Review: Sea Foam and Silence – Lynn E. O’Connacht

Book cover: The mermaid’s face is upside down, she is smiling at the reader and holding a sea shell over her left eye.

I joined the #AceBookClub in reading Sea Foam and Silence. The idea of the book club is to read a book together and discuss it on Twitter. (Just so you know: You don’t have to be on the asexual spectrum to join.)

It’s an asexual retelling of The Little Mermaid. It’s #ownvoices. 

The Good

This is a free verse novel. I was very hesitant about reading this book because of the writing style, but it suited the story. The little mermaid is confused most of the time, and the free verse, the emojis and the broken writing style conveyed her emotions very well. After reading the story, I cannot imagine this story being written in any other way.

The language in this book is delightful. I don’t want to spoil anything about the names, so I’ll just say it was fascinating how the author worked with the names of the characters. The mermaids use different words compared to the humans and it allowed the reader to become more aware of the mermaids’ world. Talking about the world, the world-building in this book is just amazing. It’s detailed and intricate, yet remains confusing off and on, which fits to the experiences of the little mermaid.

Imagine my delight when I discovered that the little mermaid loves dancing. The passages about dancing are very descriptive and emotional! Seriously, the verses really capture the emotions that I myself experience while dancing. My favourite quote would be this one, as I feel the same about choreography:

“He hired me tutors
Who tell me about ‘choreography’.
But I think it is inefficient. Untrue.
Incomplete.”

I read the little mermaid as aromantic as well, which is not canon but it’s just how I read it. I thought it was very interesting how love was analysed and pictured in this book. (Update: it has been confirmed that there is aromantic and demiromantic rep in this book.)

The little mermaid has to learn a new language in the human world and this other favourite quote of mine really captures how I feel about speaking German sometimes.

“Sometimes I find it vexing,
The way I cannot say what I mean
Because I do not have the words.”

The Bad

There is no follow-up about what happens to her sisters at the end, which I was hoping for. I’m hoping there’ll be a sequel, where I’ll get answers to some of the questions I have.

All in all

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone. The writing and the world-building is first class.

5 stars

Did you read Sea Foam & Silence? What do you think of the idea?