Review: The Mermaid's Madness

The Mermaid's Madness by Jim C. Hines
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had read Hine's Stepsister book a few years ago and remembered liking it so picked this one up when it came across my path.
I don't know what it was but I kept having to restart it. I just couldn't get into the first 10 pages. I finally just skipped towards the end of the first chapter and that seemed to do it.

Major Warning:
Although this book has it's funny moments, Hines is using old school fairytales as his foundation, thus there are a lot of references to past sexual assault, different kinds of abuse, etc of the main characters. If reading that might be hard or triggering for you I suggest perhaps looking for something else. That said, the instances are treated well, but it makes it hard to read some parts.

And perhaps that's the main thing that makes this book difficult to read, you can't fault the Mermaid for trying to get some kind of revenge even as it effects the main characters. Once you get through the first 2 or so chapters the pace picks up and the story moves pretty quickly, almost to the point to leave you breathless. It's like the story equivalent of ripping off a Band-Aid. An approach that works well for the subject matter.

We learn a bit more about the back stories of the main characters, Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, and most of it is Grim like the writers and the subjects. Sometimes the humor hit at weird times that made scenes feel weird even as it was trying to lighten the mood. Hines makes a very good attempt overall of dealing with some pretty intense issues without letting the story slide into a super depressing realm, but there were parts that were still difficult to get through.

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