This is an original take on the origin story of the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid. I loved that story follows the Sea Witch from her origins and what made her the Sea Witch she was destined to be. There have been multiple Little Mermaid inspired tales but this was by far the best for me. The others lacked the depth that this beautiful novel does. I loved that this took place in Demark where the tales of the Little Mermaid first written. If you love retellings, villain origin stories and well written fantasies then I would highly recommend this book.

So, I pretty much have no words to explain just how much I adored this book, but I will do my very best:
THIS BOOK IS SHEER PERFECTION!
Even that does not do it justice! This has to be one of my top 3 reads of the year & I have read A LOT of great books this year!
The Sea Witch is beautifully written: lyrical, whimsical & fantastical. I often find I'm disappointed by The Little Mermaid re-tellings, as I loved how dark & heart-breaking the original was, and I usually find that the re-tellings don't capture this, but The Sea Witch really, really did. It was one of those rare books that haunted my mind for a long time afterwards, but definitely in a good way! It's so gorgeous!
I would highly recommend this book, but (without giving too much away) I would also recommend having a box of tissues nearby when you read it. It is an emotionally charged novel, with many twists & turns I just didn't see coming!
To summarise, I really adored this book & have already started recommending it to friends!

By now, it will be no surprise that I love The Little Mermaid, and want to read all of the retellings. I have wanted to read Sea Witch for Sarah Henning for years, since the time it had a different title, and it's publication date was pushed back. I have been patiently waiting for this book the whole time, and my god, Sea Witch was worth the wait!

Four years ago, Evie and Prince Niklas' friend Anna drowned at sea, and they have missed her every day since. Evie tried to use the magic in her blood, inherited from her mother, to save her friend, but to no avail. When, on Niklas' 16th Birthday, there is a storm that knocks Niklas off his ship, only Evie noticed who saves him: a girl with the tail of a fish - with a face remarkably similar to that of her long dead friend. Evie doesn't believe in mermaids, but she can't deny what she saw, nor can she shake how familiar her face was. When a girl on two legs appears weeks later, asking for help, with the same face, Evie confronts her about who she is. She is Annemette, and she is the mermaid she saw. Annemette has fallen for Prince Niklas, and given up her life under the sea to be with him - but she only has four days to make him fall in love with her, or she will turn to sea foam. Annemette tells Evie that she has only ever been Annemette, but her likeness to Anna is uncanny, and Evie has convinced herself that her magic did work that day. Desperate to save her friend this time round, Evie swears to do all she can to help Annemette, using her magic in any way she can. She won't lose her again. But you can't force a boy to fall in love, and there's only so much magic can do...

Oh my god, I absolutely loved this story! As the title suggests, it's the origin story of the sea witch from The Little Mermaid, of how Evie goes from being a human teenager with magic, to the most feared under the sea. It's a prequel story to The Little Mermaid, but one that, in ways, is almost identical to the original; there is a mermaid who becomes human because she loves a prince she saved from a storm, and only has so long to make him fall in love with her before she dies. Very, very similar. Until the end, I thought this was a different take on a retelling; an origin story that took place at the same time as the original, rather than a prequel - what if the Sea Witch was originally friends with the mermaid and tried to help her, and in helping her became the Sea Witch? And while that is what happens in this story, while Annemette is a mermaid, she isn't the little mermaid of the story we know. There is more than one mermaid in the sea.

I loved how this story was steeped in history. Sea Witch is, awesomely, set in Denmark, and Evie comes from a long line of witches, harking back to Burning Times witch hunts of the 17th century, when King Christian IV of Denmark was responsible for ordering people burned as witches. He had Maren Spliid burned at the stake just outside Ribe, who, in Sea Witch, is who Evie is descended from. Sankt Hans Aften is a celebration that happens before Lithasblot, a festival to honour the goddess Urdu, in which people burn effigy witch dolls into a bonfire - a celebration Evie must take part in to avoid suspicion, but a celebration that turns her stomach. Celebrating burning people like her, her people, her ancestors, knowing she would get the same treatment if anyone knew of her magic. The fact that real history makes up the backdrop to this story made it so much more credible, but also considering how horrifying that history is, it makes you really feel for Evie, and how she has to hide who she really is. But it also shows the danger Evie risks in trying to help Annemette.

