Author: Laura Dockrill
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Year of Publication: 2015
Summary: Looking after a naked girl he found washed up under Hastings pier isn't exactly how Rory had imagined spending his sixteenth birthday. But more surprising than finding her in the first place is discovering where she has come from.
Lorali is running not just from the sea, not just from her position as princess, but her entire destiny. Lorali has rejected life as a mermaid, and become human.
But along with Lorali's arrival, and the freak weather suddenly battering the coast, more strange visitors begin appearing in Rory's bemused Sussex town. With beautifully coiffed hair, sharp-collared shirts and a pirate ship shaped like a Tudor house, the Abelgare boys are a mystery all of their own. What are they really up to? Can Rory protect Lorali? And who from? And where does she really belong, anyway?
Review: **Copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
Lorali, Lorali, Lorali. Whimsical? Definitely. Unique? I've never read anything like it. Touching? You bet tears were shed. Weird? Oh gosh this book was weird.
But you know what? I loved it. I want three hundred copies of this book, in paperback, in hardback, in audiobook, in e-book form. I want this weird little book on my shelves where it belongs.
This book follows Rory, an English boy who is definitely not the charmer that is generally in YA books. He doesn't have a sexy accent, and he uses words like fam and proper. Decidely not so average male love interest. This book also follows Lorali, a mermaid who pretty much acts like one would generally assume a mermaid who has never set foot on land to act. She doesn't know how to use a toilet. She accidentally pees on the floor. Grimy? Yeah. Realistic though.
But the book also had a third narrator. The ocean.
Yeah, that's right, the book had multiple chapters all narrated by the ocean. How cool is that? It's also as weird as you'd expect. Astoundingly, the author made it work, which speaks volumes for her talent.
Another aspect I appreciated about this novel was the lack of heteronormativity. Gay people exist. There is a line somewhere in the beginning about how our main character, Rory, can't grow a beard and when it does it looks like the neighbour's front yard after she pours bleach on it because her wife cheated on her. It's also blatantly said that Mer of the same-sex tesselate, which is to say they bang, and it's fine.
The Mer also could not care less about taboo. They dye their hair, pierce themselves, and generally seem not to care about nudity. Some of them, namely the queen occasionally take part in recreational medicinal use, which was skirted about in the novel until this gem of a line came about;
"The council of the Whirl make some eye contact, as Keppel furiously tokes from her bong."
That right there folks is probably the best line in the book. Do yourselves a favour and pick up this book. You won't regret it.
Rating: 5/5 stars
★★★★★
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