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Fred is a mermaid. But stop right there. Whatever image you're thinking of right now, forget it. Fred is not blonde. She's not buxom. And she's definitely not perky. In fact, Fred can be downright cranky. And it doesn't help matters that her hair is blue. Being a mermaid does help Fred when she volunteers at the New England Aquarium. But, needless to say, it's there that she gets involved in something fishy. Dangerous levels of toxins have been found in the local seawater. A gorgeous marine show more biologist wants her help investigating. So does her merperson ruler, the High Prince of the Black Sea. You'd think it would be easy for a mermaid to get to the bottom of things. Think again . . . Contains mature themes. show lessTags
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Reviewed for www.bookchickcity.com
Oh boy. I’m sorry, I tried really hard to find something to like about this book, but I couldn’t.
Before I began reading, I had no idea how the author was going to pull this book off. Until now my experience of mermaids in fiction has been limited to Hans Christian Andersen (the real Little Mermaid, not the Disney monstrosity with the singing fish!), and while I think the theme works well in folklore and fairytales, I can’t say the same thing for a contemporary paranormal book. Or, at least not with this contemporary paranormal book.
MaryJanice Davidson’s writing can be funny. Her first few Queen Betsy ‘Undead’ books were light, fluffy, entertaining reads. But I need more after a while, some show more progression, and this mermaid series is a step back instead of forward. Fred the Mermaid is simply Betsy on steroids, with the characters acting about as mature as the average eight year old. I wanted more from this book than hyperactive characters yelling at each other, and I wanted better world-building than what I was given (which was basically nothing). Davidson thrives on characters and dialogue, and while in this book they’re not my style, that’s something. But it can’t be your whole book – a complete work of fiction also needs a plot and some atmosphere, and there was none of that here. I finished Sleeping With the Fishes feeling as though I’d just spent a few hours in a room full of shrieking thirteen year olds. I’ve been thirteen once, and I didn’t appreciate revisiting that maturity level!
Fredrika Bimm is just too ‘cute’. She regularly uses words such as ‘yucky’ and she shrieks a lot. Then she contradicts the stereotype with endless cursing. She has blue hair (though the characters argue whether or not it’s green), insists on being called ‘Fred’, and she drove me crazy with how self-absorbed and ‘different’ she is and how proud she is of it. She was trying far too hard, and I didn’t like her at all.
The secondary characters ranged from irritating (Madison, the cheerleading, dolphin-loving bimbo stereotype), to clichéd (Jonas, the possibly gay best friend), to the downright weird (Prince Artur the merman who is Fred’s love interest, and who has cherry-coloured eyes and pointy teeth).
The whole mermaid concept is basically not explained at all. I can’t decide if that’s better or worse than having the transformation into fish-form described in great detail. What I do know is that saying something along the lines of, “She jumped into the water and grew a tail” isn’t anywhere near enough explanation to be satisfying world-building for me.
In there somewhere is mystery involving illegal dumping in the harbour, but it takes a definite backseat to the antics of the screaming, yelling, swearing cast of crazy characters, and appeared only to be there as an afterthought. Perhaps if the characters had been toned down and the plot given some decent page time, this would have been a better book.
MaryJanice Davidson was onto a good thing with her ‘Undead’ vampire series, but that series is petering out as the concept is recycled again and again. There’s not enough growth with ideas, and essentially Sleeping With the Fishes is just Betsy as a mermaid. I need some fresher concepts, and I need more than a string of one-liners to keep me entertained.
VERDICT:
I did not enjoy this book, and was constantly infuriated by the immature, selfish and just plain weird characters. The plot is thin and may as well not be there, and I could not find any way to identify with the protagonist. If you want to read a book by MaryJanice Davidson, try her earlier ‘Undead’ books, and give this series a miss. show less
Oh boy. I’m sorry, I tried really hard to find something to like about this book, but I couldn’t.
