Mermaid Moon by Susann Cokal is basically the story of a seavish girl (a mermaid) learning to transform into a human in order to go onshore and find her mother. If that had been the extent of the story, it would have been so, so good.
The book begins with a terribly descriptive birthing scene; the content (see details below) and themes/messages didn’t improve from there. Much of the story felt like it was used to explain explicit differences between mermaids and humans (primarily, how each species engaged in sex). It would have been preferable for the novel to focus on its wonderful, initial story premise.
The use and portrayal of the Catholic Faith in this book was the biggest turn-off. The depiction of the services in this story as traditional babbling of magic were inaccurate and disrespectful; the representation of the villagers and the priest exasperating and hurtful. Perhaps if a non-Catholic had read this book, they might have liked it better. For me, the amount of content and the depiction of Catholicism was insufferable.
I give it two stars for lovely language and some really complex, interesting worldbuilding. I just wish it had been entirely fantasy and didn’t try to marry fantasy with real life.
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Candlewick
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 4 mild obscenities; 3 derogatory names; 1 scatological word; 2 anatomical terms.
Violence/Gore: Many instances of violence and gore, including but not limited to: A girl suffers explicit birthing pains; graphic and descriptive mature scene of childbirth; a character falls and is cut by rose thorns; a girl is mobbed by a crowd; characters eat live jellyfish; report of luring people to death; a woman taunts a girl with religion; a woman coughs up a lizard and later smashes it to death with her shoe; characters are swarmed and attacked by bees; report of a death; a character harvests bones of friends and family for magic; a character has an evil eye; report of mermaids luring sailors to their doom and letting them drown; report of a character losing an arm through misused magic; a character learns how to heal by taking “harm” into herself; a seawitch chews and eats whatever sea-life she finds on herself; characters stampede a house; a character is reported to have lost his hands; a man hurts his ankle; a characters mocks martyrs; a character is a prisoner; a character is a murderer; a character kills infants to steal their youth; a boy vomits; a character is suffocated to death; a character smashes bones; characters are called by siren song and many characters are drowned; a character breaks free of a prison; a character attacks a villain; a character is accused of killing someone; a character is tricked by someone she trusted; a character burns a witch; a boy wakens in pain; report of a person being evil; a character dies.
Sex/Nudity: Many instances of sex and nudity, including but not limited to: A girl goes into labor; memory of a lover and having sex; a character’s legs are spread apart preparatory to birthing; a woman feels inside another woman to check on a baby’s position during childbirth; a mermaid likes to admire her breasts; mention of a man being a seducer; a boy has thoughts about making a girl fall in love; a woman warns a boy against lewd jokes; mention of impending marriage, and a boy who likes to “buss and tumble” girls; mention of boys and girls loving each other on land; a girl’s clothes are removed so thorns can be plucked from her skin; a girl lies naked on a bed while a maid pulls out thorns; seagirls choose other seagirls as mates; talk of sex positions and a man being in every girl in town; a girl lies naked and alone in a bedroom; mention of all manner of “love,” straight, gay, seavish and landish; mention of “breeding” a girl with a boy; report of all landish men ravishing captured mermaids; a mermaid learns to move her “stuff and nonsense” from her belly to between her legs; a mermaid desires to travel to her mermaid love; description of sex between merman and woman (skipped); extremely descriptive description of a man kissing a woman; a mermaid uses a comb to scratch beneath her naked bosom; a mermaid frequently yearns for her female lover; a man plans to have pleasure with a woman later; image of a girl birthing a fish; a girl allows a brutish kiss to continue, which continues for a lengthy time and almost turns into sex (skipped a bit); a girl sings a love song about her girlfriend; many reminders of how landish men “always” like to ravish seavish girls; mermaids make love; a priest feels a stirring for a woman; discussion of marriage and not marrying until you’re sure; characters laugh over talks about chastity; report of a girl having a baby out of wedlock; a nasty old seawitch peels the clothes off a dead boy for weird magic reasons (skipped – abundant nakedness and perversion); report of a moment after birth when a child is given to a woman with seavish milk, and a woman works on closing a birthing wound; characters fight over a naked body; a girl transforms from a mermaid to a human and walks naked through a village, while villagers look out at her (skipped most of this scene); a boy holds a girl who is naked; a girl is in love with a boy; a girl’s makeshift robe slips from her shoulders and breasts.
Mature Subject Matter:
Religious conflicts; death of a family member; separation; mention of rape; verbal child abuse; homosexual/gender/sex identity issues; murder; male seducer.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
A character clutches a cupful of mead; characters drink wine; a woman drinks mead; mention of drunks in a church; character is called a drunkard; a woman says someone won’t find answers in the bottom of a beer cup; a woman pours wine for another; a man has beer; men drink at a bachelor party; mention of a character brewing mean; man drinks wine; a man regrets indulging in wine; a man smells of beer.
