*I received this book from NineStar Press and Netgalley for an honest review*
I recently read and reviewed a book, and my review was fixated on the abusive relationship on display in the book. That specific relationship type, abusive, wasn’t in the book description, and I could see how a reader could read the book and not see the same signs I saw. Instead of seeing and reading a love story, like the book called itself, I saw and read something else.
Similar thing happened here. Though here the short story description plainly admits to including an abusive relationship story line. And yet, like before, I became fixated on something not listed in the description or book genres. No, not the love story part, that was there in the description, no the potential unreliable narrator story line.
I’m not really sure how to react to this story, and/or how I am supposed to react to this story. There were some massive hints that I was reading a story that included both an abusive relationship (main POV character with the stalker ex-boyfriend) and a budding love story (main POV character with the mermaid). On the other hand there were hints, less massive, that I was reading an unreliable narrator story. Like the part wherein the narrator stated several times that their mental process was broken (not in those words), and they weren’t always 100% sure of what was going on around them. Like how Linnea found it more unbelievable that Mren, the mermaid, found Lin attractive, than the part where Mren was a mermaid; or the part wherein Mren tells Lin a story that is directly on point – a solution to Lin’s problems, before Mren learned what Lin’s problems actually were; or the part wherein Linnea was 100% convinced her stalker ex-boyfriend was inside her house – to the point she got up, went to her car, and drove to his house and was only reassured that he wasn’t inside because she saw his distinctive truck in his own driveway (though ‘reassured’ puts it strongly); or the part wherein Linnea had become numb to the idea that it was a question of when, not if, her ex-boyfriend Mikey would kill her and her story would appear on the news (which is one of the reasons she kept calling the police on ‘the stuff’ that was going on – so there would be a paper trail on him).
Bah, I’m going too long down that particular path. Point is: I’m not sure if I should read this as a story of Linnea, the main character and only point of view; her abusive stalker ex-boyfriend; or read this as a story about Linnea, her stalker ex-boyfriend, and her ingenious solution to the problem – and the mermaid was just a figment of her imagination (there are even hints, beyond the ‘found it more unbelievable that the mermaid was interested in her, than that she was spending time with a mermaid’ that the main character wasn’t even certain the mermaid was real).
Alas – there is no big reveal indicating one or the other plot-line is the ‘real’ one. And since I’m seeing the ‘unreliable narrator’ hints without a ‘big reveal’, and note of such in book description, I assume I should not read that specific plot-line into the story. Or something like that.
On the other hand – I’m not sure it matters. I’ve had to think long and hard on what I actually read, which genre I was actually in, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter. At least in the sense that I’d end up at the same rating for either: love story with background stalker/ex-boyfriend; or unreliable narrator murder mystery. The same high rating.
It’s strange how I find myself where I find myself. To think I was going to do my normal ‘this is the first story I’ve read by this author’; ‘I became interested in reading this story because I had just recently started watching a television series called ‘Siren’ that involves a mermaid, though a different type of mermaid than appears in this story here’. But, alas, my review went off on a weird ‘other’ direction.
Stalker ex-boyfriend/abusive relationship: This is the story of a woman named Linnea. She’s chubby (self-aware comment on herself), and bisexual. She entered into a ‘not serious’ relationship with a guy named Mikey. When he started acting ‘weird’, and/or like he wanted more out of the relationship, she dumped him. He, in turn, could not accept that and the two of them have now spent more time in this ex-boyfriend/abusive/stalker situation than they did in their actual relationship. She has a restraining order on him. He ignores it. Does stuff that causes her to call the police. Adds to the paper trail, but he hadn’t, by the start of this story, done anything that would allow the police to actually do anything. The stalker/abusive asshole situation builds exponentially in this story.
Love Story: There’s one specific spot Linnea finds peace, comfort, safety. Everywhere else she finds herself in fear. Afraid that Mikey will show up there. ‘Her place’ is a specific spot on the coastline. A very rocky place next to a, normally, angry ocean. Very slippery and wet rocky place, with an ocean that would be super pleased to reach out, grab whoever is stupid enough to be on the rocks, and bash the person to death against the rocks. But Linnea can read the ocean. And knows when it is safe enough to be there.
During one of her times resting in her spot, she spots a glimmer on the water too quick to know if she actually saw something or not. Then it’s there longer – she’s spotted something. Then . . . there’s the face of a beautiful woman looking up at her, who Linnea later learns is Mren.
And that is the love story on display – the story of the budding romance between Linnea – human, and Mren – mermaid.
Unreliable Narrator: There are hints that I might have spotted incorrectly. If spotted correctly, this is something of a psychological horror – with a woman breaking (and she admits to herself that she is breaking – in the story line) to the point where she begins to have delusions/illusions, and ends up committing ‘the perfect murder’.
That, at least, is what I thought while reading the story. I’d not have even admitted seeing that in my review, though, if I hadn’t read the section after the story, about the author. I repeat, before I mention what I saw, that I thought of this unreliable narrator/psychological horror before reading that ‘about the author’ section. I did not get the idea from the fact that the author notes that they normally write horror stories, with occasional jumps into other stuff. *shrugs* It’s possible that what I saw was what I was supposed to see. It’s possible what I saw snuck in via an author who normally writes horror. It’s also possible that I, myself, am just insane and nothing I spotted was there.
(hehe – as I write this I keep remembering things that reinforce the ‘unreliable narrator’ thingie. My review could probably end up longer than the short story itself if I continued to note down these sudden remembrances – so I won’t – though I know I’m going to forget them as time passes (like the narrator noting how ‘magically modest’ the mermaid was – in that her hair, or the ocean itself, always covered her breasts – except for one very specific moment).
Rating: 4.77
April 6 2018
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