And the danger is real. Not just because witchcraft is so abhorred, but because she herself is disliked by most of her town. She is working class, the daughter of the Royal Fisherman, and it's her father's position, and how her aunt - who is also a witch - has saved the King's life many times, that allows her friendship with a prince. But everyone thinks she's reaching above her station, that she's got too big for her boots, and needs to be knocked down a peg or two. She is constantly judged, even though her friendship with Niklas is simply that, and she has no intentions of becoming his princess. Any excuse would be enough for the whole town to turn on her, so she must never tell a soul of her magic. Not even Niklas.

Evie is a fantastic character. She cares about Annemette, whether or not she's Anna or not, though as the story goes on, she becomes more certain that she is. And the prince Annemette is in love with is Niklas, her own best friend. She truly believes they will be happy together, because of how Niklas looks at and treats her. She herself is in love with Niklas' cousin, Prince Iker, who has finally noticed that she's a beautiful girl, and things just seem kind of perfect - Niklas and Annemette, Iker and Evie. But despite how Niklas looks at Annemette, time is running out fast, and he's yet to kiss her - only true love's kiss will keep Annemette alive. Determined not to lose Anna again, Evie starts experimenting with her magic, to try to find an alternative way to keep Annemette alive.

It's such a clever, clever story! There's so much more going on than we realise until later, a twist that I did not see coming at all. It's bloody incredible! We get flashback scenes at the end of some chapters, and so, towards the end, we know the way things are heading before Evie does, and it's awful watching things unfold, knowing what's going to happen, and being powerless to do anything about it. It's so intricate as well, all the choices the four characters make that, one after the other, one on top of the other, that lead to this story, how things could have turned out so differently if people had made other choices. Or how others viewed those choices, and what they determined those choices meant.

Sea Witch isn't perfect, though. This is the second The Little Mermaid retelling published this year that lulls once the mermaid is human. In the big scheme of things, nothing much happens when Annemette is human, apart from the four spending time together, or separately in couples, during Lithasblot. Niklas, being the heir to the thrown and now of age, has more ceremonial duties to perform during the festival, and the festival itself is interesting, but nothing major really takes place. It does slow down a little. And although I now know, having finished the book, that things definitely are happening in those moments, we just don't realise it, I still think those elements could take place during something a little more exciting. But the characters themselves are awesome, and getting to know them better was enjoyable even if not much is happening.

And the story as a whole really makes up for the lull in the middle. Seriously, that ending is incredible! I didn't see it coming at all, but oooh, is it good! I do wish there was a little more explanation of how magic works so I could better understand why what happens, happens. But even so, it was just brilliant! I would highly recommend this villain origin story to all fans of The Little Mermaid! It's just amazing!

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books via NetGalley for the eProof.

Okay so I loved seeing the original story of a villainess i loved as a child.

The story I felt had a really good premise and I enjoyed seeing the characters develop and change. You never know how one was going to change from one chapter to the next and i find that it kept me interested in finding out what was going to happen.

The characters of the Princes were both my favourite seeing them bounce off one another and change throughout the novel was interesting and definitely two of my favourite cousins in a novel.

The writing was gripping and kept to what I imagine would have been the original but managed to also give it a modern feel.

I would highly recommend this to any Disney Lovers, Little Mermaid Fans or Brothers Grimm fanatics!

This book is a retelling of The Little Mermaid but with a twist that I really enjoyed.
This book follows the story of Evie who is best friends with the Prince of Havnestad however four years ago their other best friend Anne drowned. On the first day of their annual festival celebrating Udra, Goddess of the Sea, a girl looking exactly like Anne turns up however, Annemette is not what she seems and it is up to Evie to help Anne gain the love of the Prince by the end of the festival if she wants to keep her new friend.
I really enjoyed the characters in this. Evie is strong willed and willing to do anything to save her new friend. Annemette is mysterious and I loved finding out about her story and i also liked Nic though he kind of faded to the background around these to. My main complaint is that I wasn't blown away by the romance.
This is a well written quick paced book with a twist at the end that I really loved and it gets better and better as you progress through it.

