Review: Deep Blue

Number 9 of my 2015 book challenge is finished! I don't know what I'm going to do when the book requirements get more specific. ;) 

Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly
Publication date: May 6, 2014
Publisher: Disney Press
Format: Hardcover
Source: library
Pages: 340

Deep in the ocean, in a world not so different from our own, live the merpeople. Their communities are spread throughout the oceans, seas, and freshwaters all over the globe.

When Serafina, a mermaid of the Mediterranean Sea, awakens on the morning of her betrothal, her biggest worry should be winning the love of handsome Prince Mahdi. And yet Sera finds herself haunted by strange dreams that foretell the return of an ancient evil. Her dark premonitions are confirmed when an assassin's arrow poisons Sera's mother. Now, Serafina must embark on a quest to find the assassin's master and prevent a war between the Mer nations. Led only by her shadowy dreams, Sera searches for five other mermaid heroines who are scattered across the six seas. Together, they will form an unbreakable bond of sisterhood and uncover a conspiracy that threatens their world's very existence.

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Deep Blue is another one of those books that I've been waiting a while to get my hands on. Because I'm not a good bookworm, I totally read the 30-page preview. My bad.

I loved the preview! But, overall, the book didn't really meet my expectations.

The premise is great-- mermaid heroines going out to save the world from evil. That sounds SO kick-butt. And I don't read mermaid books so it sounded like a really neat start to branching out.

Meh.

BUT WAIT, let me explain. (Promise I have good points to make.)

I did love the storybuilding. Donnelly painted a beautiful picture of everything from mer homes and pets to their clothes or their food. It was like nothing I've read before, everything created specifically of and related to the sea. Everything in this area was very well thought out. Mermaids can't take baths when they already live in the water. Problem solved: they scrub themselves with sand.

The slang and new vocabulary for the mer world that was everywhere in Deep Blue wasn't a hit or miss for me, but a little of both. I'm a sucker for unique names (even though I never remember them) so the names for the mer cities and animals were great. Buut, on the other hand, I felt like the author crammed new vocabulary and slang into too many places.

It was a little confusing sometimes and some of it was just corny like "merl" for "girl" and "currensea" instead of "currency." There was a whole (kinda thick) glossary in the back of Deep Blue. It was just too confusing for my brain to keep up with the ins and outs of the language/names/terms.

I think Deep Blue would still have gotten a pretty high rating if I'd liked the writing style and the characters more. As you all know, characters are super duper important to me and when I don't click with them, the story usually doesn't work either.

The characters were quite immature in my opinion. The character development was a little abrupt, where a character wouldn't be facing the truth and then all of a sudden she would get a "revelation" or someone would slap her into gear and she'd be like, "I am destined for this. I shall do this no matter what." It wasn't very realistic.

The writing was also didn't live up to my expectations. I like books with subtlety-- in the emotions, characters, and plot. But, I feel like in Deep Blue the author asked questions and made it obvious what was true or not, instead of letting the readers figure it out themselves. There were a lot of "he said, she saids" and more telling than showing.

So while the story was a really enjoyable and light read, the obvious-ness of everything and the simplistic writing style disappointed me.

My Rating:

I could NOT resist.

Disclaimer: I was not reimbursed for this review in any way. All opinions or thoughts expressed are my own.