Before I began reading, I had no idea how the author was going to pull this book off. Until now my experience of mermaids in fiction has been limited to Hans Christian Andersen (the real Little Mermaid, not the Disney monstrosity with the singing fish!), and while I think the theme works well in folklore and fairytales, I can’t say the same thing for a contemporary paranormal book. Or, at least not with this contemporary paranormal book.
MaryJanice Davidson’s writing can be funny. Her first few Queen Betsy ‘Undead’ books were light, fluffy, entertaining reads. But I need more after a while, some show more progression, and this mermaid series is a step back instead of forward. Fred the Mermaid is simply Betsy on steroids, with the characters acting about as mature as the average eight year old. I wanted more from this book than hyperactive characters yelling at each other, and I wanted better world-building than what I was given (which was basically nothing). Davidson thrives on characters and dialogue, and while in this book they’re not my style, that’s something. But it can’t be your whole book – a complete work of fiction also needs a plot and some atmosphere, and there was none of that here. I finished Sleeping With the Fishes feeling as though I’d just spent a few hours in a room full of shrieking thirteen year olds. I’ve been thirteen once, and I didn’t appreciate revisiting that maturity level!
Fredrika Bimm is just too ‘cute’. She regularly uses words such as ‘yucky’ and she shrieks a lot. Then she contradicts the stereotype with endless cursing. She has blue hair (though the characters argue whether or not it’s green), insists on being called ‘Fred’, and she drove me crazy with how self-absorbed and ‘different’ she is and how proud she is of it. She was trying far too hard, and I didn’t like her at all.
The secondary characters ranged from irritating (Madison, the cheerleading, dolphin-loving bimbo stereotype), to clichéd (Jonas, the possibly gay best friend), to the downright weird (Prince Artur the merman who is Fred’s love interest, and who has cherry-coloured eyes and pointy teeth).
The whole mermaid concept is basically not explained at all. I can’t decide if that’s better or worse than having the transformation into fish-form described in great detail. What I do know is that saying something along the lines of, “She jumped into the water and grew a tail” isn’t anywhere near enough explanation to be satisfying world-building for me.
In there somewhere is mystery involving illegal dumping in the harbour, but it takes a definite backseat to the antics of the screaming, yelling, swearing cast of crazy characters, and appeared only to be there as an afterthought. Perhaps if the characters had been toned down and the plot given some decent page time, this would have been a better book.
MaryJanice Davidson was onto a good thing with her ‘Undead’ vampire series, but that series is petering out as the concept is recycled again and again. There’s not enough growth with ideas, and essentially Sleeping With the Fishes is just Betsy as a mermaid. I need some fresher concepts, and I need more than a string of one-liners to keep me entertained.
VERDICT:
I did not enjoy this book, and was constantly infuriated by the immature, selfish and just plain weird characters. The plot is thin and may as well not be there, and I could not find any way to identify with the protagonist. If you want to read a book by MaryJanice Davidson, try her earlier ‘Undead’ books, and give this series a miss. show less
I've heard so many great things about MaryJanice Davidson's writing, and I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, very little about it worked for me. I didn't find the humor funny. I don't think I even chuckled once. And I really disliked Fred. She was so snarky - and not in a good way. She seems to hate everyone, even those closest to her, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what the two male leads saw in her. Not to mention that the entire romance plot thread seemed contrived to me. They fall in love with her after knowing her for a week? Please. I thought this was an easy read, and I made it all the way through, but I won't be reading any more in this series.
In the front of the book, MJD thanks her editor for keeping Sleeping with the Fishes from being "Betsy with fins" by suggesting the switch to third-person. But the truth is, you know what you're getting with a contemporary paranormal romance by MaryJanice Davidson, and you either like it or you don't. She has a very distinct voice that carries through regardless of the series (though her romantica does have a definitely different tone), and her heroines tend to have similar wisecracking voices.
In Sleeping with the Fishes, Fred is half-mermaid, and her life has just become way too exciting. It starts with her walking in on her parents having sex, which, even for a grown-up, is just too icky to contemplate. Then in short order, a show more mer-prince arrives and announces she's his queen; she gets a new mermaid-Barbie-clone intern; the fish at the aquarium where she works are on a hunger strike, demanding she play the Pet Shop Boys for them; a hunky new marine biologist arrives and actually sees that her hair is green, not the blue most people see... oh, and someone's dumping waste in the harbor.
