of the story like the ending and the cave scene.

The writing was really good and it was a hard book to put down because of it. The tie ins to music were very creative and honestly taught me things about opera that I didn’t know. I loved the symbolism throughout the book.

(SPOILERS ON THE ENDING!) The ending was my least favorite part, though. It felt like a complete cop-out. Like all these women that came before Cathleen died for nothing when it would’ve been as simple as pretending to stab their lover? What happened to the blood having to cover her feet?

All in all the writing was good, the story was good, the execution...not so much.

Creative &artistic retelling w/ modern perspective

Really enjoyed hearing this take on the little mermaid story. The perspective was realistic and modern, riddled with questionable mental illness and some disbelief from the people around her. The focal point was on the human side of things, and the main characters personal story, rather than the mythical mystery surrounding mermaids in the real world. Although, I would have preferred a bit more detail regarding the mermaid lore, and magic surrounding the knife. A greater hint at the origins of the witches would have been fun too. The entirety of the main characters respond in a bit of a poetic way, and descriptions are very artistic. The performance was.. interesting. I really liked that there were multiple voice actors. The actor that plays Robin should definitely not have half sung the opera lyrics.

Hans Christen Anderson slutshames Little mermaid!

Honestly, I desperately wanted to like this. It has all the elements of something I would like: a lesbian restructured fairytale! Mermaids! Sea witches! Tons of drama! But I just didn't enjoy this book at all. The main idea of the story was great, the fairy tale curse was fascinating but the characters were hard to like and the main character was hard to feel anything for.

And the last section of the book is literally about Hans Christen Anderson slutshaming the Little mermaid because she friend zoned him - a sentence I would have happily never had to write.

Only one thing I didn't like

I loved this book from start to almost finish. I cried at how beautifully the story was told. My only problem was this:
Spoilers?! :
The end of Kathleen's story is beautiful and heartbreaking. I thought it would end with Kathleen, but it didnt. As soon as the last chapter of her story ended, it immediately plunged into a short bit of Fand's story. Not even from her point of view. It was abrupt, startling and didnt allow for a proper grieving period for Kathleen's story.
I wish there was a pause between these two chapters. I ended up angry at the book at the end because of the abruptness. Anyway.
Just pause it after the last chapter of Kathleen's story is my recommendation lol.

A Story We've Needed for a Long, Long Time

While I may not always like the protagonist 100 (though constantly being in searing pain can do that to you), I freaking LOVED this story. It's about singers and mermaids and seal-folk and magic and outside of Clive Barker's "Imagica," is the first book I've read in a long, loooong time that had an LGBTQ love interest. (Let alone *gasp* a lesbian one!!) ♥♥♥ This was BEAUTIFULLY & powerfully written, and the retelling/continuation of a beloved classic was deeply wonderful. The writing style where magical elements were directly experienced, expressed n' encountered were particularly beautifully crafted, with poignant, shining, illustrative moments that I just wanted to go on and on and on. The love story was artfully and beautifully told, the characters wonderful and tangible, and overall, I positively freaking LOVED this book. (Getting an especial giggle that by the end of the story the lead voice actor was having trouble NOT speaking in an Irish accent. ;)) I want to hear MORE about the magical folk in this author's underwater realm.. to hear MORE about Kathleen, the witches n' the selchies' adventures under the sea! ^_^ Every time the author wrote about these elements the writing style was just.. perfection. Like pure poetry, disguised as "regular" prose. ♥♥♥ And I'm still rooting for her and Harry. ♥♥

The only thing I'd change about this novel would be putting the HCA story/postscript about Fand at the -beginning- of the book, rather than the end. It'd make the rest of the story make a lot more sense, feel more real, & offer a firmer, more linear history that would take us more relatably from the past to the present. In other words, it'd give the reader a better foundation for the reader to grok the main, present-day portion of the story IMO,while lending a more tangible, relatable insight into Kathleen's world- in all senses of the word. :) Plus, it'd give Kathleen's ending a nice finishing touch to the book, that the reader could savor and ruminate on cherishingly, once the story was over. :)

But that's just me. :) And no matter its structure, I still LOVED this book. The magical flavor, the creativity in exploring the underwater denizens & mythos, the nod/s to chronic illness, the capturing of the singing/theatrical world, the queer main cast.. I just.. loved it. Thank you, to the author, the marvelous narrators, and everyone who helped make this new take on an old story come alive. ♥♥♥

Captivating and musical

This was a great story and if you enjoy music especially operas or are a singer it is even better.