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Drowning Mermaids (Sacred Breath, #1)

Nadia Scrieva

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What Members Thought

Mar 23, 2012 Melody Mol rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Harry Potter enchanted Wizards, Drowning Mermaids enchanted Mermaids. The vivid imagery and sharpness of the characters put you right into the story. I finished this book being thankful to live in Florida, because I wanted to take a swim! The author has a way of breathing life into the experiences you read about in the story that is utterly invigorating. In the way that Rowling ruffled our imagination with the possibility that wizards live among us and maybe *we* could be a wizard, Nadia has don ...more

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May 14, 2012 Sadie Forsythe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: blah

I was a little wary of Drowning Mermaids (Sacred Breath, #1) at first. The cover made me think it might be more smut than anything else, but the synopsis really looked interesting and it has good reviews, so I decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did. It's not at all smutty.

I've seen the author refer to the story as Darwinian Mermaid's, and thats a fairly good description. Aazuria and her elegant entourage are no Ariel. They don't have shining scaled tales. They don't use sea shells in a poo I was a little wary of Drowning Mermaids (Sacred Breath, #1) at first. The cover made me think it might be more smut than anything else, but the synopsis really looked interesting and it has good reviews, so I decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did. It's not at all smutty.

I've seen the author refer to the story as Darwinian Mermaid's, and thats a fairly good description. Aazuria and her elegant entourage are no Ariel. They don't have shining scaled tales. They don't use sea shells in a poor attempts at modesty (and even less so for support), and they know human culture fairly well. They do, however, have an overbearing and questionably protective sea king as a father, so I suppose there are similarities.

One of the things I liked about Drowning Mermaids is the idea of mastery, the idea that given time (of which the mermaids have an abundance) humans can truly master an art. Scrieva doesn't present her mermaids as magical, spell binding, holders of innate power over the senses of humanity. Instead they are skilled, carefully trained and practiced. It reminds the reader that if even mythical creatures have to work at what is important to them, we can't expect to do any less.

The mermaids do seem awfully up on modern language, medical terminology, and weaponry. I found this a little hard to accept, considering their recent circumstances. Scrieva handles the language difference between land and sea people marvelously, but I thought the comfortable use of Methemoglobinemia, for example, stretched the credibility a little too far.

Despite this, without a doubt the highlight of the book was the actual writing. Scrieva's ability to infuse a slight sense of irony into even the most somber passage was a sheer joy to read. The occasional use of sarcasm at the expense of the characters made the reader feel party to a private joke, and created a comfortable intimacy. For this reason, more than any other, I'll be picking up the sequel Fathoms of Forgiveness (Sacred Breath, #2) .

Note: Looks like the book got a new cover. ...more

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