I think there were really good things about this .book, and some flaws. I enjoyed he story line. It was a good re-telling of Ursula's tale. The atmospheric set up was impactful. I liked how the plot followed.
I wish the story was not so slow at times. I also didn't like how the romance was executed.
And I wish the character development was more structured and better.

Still, I thought this was a solid read, and I enjoyed my time.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for granting access in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really interesting take on a classic fairytale!

I quite enjoyed the characters and their relationships and seeing how things all linked together through them. Everything was not quite as it seemed with these characters and I loved watching them develop and reveal more about themselves.


The story is told in the present tense with flashbacks to what happened in the past which was really cool because as you’re seeing how the story unfolds in the present, you get to see what happened to lead up to these events. I enjoyed how this set up feeds you bits of information, slowly piecing together the mystery.

I did enjoy the story, however it progressed rather slowly in the ‘present’ sections. Not much seemed to happen over the span of ~200 pages. It took a while to get into tbh. The sections focussing on past events were the best parts. I think it would’ve benefited from picking up pace a bit. All of the exciting parts seemed to happen in the last 50-100 pages.

Overall it was a nice read, and a really unique twist on the little mermaid story, but the pacing was a little slow for me personally.

The sea is a fickle witch.
She is just as likely to bestow a kiss as to steal the breath from your lips.

3 1/2 stars. I gave myself a bit of a headache trying to rate this book. Parts of it were 2 stars, other parts 4/4.5, so in the end I've settled on this. But I will say one thing: this book is probably not what you are expecting. I hope it can find the right readers.

It's really a question of how much patience you have. And how easily you can sit through maritime chapters without falling asleep. It's a very slowly-paced book, especially during the first two thirds of the story. Any exciting witchy The Little Mermaid goodness you might be expecting happens in the later chapters, and even then it's pretty subdued.

Though, in many ways, Sea Witch is much smarter than I expected for a YA The Little Mermaid retelling. The story is set in 19th Century Denmark and is woven with hundreds of years of Danish history. The Danes, especially under King Christian IV, put many "witches" to death in the 16th and 17th centuries. Henning combines this real fear of witches on land with the story of the sea witch we all know from the Andersen tale (and the Disney remake).

There are many interesting aspects of what the author has done here. I love that so much of it is rooted in history; I love that I googled Øresund Kingdoms and discovered that the Øresund strait is a real thing. I love that it mentioned the infamous "witch" - Maren Spliid.

The story is about three unlikely childhood friends - Nik (the prince), Anna (now deceased) and Evie (the half-Italian fisherman's daughter). In the present of the story, Nik's near-drowning results in him being saved by a mysterious girl who looks like Anna. She is the beautiful Annemette and Evie quickly befriends her, feeling drawn towards this stranger who looks so like her friend.

Slowly drawn friendship and romantic dynamics lead toward magical secrets. Annemette is clearly not all she appears to be, but the depths of what she's hiding are indeed dark and full of terrors. This is all set to an atmospheric backdrop of salty air and sea breezes. Henning does a great job of infusing everything with a sea-like essence.

Also, Nik is a delightful little sweetie. Rarely are male characters allowed to be such starry-eyed romantics and it was adorable, yet not unrealistic.

Unfortunately, though, it really is slow. I actually wonder if I would have made it through if I hadn't committed to an arc, and I foresee many DNFs on the horizon. It's not a thrills and romance kind of book - it's a gentle wander through history, class divides and the unwarranted fear of witches. The occasional third person chapters also slow down the book. I think Sea Witch will work really well for the right sort of reader, but I think the majority of readers will pick this up expecting something it doesn't deliver.

