After reading other books from this author, it seems there is a lot of copy pasting going on, and this book in particular seems to have some strong vibes of plagiarism instead of researching and and writing, it's more researching and rewording. Both books I read of his were the exact same story, just names, and places, and keywords were changed. Disappointing to say the least.

Captivating.

First I want to say its rare to see a small book fit so much story! The pace of this story was great. Every aspect was well introduced and explained. The characters were well written and relatable. Can't wait to read the rest, I stumbled across this short version through ad and thought the cover looked cool. ( )

After reading other books from this author, it seems there is a lot of copy pasting going on, and this book in particular seems to have some strong vibes of plagiarism instead of researching and and writing, it's more researching and rewording. Both books I read of his were the exact same story, just names, and places, and keywords were changed. Disappointing to say the least.

Amazing!

Read this book! Super enjoyable, great storyline and so many places the author can go with it. Can't wait for book two, well written and well laid out. There was one part that I was like come on how much more do they need to throw her way (the black mail part) but it made sense way later. I love how well researched the story is, you can hear the work that went into it with each chapter. ( )

“Mermaids are real?” Patricia asked finally, looking stunned. “Like really real?” Ethan nodded solemnly.

“And they want to kill us all.”
The passage above is an actual quote from this teen paranormal romance set in a seaside village in Northern Ireland. It succinctly captures the flaws of this mermaid fantasy novel that has an excellent premise but the author doesn't have the writing skill to make it pay off. Clara is an American teenager whose parents die in a car crash. She learns that her mother actually was from Ireland and fled as a teenager. Clara's only living relative is a grandfather she never knew existed, Aedan, and she is sent to live with him in the seaside village of Portballintrae.

As Clara grieves her parents and adjusts to her new life in Ireland, she meets a handsome but mysterious boy, Sebastian. It's revealed that Sebastian comes from the mer-folk - the merrow - and that Clara is part merrow as well. Clara also forms a friendship with Ethan, who is from an ancient group of families who are sworn enemies of the merrow and use merrow blood to perform magic. Soon a plot by the merrow to kill all of humanity emerges.

Murphy does a good job of taking elements of Irish folklore and bringing them into a contemporary setting. The big problem is that he is overly reliant on introducing big revelations and plot twists. As they revelations multiply they must of course become bigger and soon just more ridiculous. I think Murphy would've have done better to hold of on making revelations and built up the mystery and atmosphere of the novel. A well-told story with smaller stakes (nevertheless of great importance to the characters) would've been far more interesting than this sprawling tale of a global threat. ( )

I received this digital copy from Urban Epics via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.

Actual rating: 3.5

Obligatory Summary

Clara Clark (whose name makes her sound like a comic book character) is a 15 year old who self describes herself like this:

I have a dark sense of humor that few people get, and a passive-aggressive sarcasm that comes from having an overbearing mother and a fear of any kind of conflict.

TL;DR she is ~so unique~

So Clara's overbearing mother (and her dad) die in a car accident one day as she's singing in a concert and she is sent to live with her Irish grandfather that she didn't know existed in a small town in Ireland. Once there, she tries to discover the mysteries her mother left behind, while also changing in ways she never imagined (like getting hot overnight and reading people's emotions).

She also meets a rude bad boy wiz kid and a blond stalker. She reasonably falls for the stalker.

But then strange things start happening in Ireland and it's up to Clara to save her new home!

The Writing and Worldbuilding

This book had a very interesting idea but a less than satisfactory execution. Honestly, the biggest problem was that it didn't seem to be...edited or proofread or beta read or anything. It felt like I was reading the first draft. There were inconsistencies and redundancies and random name changes. At one point, a character was speaking about themself in third person as if they weren't there. Also...it was painfully obvious that D.S. Murphy doesn't know basic dialogue formatting standards. He had innumerable instances of "...," he nodded. and quotation marks after monologue paragraphs, completely confusing who was speaking. These are dialogue rules I learned in the 6th grade. It's unforgivable to not know them.

The worldbuilding was also very expositiony, sometimes straight up technical info dumps that felt unrealistic and stilted. There were also way too many plotlines, and it felt rushed and slow at the same time because of that. The magic sometimes tried to use scientific explanations and then just went with magical justifications and that felt very inconsistent and annoying.

I did like the mystery though. And I found myself wanting to know how it ended and how it all came together. And some of the funnier lines were chuckle-worthy.

The Characters

Ariel: Clara is honestly so annoying. She claims to be someone who needs answers and won't forget anything important but constantly forgets super important things whenever merboi Sebastian looks at her. It was extremely tropey and cliche and made me feel super distant from her. She literally thinks about how attractive and cool people are like a week after her whole life gets uprooted. She's extremely status conscious but hates girls who act exactly like her (like mean girl Roisin) and that makes her someone I just don't particularly like.

She also has to (spoiler alert though it honestly doesn't amount to anything) "give up" singing 76% through the book despite not singing for three months before then (aka the majority of the book).

Sebastian: He's part mermaid part Wikipedia. Not much of a personality and not much of a sex appeal tbh. And I just couldn't stop seeing Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid. "You've got to pucker your lips like dis!"

Ethan: I couldn't find this guy attractive because he has the same name as my brother, but otherwise, I actually quite liked him. He's a douchebag but at least he has a personality.

The Squad: Jackie was nice but boring, Derry was fun (and gay so there's that), but Patricia was a straight up b a lot of the time and that made her really unlikable. I thought she was going to be the mean girl but then it was Raisin Bran instead.

Conclusion

I liked it enough. It has the skeleton of a good story but lacked any unique writing or characters and suffered from technical problems. With a good editor, it could be something great. ( )

2.5 stars Mermaids, Irish Folklore, Magical Arts, Teen Drama and Ireland. How could I not give this book a shot ? I'm glad I did, I see an author to watch here. There were flaws, but there was something alluring too. The story was interesting, the beginning started strong, with mysterious events, people, magic and a new location. The author spent a lot of time researching and detailing mythological stories to give us a history behind the beings involved. The imagery was well written and easily visualized. I was sitting on the edge of my seat when the first part ended. Sadly, I did not have the same felling through the second part. The second part of the story dragged long and slow for me. it was over filled with detailing of these myths and magics, all dry and too long. I felt like I was reading a school text through some of it. The characters just went flat for me, they seemed very stereotypical in their teen roles. The mean girl, was a cut out replica from other books. The MC was emotionally stoic when we were to feel something for her character, then she'd be enthusiastic at odd times. Oh and she withheld information because it wasn't the right time to bring it up ? Oh I really hate that, it's a life or death situation and a character decides to talk about it later after dinner or party or...There was a stabbing that was just left out there, dead bodies with strangeness all around that was barely talked about. It was frustraiting, I felt like the author got lost in the story trying to check off all the must haves in a young adult read. Hot guys-check, Hot girls- check, Love triangle- check, Dead parents- check, Mary Sue MC- check, School bullies-check, Unfair teacher- check, Clothing drama-check, Feeling of inadequacy-check, Super duper powerful MC-check. I am not sure if I want to read more in this series. I see talent but it need tuning, an editor, and some good beta readers. ( )