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Kim
Rating:
Review
I bought this book at an event in Tempe, Arizona after being blown away by Ms. Hunt’s reading. She was one of five first-time novelists touring independent bookstores to promote their books, and for the meager 10 minutes she read her own words, I was captivated. I was less enthralled when I read her words. The nameless narrator is a 19 year-old girl, living in a small town on the East Coast, who’s life revolves around the ocean. She swears her father is coming back any day, even though he “walked into the water” 11 years ago. She is in love with a destructive, older man, Jude, a Desert Storm vet with a drinking problem. And she thinks she’s a mermaid. This book is just too weird. I can handle, and very much appreciate a little weird, but this book is …way out there. The entire time I wasted reading this book, I kept thinking of Catcher in the Rye, another jewel that often left me wondering what was real and what was psychosis. I was disappointed in this book, to say the least. I would probably give Ms. Hunt a second chance though, since meeting her was such a treat.
Best Line:
“Still somehow I manage to walk through our house and think that we aren’t trash.”
Jennifer
Rating:
Review
_______ (what is her name?) is an extremely delusional main character who thinks she is a mermaid. She lives in a small town by the sea that is marked by its extremely high rate of alcoholism and despair. ______ is in love with Jude, a war veteran who has many issues himself. He’s quite a bit older than ____ and likes to have affairs with as many women in town as possible. This only adds to _______’s despair, misconceptions about her life, and her ability to escape the small town she lives in. This is Samantha Hunt’s first novel, and I had the pleasure of hearing her read from this novel. She read it as hauntingly and strangely as the book was written. While I don’t think the book was particularly great, I think it is a worthy read and I look forward to reading her next novel.
Best Line:
________ is talking to an imagined character, King Neptune from the sea. “He turns and looks at me. His eyes are just as pale as mine. “You don’t get a choice, he says. “There’s only one type of mermaid, he says and then, “Don’t forget that the ocean is full of everything except mercy.” The author of this book certainly seems to believe this.
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