I just loved the beautiful retelling and the story of Evie ...I go with 4 Stars for the book. The author's writing style as the character development is sooooooooo good. ♥
I loved the book

The Sea Witch is possibly my favourite villain origin story I have ever read. It's magical and so absorbed in friendship that you can't help but fall in love with the main characters.

Evie is a mystery all to her self, she is from a magical family but is unable to use magic for fear of execution. Other than this she is a normal teenage girl who builds friendships and falls for a boy.

Annanette and her uncanny resemblance to Evie's childhood friend who drowned years before adds a layer of mystery to The Sea Witch that keeps the reader on their toes right to the end.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a villain origin story that is unpredictable and will break your heart in equal measures.

*ARC received from publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

I love how much of a trend towards mermaid books there are this year! The Surface Breaks, To Kill a Kingdom, The Seafarer’s Kiss – all have a different take on mermaids, and Sea Witch is a great addition to the stack. Sea Witch is an origin story for Ursula, the villain of Disney’s The Little Mermaid (though she has a different name). Perversely, I’m going to start at the end of the novel, as really, only the epilogue, set 50 years after the main story, has anything to do with the film: once we get there, the nods are strong, with dialogue very close to the Disney film, if not directly lifted from it. Even down to the polyps on the floor of the cave.

I actually found this section to be my least favourite. I thought that the rest of the novel had been so original that it was a shame to be so transparent in the use of the source material, and also, so much of an effort had been put into the Danish setting, ie the Hans Christian Andersen side, that to go all-Disney was a bit weird. It was almost as if the author had pitched a Little Mermaid retelling, then got to the end of the book and gone ‘oops, better put that in’. However, it is a lovely and well-crafted homage to a brilliant film, and it’s really cool to see that scene from another perspective – I just didn’t feel it was necessary.

On to the main content of the story. We follow Evie, a girl with forbidden magic, and her best friend Nik, the prince, as they cope with life after their other best friend, Anna, drowned. After Nik nearly drowns too, four years later, things begin to take a turn for the weird, and we end up playing out the Little Mermaid story we all know – the arrival of a mysterious girl, who must gain the love of a prince within three days. But Annemette, the new arrival, is so very like Anna that Evie begins to wonder if there’s more going on…

This main present-day storyline is interspersed with flashbacks to the day of Anna’s drowning. The flashbacks are told in third person by a detached narrator, without reference to names. This sometimes makes it a little bit difficult to tell who the scene is looking at, as there’s a lot of ‘the boy’ and ‘the girl’, when there are two of each involved. However, I appreciated being able to view the pivotal scene from all four pairs of eyes – everyone involved was deeply traumatised by that scene, so I think it added a lot to the complexity of the impact of that day, to have those different takes outlined.

‘Complex’ is definitely the word for this book. By the end of it, I was reading astonishingly fast, even for me, as the twists and turns and danger and excitement took over. I finished it at 2am because I just couldn’t put it down at bedtime. My favourite thing is when fairytale retellings take a sharp turn somewhere in the traditional storyline, and Sea Witch definitely hit the mark for me. I was genuinely startled by some of the plot.

I think the best testament to this, though, was that even if this had been a straightforward retelling, as it originally looked like it was going to be, I would have been happy to read that. The writing is great, and although I’ve seen complaints from others about the pacing, I actually loved the way that Henning built the characters and their world up. It made the ending all the more powerful and bittersweet.

I loved Evie. She’s a really compelling heroine, and seems genuinely kind, which is something YA heroines often lean away from. A Hufflepuff heroine who just loves is fab to see, and I loved that she stayed true to herself to the very end. It would have been tempting to make her selfish and ambitious and Slytherin, since she is an Ursula-figure, but this was so much better and allowed for real depth in the story. Nik, too, is a delight – he’s a romantic! An idealist! A soft, emotional boy whose strength is in his heart, not his biceps. I loved him. No toxic masculinity here. I can’t talk about Annemette without spoilers, but suffice to say I thought her characterisation was stunning and perfect, too.

