Monique Roffey

I've just returned from over 50 years in Trinidad, in the company of George and Sabine Harwood. Like Sabine, I've been overwhelmed by the constant and debilitating sticky heat there. Like Sabine I've wondered at the extreme lushness of the vegetation, the loud and strident colours and sounds of the wildlife. Like Sabine I've been discomfited by the tense and angry political situation, which leaves many of the white population, often the women, colonial hangers-on, feeling disadvantaged (despite their very obvious economic advantages) and distressed.

In truth, I've never visited Trinidad. But so lush and evocative are Monique Roffey's descriptions of the landscape, the townscapes, the climate, the boredom, the anger: all part of the complex period through which she passes during her time there, that it's almost as if I have.

Sabine's homesickness for a country she would perhaps no longer recognise, her strange need to communicate with politician Eric Williams as his career rises then falls are all richly described. This is a book which will stay in the memory.… (more)

Truly a beautiful story of love, family, betrayal and friendship. I came across this book while looking for adult mermaid stories and this was recommended to me. Im only surprised I didn’t find it earlier!

So, where to begin? It’s the story of David Baptiste, a young fisherman who rescues a mermaid off the coast of Black Conch, a Caribbean island. She was about to be sold off by American tourists, and he brings her into hiding, and they fall in love in the process. There’s also a sideplot with a friend who helps him and befriends the mermaid, and is part of a second love story with her estranged husband and father of her son. That’s the very basics of this story.

This is told in 4 POVs, with David (in the form of journal entries), Arcadia (the main supporting character), the mermaid Aycayia (told in verse), and a few POV scenes with the American tourists.

This story was so compelling. The writing style is a bit different from what I was used to (in Caribbean-style English), but I didn’t have any trouble understanding it. It was always clear whose head we were in. Omniscient POV with all but Aycayia’s scenes. At the same time, it was heartbreaking, with the way the tourists treated Aycayia, and feeling her despair that she may never become a full woman again since she was cursed by her people centuries ago, because they were jealous of her beauty. I felt her initial mistrust toward the islanders, David in particular. And my heart warmed when she started warming to them.

And that ending tugged at my heartstrings! Not everyone gets a happy ending here, but it does give you hope that there might be one in the future.

Plus, this is quite short at about 240 pages for the e-book. Recommended if you like mermaid stories, don’t mind trying out a different writing style, and want to feel the feels.… (more)