Book Review: "Forbidden Sea" by Shelia A. Nielson

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Adrienne has a hard life. Her family is poor. Her mother is unable to stand up to her bossy Aunt. And she has to dress in rags. And then there is Denn, the boy she is in love with who only has eyes for another. And when she sees a mermaid things only get worse. Not to mention the new mark on her wrist.

OUR CAST OF CHARACTERS

Adrienne is the oldest daughter in a poor family. Her father died while ago and she does most of the work now. She loves horses and used to be a great rider.

Cecily is Adrienne's younger sister. She is pretty but a little naive. She is favored by her aunt.

Aunt Minnah came to live with the family after their father died. Although she acts as though she is doing them a favor, she is harsh on her sister and downright abusive to Adrienne.

Denn is Adrienne's childhood friend. He is always there for her and ready to help. But his help isn't always accepted. He has a crush on Cora Lynn Dunst.

Cora Lynn Dunst is a wealthy and gorgeous girl. She mostly ignores Adrienne and seems rather stuck up.

Jendayi is the mermaid who is sent to take Adrienne under the sea. She is blunt and often harsh. Although she often masks it.

PACING

The pacing isn't bad. There are numerous hints of a mystery planted throughout the beginning. Adrienne hints at something terrible she did in the past. The mystery of who the mermaid is and what she wants pushes us along slightly. There is some foreshadowing about Adrienne's fate when she visits a fortune teller.

THE VICTIMHOOD COMPLEX-SPOILERS

We can all relate to the outsider, who is often a victim is some ways. Certainly in how he or she has been rejected. But the problem with Adrienne is that she seems to be a victim in every way possible.

Cora, the beautiful and selfish girl is cruel to her.

The new horsemaster abuses her.

Her Aunt abuses her and favors Cecily.

Her mother refuses to stand up for her even when she sacrifices so much for the family.

Denn seems infatuated with Cora, who is obviously evil.

The boys of the village abuse her often not by just name calling, but by being physical.

And it is later revealed that it is Adrienne who lost all of their money after their father died. So there's that enormous guilt piled atop of her constant abuse.

Basically she has the worst life possible.

ADRIENNE THE SAINT-SPOILERS

Now, perhaps if she wasn't such a victim she wouldn't seem so...unrealistic. But then there is the fact that apparently she is a saint as well. So it's doubly unjust.

She cuts all her hair off for money.

She gives food to a vagabond even though she often starves.

She does all of the work.

All of her clothes have been given to Cecily so she basically wears rags.

She is amazing with horses, but not respected because she is a girl.

Her crush is too dense to know she loves him.

And to top it off, she is going to sacrifice herself to save the whole ungrateful island.

SHALLOW CHARACTERIZATION

When it comes to the characters, they feel either shallow, like stereotypes, or we just don't learn enough about them to know them at all. Lord Durran seemed so mysterious, but we never learn anything about him. I thought for sure he would have some important part to play in the story. He didn't.

Cecily comes across as selfish and narcissistic. Her sister loves her, but she doesn't seem to care about Adrienne or else she would notice that her sister is obviously in distress, hating her life. She even goes without food. But Cecily is too dumb to notice.

Poor Denn. He goes out of his way to help Adrienne and all he gets is anger, resentment and snide remarks in return. You have to wonder why he likes her. After awhile, you'd think he would just walk away.

Cora Lynn Dunst was the worst of all. Her scenes were so bad I cringed. Not that she started out that way. I actually thought that Nielson was going to develop her, show why she was the way she was. Or maybe that Adrienne didn't know everything about her. But no, she isn't just vain and shallow. She is basically evil to the point of a caricature.

I can understand what Neilson was trying to do. There isn't any main villain in the story, so she wanted to paint Cora as one. It just felt like she was trying to make Adrienne more likable in contrast. But it failed.

ADRIENNE & DENN

The romance between two childhood friends should be sweet and simple. They know each other so well. There should be private jokes and shared memories. But instead all we get from Adrienne is whining, resentment and unfounded assumptions about Denn's relationship with Cora. This seemed silly to me. Denn obviously thought she was pretty and made a dumb comment about liking pretty girls. Big deal. And he danced with her once. And yet he's the one constantly worrying about Adrienne and trying to help her. But all she can do is resent him for his charity.

STRUCTURE

The majority of the book is spent on land, with no real interaction between Adrienne and the mermaid. So when we finally meet her, in chapter twenty one, there are only seven chapters left. So there isn't much time to learn about the mermaid, her world, and meet the Prince. Its hard to take any of this seriously. We know she isn't staying. She can't meet a guy in fall in love when she has spent the whole book being miserable about Denn, who would clearly do anything for her. He's just still young and foolish. Let the boy grow up. He obviously loves her.

UNDER THE SEA

Like I pointed out about the structure, the part where we see the underwater world is nearing the end of the book. So we know that Adrienne will not be immersing herself in this world and learning to love it. She never even considers staying and says as much: “Up until that moment I hadn't seriously considered not going back.”

Wait, what? What about “sacrificing yourself to save the island?” What was that? What does the reader have to look forward to? Any sense of urgency or danger is lost. If Adrienne isn't taking this seriously, then why should we?

CLIMAX

The ending is basically Adrienne realizing how valuable she is. She is pretty. She is smart. Jendayi makes it obviously clear what the message of the book is and it's a laudable one. But Adrienne does nothing to suddenly deserve this revelation. She was a saint throughout the entire book. But she only realizes this now? After being dragged into an underwater world and dressed up with some jewelry? It's just not believable.

CONCLUSION

The story idea was an interesting one, but unfortunately it was executed all wrong. Adrienne's constant victimhood and whining made me struggle to like her. Not to mention the stereotypical villain of Cora. The structure of the story was off and there was no real chance that she would stay under the sea. And although some attempts at depth were made with revelations about Adrienne's mother and her Aunt, it's far too little too late in an ocean of misery and resentment. I give “Forbidden Sea” two stars.