Honestly, I’m still thinking about this book. It’s a study in the ramifications of your actions, and it’s also a very enjoyable tale of magic, mermaids and love. Just go get it. Read it now.

Lush, haunting and beautiful story-telling by Sarah Henning.

The Sea Witch offers an alternative voice to The Little Mermaid and enables us to enter a world of magic and mayhem.

The story features around a young girl called Evie who witnesses the death of her best friend and the guilt surrounding her death. We learn about the town where where Evie resides; - where magic is forbidden and where witches are burnt to death - and we witness her being disadvantaged in life due to social class and the constraints that go along with it. Evie is seen as being beneath that of her two best friends (Nik is a prince and Anna was the daughter of a Baron) and from the very beginning we see some subtle and some obvious differences in how she is treated. Despite this, Evie remains kind-hearted throughout this tale. When she stumbles upon the mysterious Annamette, Evie believes this her chance at redemption and to put right a wrong she's been carrying for so many years. Add two princes into the mix and there's lots of romance, fun and adventure to be had. There's also heartache and betrayal in store and Evie soon finds out that the people she thought she could trust maybe the most dangerous ones after all.

I love the story-telling in this tale, it was more than just a fairy-tale - it was a make-believe world that was richly described (from the buildings to the Sea and down to the beautiful dresses). All of the characters struggle with the constraints of their set roles - as the princes have to conform to certain duties and behaviour, there are those who can't wait to put Evie in her place, and we witness the hypocritical behaviour of the Royals at one point - no magic/no witches or you'll be put to death except when magic is used to save one of their own.

Evie is truly the heart of this story and you can't help but want more for her, more happiness, more freedom and no need to hide her magic, especially from those who are her friends but alas this fairy-tale is dark and disturbing and we know there's no happy ending in sight.

I really loved when Evie got to use her magic and the other elements of magic in this book and I love how it all tie-in to the Sea and it's secrets. The friendship between Evie and Anna sparkled at times and we got to see her happy and mischievous and wild and free.

I found the love changes near the end a bit confusing - two characters in separate romances suddenly declaring their love for each other was a head-spinner. Aside from that, the ending (my favourite part) was so descriptive and well written, and drew the whole story together to provide the perfect conclusion of how Evie came to be the Sea Witch.

Thank you to Sarah Henning, HarperCollins UK & NetGalley for the ARC.

This story takes us back, back to the beginning of the myth and romance. What intrigued me was the idea of learning more about the sea witch. As we all know how much we despised her int he tale of the little mermaid, but how did she become that way. This book was interesting to read and had a fairly decent story but it did not engage me as much as i hoped. A solid 3 stars but a book that i am sure more teens and young adults will love more than me but i will say i love the cover of this book, It really pulls you into to have a deeper look at the story

I really enjoyed this retelling of the little mermaid - recognisably linked to the original story but with its own twists, which I really enjoyed.

I’m afraid this review does have some spoilers as there’s bits in the later part of the story I need to talk about!

Let’s start with the characters - Nik is an adorable cutie pie and I love him! Evie is also really great - I like how she uses her magic to keep the boats safe. And how much she thinks about Anna. I really like Iker at first but afraid I’ll have to come back to him!

I also liked the way the society played so well on facts and how life actually was at the time. I wanted more on why they hate witches but I think it would have dragged away from the main story. And I loved how it was written, so I wouldn’t have wanted that! The society and their judgement of Evie was actually really great for me, it’s nice to have a character who sort of accepts that but gets on with life anyway.

Onto the ups and downs. I both absolutely loved when we started finding about more about Annemette, and hated it. I loved it because the book became darker and picked up pace a little, and I love a dark twisty surprise. I slightly hated it because the revenge trope is my least favourite. It was well done, but she wanted revenge for something that they had no control over! Argh. It’s over used in tv, so I really notice when it’s in my books too. Having said all that, as I noted, it was done well, and I really like how it played out!