It's a fun, fast read, full of humor and one-liners.... if I Love Lucy had fins, this would be the novel version. I'm looking forward to seeing these characters again. show less
In Sleeping with the Fishes, Fred is half-mermaid, and her life has just become way too exciting. It starts with her walking in on her parents having sex, which, even for a grown-up, is just too icky to contemplate. Then in short order, a show more mer-prince arrives and announces she's his queen; she gets a new mermaid-Barbie-clone intern; the fish at the aquarium where she works are on a hunger strike, demanding she play the Pet Shop Boys for them; a hunky new marine biologist arrives and actually sees that her hair is green, not the blue most people see... oh, and someone's dumping waste in the harbor.
It's a fun, fast read, full of humor and one-liners.... if I Love Lucy had fins, this would be the novel version. I'm looking forward to seeing these characters again. show less
Frederika Bimm (Fred to her friends and family) has a secret that helps her in her job at the New England Aquarium - she's a mermaid. For obvious reasons, Fred keeps her secret closely guarded and outside of her family, only her best friend Jonas knows the truth about her. But Fred's secret is unraveling - marine biologist Thomas Pearson sees her swimming as a mermaid and Artur, High Prince of the Black Sea, has come looking for her because someone is polluting the water in Boston Harbor and the pollution is harming the merpeople. While Fred, Thomas and Artur work together to find out who is causing the pollution, Thomas and Artur begin vying for Fred's affection. While Fred is trying to decide which guy she likes more, her friend show more Joshua is attracted to Fred's boss, Dr. Barb, but he faces two obstacles: she's much older than he is and she thinks he's gay.
"Sleeping with the Fishes" is an amusing fantasy romance. I loved the idea of a mermaid as a heroine and Fred is indeed a unique heroine. She's beautiful, smart, and more than a little impatient. She has a lot of funny quirks for a mermaid: she can't swim with her legs, only her tail which is a problem since her job involves her being in the water; she's allergic to seafood; and she gets seasick while on a boat. There are other great characters in the book; I especially liked Joshua, who may be the gayest straight character in fiction (he's very very secure in his sexuality). Joshua, in fact, has some of the funniest and sexiest scenes in the book. There's a lot of humor in the book - Fred's mother's name is Moon Bimm and Fred has a few funny conversations with fish that are on a hunger strike because she won't play any music by the Pet Shop Boys. However, I did have a few problems with the book. I found the repeated use of a certain four letter word beginning with the letter "F" to be off-putting. And the book is too open-ended, it's clear there's going to be at least one sequel, but I have to wonder how long the Fred-Thomas-Artur triangle will hold reader's interest.
"Sleeping with the Fishes" was a fun but incomplete read. show less
"Sleeping with the Fishes" is an amusing fantasy romance. I loved the idea of a mermaid as a heroine and Fred is indeed a unique heroine. She's beautiful, smart, and more than a little impatient. She has a lot of funny quirks for a mermaid: she can't swim with her legs, only her tail which is a problem since her job involves her being in the water; she's allergic to seafood; and she gets seasick while on a boat. There are other great characters in the book; I especially liked Joshua, who may be the gayest straight character in fiction (he's very very secure in his sexuality). Joshua, in fact, has some of the funniest and sexiest scenes in the book. There's a lot of humor in the book - Fred's mother's name is Moon Bimm and Fred has a few funny conversations with fish that are on a hunger strike because she won't play any music by the Pet Shop Boys. However, I did have a few problems with the book. I found the repeated use of a certain four letter word beginning with the letter "F" to be off-putting. And the book is too open-ended, it's clear there's going to be at least one sequel, but I have to wonder how long the Fred-Thomas-Artur triangle will hold reader's interest.
