Friday 23 August 2013

Book Review: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks


"Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom...

Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance."
                                                                                                                                                             -Stolen from Goodreads

Before reading this book, my expectations were not that high because even though I am a fan of mermaid ya books, none previously read were impressive. This book continued on with that trend.

Okay so one thing I did like about this book was the world created. I was genuinely interested and enthralled by it and was curious about exactly what Emma was and the underwater world. 

The dialogue of this book was probably the best part. It was often quite humourous such as:

"Maybe you can talk to donkeys, too," Dr. Milligan smiles. Emma nods. "I can. Sometimes Galen can be a jackass."

Normally, I like books that switch POVs but something was a bit off with this one.  When told from Emma's perspective it's in the 1st person but when told from Galen's, it is 3rd person. While I'm not crazy about this, it didn't annoy me that much.  Not as much as...*drumroll*, the CHARACTERS!

Oh.My.God. Where do I begin? So, Emma, I could have easily liked her, she was funny and cool but oh no, it's never that easy. She allows her self to be treated like a child by Galen and to make matters worse, she even acts like one.  This girl was doing things simply because Galen commanded (yes, commanded not asked, COMMANDED) her to not do it. I get that you want to rebel but what happened to oh, i don't know...COMMON DAMN SENSE?! She was just so juvenile. And Galen initially seemed like a cool guy but then he went straight to DouchebagVille. He never respected Emma and just wanted to control her; he even mentions at some point that he wants a girl that does whatever he tells her to and basically never thinks for herself. 

As you can tell, the relationship part of this book was a major flop for me but the book was slightly redeemed by the story world, which I didn't go into much detail earlier, but did really enjoy. So overall, it was not the read but it could have been worse. :)

Until next time, toodles :) xo

p.s if you have also read this book, why not share your thoughts in the comments or a private message? I'd love to hear it :)