Jo
Written on Apr 14, 2020
Mermaids by Skye Alexander is a book I bought quite recently, after discovering Sea Witchcraft, and it was actually a really fascinating book!
I must say the first couple of chapters felt like they were badly editied; Alexander goes through different traits of mermaids, or different aspects of their appearance, in a kind of slipshod manner. It didn't really flow; she'd be talking about their singing, about how they sometimes helped sailors at sea, but how they also killed people, or she'd discuss a mermaid's human torso and her tail, then her hair, then the appearance of mermen in myths - bam, bam, bam. It felt like a load of notes put together, rather than something that was quite seamless and flowed into each different topic. They kind of felt like introductory chapters to the rest of the book that were written at the end very quickly. But the rest of the book is brilliant!
It does exactly what The Mermaid Hanbook doesn't: it goes into the various different myths and folklore surrounding mermaids. There is a different chapter for different parts of the world, with an indepth look at the stories, folklore and myths from those countries/continents, and from the cultures there. While it's primarily about mermaids, it also looks at other water creatures and spirits from mythology, including half-human, half-serpent water spirits/deities, and their similarities with mermaids. It's absolutely fascinating! There are so many! Some various myths are quite similar, but there are also a number of differences. It's really interesting to see the kind of evolution of the mermaid throughout history, and throughout the world. It's just a really brilliant look at all these different stories, and I really loved it.
I would have prefered that it had gone into a little more detail about the myths, though. If it had been longer, and really told us the stories rather than an overview (though quite a thorough overview, it has to be said), I think it would have been amazing! I say this just because there are particular stories discussed in this book that I've read about in another book in much more detail, so I knew there was more to them - which makes me think there's probably more to all the other myths in this one. But of course, there is the issue of the fact that it's probably not Alexander's place to write too much about other cultures' and religions' myths, so it's actually not really a bad thing. She's given us enough to look further into these myths and the folklore if we want to.
A short while before buying this, I had bought one of Alexander's other books, Fairies, as a gift for someone. I had a brief flick through Fairies when I bought it, and as they're from a similar series, I expected them to be similar. However, while Fairies covers myths and lore like Mermaids, it also talks about how people can work with fairies. It's a book for those who believe fairies exist, written by a witch. While I am very secular, and don't believe in fairies or mermaids personally, I am interested about learning about the beliefs of others of similar spiritual paths. So I thought Mermaids might also talk about working with mermaids, too - as I know that some Sea Witches believe in mermaids - but this isn't that kind of book. She does discuss deities from various religions, and how they're worshipped, but she doesn't discuss the idea that some people believe mermaids to be real.
But overall, this is such a great book! There is so much information here, and it's just so fascinating, you'll fly through it. If you can overlook how the first few chapters don't seem to flow quite well, I'd really recommend it to anyone interested in mermaids!