Fathomless (Fairy Tale Retelling)

by Jackson Pearce

[Kelsenator]

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Based on the cover, you would think this book is about mermaids. Well, in a sense it is, but it’s much darker than that. These girls are part of the ocean, with forgotten pasts of when they were human and had a soul. They don’t actually have fins, but they live underwater and can sing to attract men like a siren would do. They are pretty much just an evil creature of the sea, but I did like the idea behind that and not keeping them like a normal mermaid would be otherwise told.

Now this book goes back and forth by chapter between Celia and Lo. Lo is from the sea, and Celia is a girl from the shore, but she is special. Without going into too much detail, when Celia she touches someone, she can see their memories and secrets from the past. Her two sisters (of which you should be able to tie from the first two books in the series) have gifts too, but of the present and future sight. She believes that her power is useless, until she meets Lo who can’t remember anything from her past and realizes this is her chance to finally help someone.

The two girls meet after combining their efforts to save Jude when he falls in the water one night. He of course likes them both as he meets them, but we see more of the two girls’ interactions than we do of him in this book, which was fine by me. I felt really sorry for Lo, especially when you learn what happened to make her the way she is now, and how badly she wants to become human again. She’s fighting with herself too, because she also wants to stay in the water with the other girls like her.

I did enjoy reading this book, but for me it wasn’t as good as the first two were. It was much slower paced, especially when you figure out early on who Lo is as she’s trying to remember her past, but only if you’ve read the second book will it click for you. Definitely give this book a read though! It just didn’t hit me as much as the first book did, and it really does help if you have read the other books in the series, I don’t consider it a stand-alone.