I listened to this one via audiobook from NetGalley. The cover caught my eye and when I saw it was about mermaids I had to pick it up.

I’ll be honest, this felt like a little mermaid retelling for a while and I absolutely loved it. This was dark, emotional and even at times felt a little bit cozy. I wanted to jump right into the book and just spend my days living in Atlantis.

A massive thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for allowing me to listen to this one!

First off I did like this book, but I found a few things that prevented me from wanting to give it a solid 4 stars.

An Ursula origin story! Sereia is a mermaid, daughter of Poseidon, sister to Triton. Right of the bat there is a situation that Sereia must navigate. Her sister is lost and she along with her father and brother go to search for her. Immediately who see that the dynamic between Sereia and her family has a lot of tension. There does not seem to be much love between the male and females. On top of an obvious bitter rivalry between Sereia and her brother Triton. They go one way she goes another and finds her sister trapped in a net, she rushes to save her but is not strong enough and has to go seek help from her father and brother. Once they return Poseidon is angry for not helping her, which she did try, this becomes a theme of no one knowing her strength. Behind closed doors its revealed that Sereia has more power and her mother wants her to take on the power of the sea and be the heir, her brother triton overhears and curses Sereia to land, and if she is to return she will become a monster (think Ursula, monster tentacles).

On land she falls in love, learns to like humans, joins the Atlantean forces (oh yes its a mashup of the little mermaid and Atlantis), SPOILERS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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She then must save a girl from drowning and return to the sea....and yes gets tentacles because of this. Then the Atlanteans(a very small group) found to have set her up to show that she really is a monster, her MMC love saves the day only to be lost by those that set her up, so in a fit of rage she kills everyone in Atlantis and sinks it to the ocean floor. So now she really does become a monster.



What I liked:
The writing was good, the flow of the story was fast paced enough that it kept me listening to this book in one sitting. I liked the idea of an Ursula origin story. There were many twists during the story that deviated from the original little mermaid story. How Sereia and her brother triton had this aggressive dynamic and how her curse caused her to have legs and if returning to the sea she would become a monster. Obviously once it was established it was an origin story I knew how it would end, but I liked the reason why she became how she became. The epilogue at the end was perfect.

What I didn't like:
None of the characters were fully fleshed out. I didn't believe the love between the MC and the MMC. I didn't believe the anger at the end of the story where Sereia just kills an entire community because Shes mad at a couple people. She literally saved a little girl and then now Shes mad so ill just kill her and everyone else. This is giving me Dany from GOT anger and I didn't like it. Also the one scene where Sereia says she was both from the land and the sea and the whole triton storyline plot just screamed Aquaman! So Idk, it had to many similarities to Aquaman down to the lines. When she comes onto land and has difficulty walking then decided to train to join the Atlantean forces (aquaman, see the theme) she just does one training session and Shes amazing? She had a fin in the water and now has legs, her balance was not discussed enough. The dynamic between her father and brother was never fleshed out either, like why is their dad terrible, what made them all this way. why did she go from hating humans to all of a sudden meeting them and acting like it wasn't a big deal. Would have loved to see more disgust turn into oh ok humans are not so bad. I kept thinking she would address her rage on the people but when she thought about it there was no remorse, which I get Ursula sucks but there wasn't enough believability to go from sweet, I love everyone to lets just kill them all.

All in all I disliked more than I liked but the potential was so strong.

I got the audible from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

I thought this Little Mermaid reimagining was a good read. This is not a Little Mermaid retelling as Ariel isn't a character in this book. This was not a fluffy, airy fairytale with a sweet ending. The FMC is out through the wringer. A lot happens throughout this story. It's fairly fast paced. Due to how quickly the story moves, character and relationship development often happens off page. I did miss some of those details. World building details weren't skipped on - the vivid world, though the FMC's eyes, was beautiful.

I thought the narration of this story was okay. I found a robotic quality to the narrators voice at times - not off putting really but weird. I'm not sure if the listening speed I listen at impacted this (x2). I always listen around x2 speed and don't find this issue often.


Slight spoiler:



I had no idea it was an origin story! I'm actually really glad I didn't. I was very flustered/annoyed by the ending of the story. The epilogue saved it for me because that is when it clicked (obviously - it clearly took me a long time to see all of the clues come together). Once it all came together, I appreciated the story as a whole more and thought the reveal was clever. This is a story of how a villain was created.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kristi McManus, and CamCat books for this audiobook ARC.

Wow, the title made sense in the end! This was a very different fantasy book, after she is cursed you leave the beautiful fantasy place at the bottom of the ocean and for a while you feel like it's going to just an ordinary tale from then on. Hopefully you stick it through it soon becomes magical again with some twisty turns.
I loved the audio of this book, I find it far easier to get through flat but necessary spots in the story when I'm already captivated by someone's voices doing some mundane tasks.
This was a nice story but overall wasn't the happily ever after I was hoping for.

Our Vengeful Souls is the origin story of Ursula, from The Little Mermaid. I think that is supposed to be a surprise at the end, but I figured that out fairly quickly into the story.

A young daughter of Poseidon is proving to be more powerful than her brother, interfering with his expectation of becoming Poseidon's successor. The brother will go to any lengths to ensure his ascension, including the banishment of his sister to the mortal world. There, she finds love and belonging, but still must deal with the affects of her brother's curse.

Good audio narration.

I truly enjoyed this book. The author was so detailed and descriptive in describing the world, people. And feelings. The rivalry between the siblings was horrendous and sadly encouraged by their father. No wonder it lead to such heart axhe and destruction. Is it bad that I was cheering on the destruction of Atlantis after how badly she was treated??