In her version of "The Little Mermaid," Susann Cokal (The Kingdom of Little Wounds) uses lush, lyrical writing and multiple perspectives to tell a lasting story of darkness and beauty.
Sanna's "motherline was a bound secret" because "the witch of [her] flok worked a magic of forgetting" on the night Sanna was born. It wasn't until age 14 that she learned her mother was "landish" and not marreminde at all. Sanna then began to apprentice with the witch Sjældent to learn magic that would allow her to walk on land and find her mother. Now 16 and finally ready to embark on her quest, Sanna arrives at Baroness Thyrla's castle on the Thirty-Seven Dark Islands, where Sjældent said she'd find a woman who could help her. Instead, she finds the baroness is able to harvest the lives of people weaker than her to grow stronger and live longer. Stuck in this unfamiliar place with foreign people, Sanna must overcome the baroness's trickery before she's trapped forever.
In Mermaid Moon, Cokal takes her time unveiling Sanna's story, revealing details and background information in a nonlinear fashion, then backtracking in subsequent chapters to fill in the blanks. This technique gives breadth to her storytelling and allows for discussions of faith, beauty and feminism to emerge naturally. Cokal's descriptive language further enhances the story: "the tide of red washes through the flowers of the ancient vine that has suckled on the courtyard stone." Mermaid Moon is a beautifully told, immersive novel that layers fairy-tale elements with more modern themes, allowing for a different experience with every reread. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader