TL;DR Elyse's discovery of her Plan B in life
TBR #1268
finished 3/21/16
This was one of the first books I wanted to read when I broke my library ban, and I was really lucky I found it on my first time back; I had only seen it only the library shelves once before November.
I didn't know too much about The Summer of Chasing Mermaids before I started it. I think I expected it to be a Little Mermaid-inspired contemporary retelling, which it may or may not be. I have no idea.
The plot is heavily character-driven, but it felt subtle. It didn't feel like it was a traditional plot with typical rising stakes; the rising stakes felt natural over the course of the book. The characters definitely helped with that, especially Christian and Noah's dads. Their personalities were the driving force behind the obstacles tbh.
There was a nice range of characters in the book. Elyse is Trinidadian and there's a big focus on her heritage through her internal narration and interactions with her family. Kirby, Lemon, Vanessa, Christian, and Sebastian all had unique qualities that made them an amazing group of characters. I had no problems keeping all the characters straight from each other and they all had a different impact on the story.
I think the depiction of the adults in the story was well done, too. The adults were given some depth -- the Kane parents at least, and definitely Lemon -- and they played more of a part in the story, both positive and negative, than I'm used to seeing in contemporaries.
(I need to read more contemporaries.)
It's also interesting to look at the point of views of the old white guys in the story versus the teenagers. I'm glad that the girls and the Kane brothers did everything they could to fight the sexism they faced and that they bent the gender norms all across the board.
"[...] frankly, kids, I'm not sure it's even legal to have a female first mate. We'd have to consult the rule book, but as far as I know, regatta's a man's race." [the mayor]
Christian's jaw ticked, just like it had with his father the night of the party. "Damn. Must've hit my head on the way out of that time machine. 1850, are we? I might need some new clothes. Elyse, you sew, right? Don't all girls sew?" (pg 120)
I feel like Christian's "playboy"-ness wasn't as big in the story as the blurb suggested. Honestly, that's good: he treated his relationship with Elyse a lot more seriously than I expected he would. I appreciate that.
The romances and relationships in the book were treated with respect -- physical touch and sex weren't treated as taboo or something inherently "special" and "reserved". There was nothing negative said about the flings Elyse and her sisters had with the boys in Trinidad and Tobago during Carnival, or about Vanessa sneaking off with a boy at the bonfire. Most importantly, Christian asked for clear consent from Elyse and respected that the entire time. The girls all dictated their own relationships and sexuality without being shamed for it and we really need more books like this.
Also, that said, be careful if anyone tries to read over your shoulder. You might be taking some chances.
I did my best to do some research into the setting of Atargatis Cove since Googling the town name only brings up reviews of the book. Unfortunately, I didn't think to sticky-note geographic clues until late in the game :(
Bandon-by-the-Sea (pg 250) and Coos Bay (pg 133) are real cities. A Starfish Point is mentioned a couple times (at least pgs 108 and 280), but the only thing Google gave me was a hotel a ways up the coast. Devils Elbow State Park is "an hour away" (pg 185) and Thor's Well in Cape Perpetua is an indeterminable "drive up" (pg 53).
There's about 85 miles between Thor's Well and Bandon, and I can't find enough clues to really piece together an approximate location. The map below should cover all the areas that I mentioned.
If I re-read the book, I'll be sure to pay more attention next time. I had fun doing this geographical sleuthing though.
I also looked into "Work Ya Way Back" by Bella Garcia that Elyse mentions a few times, but nothing came up. I did find this Trinidad soca music mix on YouTube (which was the soundtrack for this review) and that Ockler has a song embedded in her release day blog post. I also opened a lot of tabs related to soca music in my research for this blog post, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to be learning so much about Elyse's culture and the music that was so important to her.
TL;DR this was a really good contemporary with a great cast, including a non-American woman of color as the main character, and a great message of being yourself and calling your own shots.
The acknowledgements at the end of the book also have a wonderful message from Ockler. It's too long for me to type up, but I sincerely hope that her message and purpose have resonated with the people that needed to hear it.
If I use the soca music mix as my measure of time, I spent an hour and 45 minutes writing this. I usually don't pay attention to how long it takes me to write reviews but I really put some effort into this one. I didn't expect that.
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