Damn it, why is it so hard for me to find a good mermaid book?
Like, seriously, why is it that Anne Greenwood Brown is the only one who hasn't managed to make me feel like I need to take a shower after reading her mermaid books? Why are there no other books like Lies Beneath? I do not get it.
This one, despite its dogshit pacing, had me at least a little interested for the first chunk of the book. The foreshadowing was hamfisted as all hell (I even think there was a line like, "There was something fishy about the Blakes," that made me roll my eyes so hard I temporarily went blind) and there was wayyy too much telling instead of showing, but I liked the mystery as to why the families were trying to keep Gaylen and Emma—god, sorry, wrong bad mermaid book—Gabe and Kate apart, I liked some of the tweaks to mermaid/siren lore, I was enjoying myself for the most part...until Kate and Gabe actually got together. Things got really weird and uncomfortable very quickly.
The first thing that gave me the creeps was Gabe's whole ability to soothe and change emotions. Fuckin' hate that shit. Your new wifey's upset? No worries, just literally manipulate the way she thinks and feels until she's more pliant! No problemo! Second thing that squicked me out was Gabe casually mentioning he was literally going to fuck her until she got pregnant, even though they A, just got together after several years apart, B, very suddenly just decided to get married even though they hadn't seen each other in several years, and C, had not first made sure that Kate even wanted kids, let alone getting literally instantaneously pregnant after three days of continuous boning—boning that's only briefly interrupted by their parents showing up simply to tell them congrats on the sex and leave. Of course this doesn't kill the mood for Gabe and Kate and they continue as if their parents did not almost walk in on them. It's so creepy! Especially since Kate is so trepidatious but then, due to Gabe's literal mind manipulation, is totally fine with it. Like sure, just go ahead and get her pregnant even though she was just visibly very distressed by it not even five minutes ago.
Ugh. It was not fun. It was not cute. It couldn't have even been explained away as an interspecies misunderstanding or whatever, because Gabe was socialized as a human, so he should know this is a no-no. It was just gross and, as stated before, made me feel like I needed to take a shower afterward.
This book is gross, it's written poorly, and I feel gross for having read it. I'm just glad I didn't enjoy it, because then I'd be in quite the moral dilemma with myself. Luckily it's easy to write this off as meaningless drivel (like, thank god it isn't popular; otherwise I might be having a coronary), but please, I beg of you, if you're an author, do not use books like this as a blueprint for your "cute" or "sexy" new mermaid book. It is not cute, it is not sexy, it is creepy and gross and I think Errin Stevens should be ashamed of herself.