I also disliked the romantic twist at the end. Wtaf. No feelings at all (on one side) and then suddenly omg feelings? Ugh. I actually liked Evie and Iker too (until a point, at least) so more frustrating.

And then we have Iker. I liked that he was doing the whole playboy turned actually interested thing. I liked how he was with Evie, and it felt honest. And maybe it was. But what he said at the ball (argh so cryptic but don’t want to spoil it all)? NOT COOL IKER. And especially his actions right at the end. Went right off him, and was following in my friend Bea’s footsteps by wishing he would drown! 😂

Overall I did really enjoy this book, and it’s only those last two points that dragged t down a bit for me. It was still so well written and I liked the concept enough that I still gave it four stars, despite considering downgrading it.

I first saw Sea Witch listed on EW and was its about time you try this website. I was declined within a day.

So when I saw it pop up on NetGalley I expected the same… however that wasn’t the case! I got lucky and was approved.

The opening prologue was amazing, it grabbed me and I was so excited to know more about this world and the weird black stuff.

But then the story started and I’m going to be honest with you… it took 50% for the bit to intrigue me show back up. So I was a little disappointed about that.

I wanted to love this story but from what I already mentioned and the fact I kept getting the two girls confused in the flashbacks it made it a little hard to fully love it.

Luckily though the story itself did keep me hooked and I wanted to know how things were going to play out.

Sea Witch is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, making it the third I’ve read this year. It’s also a story about friendships. Anna, Evie, and Nik are best friends even though they come from very different lives. Anna drowns very early on in the story which leaves Evie and Nik mourning their friendship but also supporting and looking after each other.

Nik is the crown prince and Evie is an outcast who’s mother is dead, and lives with her aunt – their local healer, who is a witch but allowed to stay because they feign ignorance as she’s saved the Kings life.

Growing up whilst mourning your best friend turns out to be really difficult without all the political nonsense behind why your friendship can’t exist too.

So should a random girl (Annemette) show up looking just like your dead best friend, its pretty easy to turn the other cheek and enjoy this new found friendship.

I did really like how Evie and Annemettes friendship grew throughout the whole book. Their final scenes together were pretty emotional.

I also like how this Little Mermaid retelling is moreso about the creation of Ursula. I think those scenes were dark, harrowing, and so full of emotion.

So we know I loved the ending, the start, the story and characters but we haven’t touched upon my biggest gripe with this book. The gripe that knocked it down a full star.

In the last …15%? of this book a character does a full 180 on thier personality. It somewhat makes sense as Evie gains perspective on her life she hints at knowing this person isn’t as truthful and isn’t her answer to life.

But the very extreme actions they take at the end of the book is like 25003942 steps up from “hey they might be a bit of a playboy”.

Someone in this scene has to draw the guards attention and yes this character is the most obvious choice in this setting. However, it still felt pretty forced for me and a change of location could’ve easily added in another character overhearing and thus calling the guards to action.

I had whiplash guys. I was so confused.

I still really liked this book though. Its just one of those where you’re like oh man I like it! but I wish it had my ending instead!

Like you’ll recommend it to people, but with a bit of a heads up.

Anyway guys, thats all from me today. The cover is amazing and no doubt I’ll end up purchasing a copy to add to my mermaid corner.

I might as well get right to it. This book disappointed me massively.

I really tried to enjoy The Sea Witch but I found it incredibly painful to read from start to finish.

What I thought was going to be an action based, romance filled retelling was one great massive yawn. No joke, I think I fell asleep while reading this.

My main issue with this book was the pacing of the story. It was way to slow for my liking as nothing interesting or exciting happened till the very end of the book. A BIG THUMBS DOWN FOR ME. The book felt very character driven focus. Not a problem as long as the plot is moving forward but in this case, the plot was left at a standstill. It was definitely one of those books that I had to force myself to pick back up.

None of the characters stood out to me. I found them all very bland for my liking. Though most of the characters were given a good backstory, their personalities were boring and made it difficult to like any of them.

I really had hope that I was going to enjoy this book but unfortunately, it was one massive flop for me!

Wow, that's all I can say! Well no that's not true - I have plenty to say. "The Sea Witch" is the first book by debut author Sarah Henning. Sarah used to flex her muscles in the journalistic profession before turning her hand to fiction and updating the Hans Christian Anderson tale of "The Little Mermaid" making it new and current. Being a lover of both Disney and fairy/fantasy tales I was so overjoyed to have the chance to read and review this prior to publication.

This is the backstory to the sea witch, the villainess from the original tale, and tells the story from her point-of-view as a twelve year old girl. It explores how she came to be and how she knew how to make a mermaid take on a human form. However, Evie is a totally different character to Ursula and is certainly likeable and affable in this prequel. There are a great many things that I simply loved about this book - the Nordic setting and cultural elements, the writing which is absolutely exquisite, especially the descriptions of the sea, and the ending tied in perfectly with the original tale. I appreciated that the author added various details to make this story her own and I adored reading it. I was very surprised at how creepy, dark and twisted some of the story is but as I read a lot of crime fiction that is similarly dark, this appealed to me. At it's heart though, this is a tale of love, friendship and betrayal.

If you are looking to escape to a fantasy world that's immersive and engaging you need to read this! I cannot emphasise enough how glorious Henning's prose was. The characterisation was amazing too - I really cared about the outcomes for each character which is the sign of an exceptional storyteller and I truly loved our protagonist, Evie. With having a difficult time recently, this was the ideal potion to lighten the mood and take me far away from the real world for a while. A superb five-star read!

Many thanks to HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book is a backstory for the sea witch in Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, exploring how she came to exist and how she knew how to make a mermaid take on a human form. Some details in this novel take more from the Disney version, rather than the original novel, but Evie is no Ursula, and only ever tries to help those around her. If you're expecting a villain origin story, a-la Heartless, you aren't going to find it here, and will probably be disappointed if that's what you're looking for. Disney films are great and all, but never trust their adaptations to be accurate.

I really enjoyed reading this!!

The Little Mermaid is quite possibly one of my favourite fairytales, and the summary references Wicked as well. I cannot overstate how much I love that musical.

I knew going in to this that it was a prequel, but for the majority of the novel I found myself wondering if that had been a mistake, and if it was just a straight retelling. I wouldn't have minded if it was, like I said, I love this story. But it is a prequel.

There are a lot of flashbacks in this novel. The death of Evie's friend, Anna, is explored in great detail from many different perspectives. A lot happened that day, and the reader probably won't appreciate all of its significance at first. The writing styles between these flashbacks and the ordinary narration were distinctly different, which I really liked! The main narration was in first person, from Evie's point of view. The flashbacks were in third person, from many different points of view, but the narration never said the name of the character it was following, substituting things like 'the prince'. It gave them an almost dream-like quality and I thought it was really cool!

I really liked the magic in this novel. It uses the idea that things cannot be created from nothing, and that there has to be some sacrifice somewhere down the line. Magic for nothing is fun, yes, but this kind of magic means that there's more risk with using it, which I think is really interesting to read.

The only reason why this didn't get five stars from me is because the whole way through Evie is insecure about her relationship with one of the princes, only to suddenly realise that she was in love with the other. Also at this point Ike had just turned on her because her being a witch was revealed, and her feelings about this could've been explored a lot more. But she realised that she liked Nik and forgot all about Ike. This bugged me enough to dock it a star, as it detracted what what was otherwise a solid climax.

If you like magic, retellings, or the sea in general, I'd definitely recommend this book!

I like the story, it's a interesting retelling of The Little Mermaid, although there were parts I didn't enjoy so much, in the end it was worth it.

The characters are well-written, but nothing that really stands out to me, the same can be said about the writing.

ARC generously provided via Netgalley, in exchange for the above honest review.

This reminded me a lot of FROZEN- two girls, as close as sisters, are separated in a seaside kingdom. As they find their way back to each other there is magic, handsome princes and, of course, mermaids. Beautifully written with some gorgeous writing about the sea.