Book 90
Fish Girl by Donna Jo Napoli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I wanted to love this. When you have an award winning artist coming together with an equally renown author you expect a certain something. Technically this is very good and yet, for me, it didn't really sing.
It's about "Fish Girl", a young mermaid living in a small, private aquarium. She lives with a father figure "Neptune" who entertains the few customers none of which are there to see the sea life. Everyone wants a glimpse of "Fish Girl". Her job is to be barely seen without being fully visible and if she's a good girl Neptune tells her a story.
It starts out rather idyllic. But then she meets Livia, a young girl who fully sees Fish Girl. After listening to her, she begins to think about her life. She is unable to talk but she can listen and think. With the help of her friend, Octopus, she starts to explore the aquarium outside of the tank. She starts truly thinking about Neptune. She realizes that he isn't a father figure nor the God he pretends to be. It's all tricks and he is exploitative of her, bordering on abusive.
The more Livia visits, the more Fish Girl, named Mira by Livia, the more she changes, spending more time outside of the water, changing physically to walk out in to the world. That said, the end felt flat and a bit unbelievable. Still, overall it's a nice story with pretty art that looks like water colors but at the end it didn't stand out for me.
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