"Sleeping with the Fishes" was a fun but incomplete read. show less
I've read MaryJanice Davidson's Undead and Un... Series of books. I like them. Not the best written, or the deepest characters around, but there is a charm to those books. Unfortunately, this book by the same author held none of the fun loving, cuteness that I liked in her other series. Fred was annoying, and for a marine biologists, not very knowledgeable. Her gay best friend (er, make that metrosexual) spent more time mooning over Fred's boss rather than doing whatever he did. And the suitors - the merman was an idiot, the good looking male marine biologist had a good beginning, but it all went downhill once Love got in the way. These people seem to get paid to do nothing but stare at each other with starry eyes. This book seems to be show more missing all the things I liked about her Undead series, while reusing the same characters in a slightly different setting and making them somehow even more shallow. If you want to read a shallow, fun, feel good, fast, supernatural urban romance, go with the Undead and Unwed (Queen Betsy, Book 1), it at least has a queen who cares. show less
Fred works in an Aquarium. As a human she has problems swimming but in her alternative shape, a mermaid, she can swim very well. She's trying to find out who is polluting the bay with the encouragement of a hunk of a marine biologist and a High Prince of the Black Sea. Full of the usual MaryJanice Davidson conventions and quite a quick read, I wanted to slap the characters a few times but overall it was amusing.
This was a quick fun read, but it suffers from one glaring problem – Fred is basically Betsy (of the Undead series) with fins and without the love for shoes. If you’ve read any of that series, it’s really difficult to read this without Betsy’s voice in your head. Despite the voice problems, Fred is a unique character, a half human and half mermaid who works in the only natural choice for a hybrid mermaid – at an aquarium. When she has to figure out who is polluting Boston Harbor (and therefore, oceans everywhere), she ends up with not one, but two love interests. It’s their interactions that will keep you reading.
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123+ Works 31,998 Members
Author MaryJanice Davidson was born in August 1969. She writes primarily paranormal romance, but she has also written young adult literature and non-fiction. She is the author of the Undead series, the Jennifer Scales series, and the Fred the Mermaid series. She won the 2004 Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award. (Bowker Author Biography)
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- Canonical title
- Sleeping with the Fishes
- Original title
- Sleeping with the Fishes
- Original publication date
- 2006-11-28
- People/Characters
- Fredrika 'Fred' Bimm; Jonas Carrey; Moon Bimm; Sam Bimm; Artur, High Prince of the Black Sea/Undersea Folk; Dr. Thomas Pearson (show all 8); Dr. Barbara Robinson; Madison Fehr
- Important places
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Massachusetts, USA; New England Aquarium; Sam and Moon Bimm's oceanside house; Legal Sea Foods restaurant, Boston, Massechusetts, USA; Thomas' hotel Presidential Suite
- Epigraph
- O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears:
Sing, siren, for thyself and I will dote:
Spread o'er the silver waves thy golden hairs,
And as a bed I'll take them and t... (show all)here lie.
- William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors
In the blue depth of the waters,
Where the wave hath no strife,
Where the wind is a stranger,
And the sea-snake hath life,
Where the Mermaid is decking
Her green hair with shells;
Like the storm on the surfa... (show all)ce
Came the sound of thy spells.
- Lord Byron, Manfred
At sea once more we had to pass the Sirens, whose sweet singing lures sailors to their doom. I had stopped up the ears of my crew with wax, and I alone listened while lashed to the mast, powerless to steer towards shipwreck.... (show all)
- Homer, The Odyssey
Them sirens loved him up and turned him into a horny toad!
- O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Yeah... bullshit.
- Fredrika Bimm, Hybrid Mermaid - Dedication
- To my husband who did tons of research for this project, who came up with countless ways to turn the mermaid genre on its head, who helped me several steps of the way with this book, who supports me in the good times and bad,... (show all) and who loves that I make more money than he does.
- First words
- The unbelievable horror began when Fred walked in on her parents making love on the living room coffee table.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Oh dear, she thought glumly, and downed the rest of the water in three gulps.
- Publisher's editor
- Hwang, Cindy
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