Mermaid's Song

Dark Sea Academy, Book 1

By: Stacy Claflin

Narrated by: Tina Wolstencroft

My life as I know it is over.

And no, I'm not being dramatic. I've been living as a human, but now I have to return to my mermaid roots because my dad is the new king of Valora. As soon as we arrive, he sends me to the Dark Sea Academy. Whispers and glares greet me at every turn. Students accuse my dad of killing the previous king, his brother.

My first night, the most popular girl tries to kill me. I barely escape, only to run into Bash. He's older and one wrong move from being expelled. Also as gorgeous as he is arrogant. For some reason, he keeps looking at me with concern in his eyes while giving me a crooked smirk. Almost makes me forget all my problems.

But I can't let myself get side-tracked by him. I won't. If I'm to survive the academy, I need to focus on staying alive. Unfortunately, that means relying on Bash - and he's a distraction that could very well cost me everything.

©2019 Stacy Claflin (P)2020 Tantor

Slow, and missing key things

The story was quite slow to develop although it does make it. Needs better world-building. It jad some, but not in key parts. Basics of politics, how the underwater world works. An explanation of the-wolf sharks?

A different twist on mers

I liked the story behind this series. Most stories have mermaids or sirens as evil individuals. This is about a girl who begrudgingly returns home to her underwater world only to be bullied and end up the fodder for family drama.
The only thing that really annoyed me is how everyone wanted our heroine to be stronger but kept her past and many other secrets away from her. If she's old enough to go to college than she should be able to handle some family drama - but for what ever reason Ms Claflin kept treating her like a child without a backbone.
Otherwise the story line was fun, entertaining and definitely YA material and Ms Tina Wolstencroft did a great job bringing a teenagers world to light.

It’s not for me.

I checked it out because it was free. The writing style is rough to listen to. An example sentence is “I trip and fall to the ground.” If the author could change it to, “I tripped and fell to the ground,” it would do wonders for readability. The majority of the book is written like the example sentence above.

As for the story, I didn’t think Mara acted the way someone in her shoes should. Most wouldn’t handle the hazing the way she did, especially under the pressure of either ratting out some bullies or have some huge punishment befall them. Her Dad was an absolute clown whose motives don’t quite make sense? (Except perhaps in the final chapter. Shame on him.) Very early on, I just kept thinking, “her mom needs to divorce him right away.”

Various mechanics felt odd, like her friend wanting to get coffee? How do they make and drink coffee underwater? Why does her friend need to take her to the bathroom to clean blood if they’re under the water? How do they ride a motorcycle with a tail? It felt like many issues could be side stepped if the mermaid idea was scrapped. I dunno. Anyhow, it was a book. Good for the author for working hard and putting herself out there. She has potential.

It’s written for kids: adults beware! It’s not the good kind of YA

When I was 14 I would have loved this book! My review is not a commentary on the book itself but on its content demographic. It’s written for a younger brain than mine. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Kids, go crazy. Imma skip the rest of the series for my own sanity.

Meh

It was ok at best. Slow with a lot of holes. Not much character development.