CORAL by Sara Ella is a moving standalone that focuses on the challenges of anxiety and depression. This post DOES NOT CONTAIN SPOILERS.

Why I was interested: As someone who adores retellings -- especially of The Little Mermaid! -- and faces anxiety and depression, I was interested in seeing a mental health angle to the beloved classic. Plus, I really love mermaid stories.

Judge a book by it’s cover: The cover is lovely and focuses so much on the colors that are discussed within the story. Including Coral and Brooke on the cover is a nice detail along with their books and the message in a bottle.

What to expect: This story really, truly focuses on mental health. Suicide and suicidal-attempts does show appear in this story, forewarning, but it is handled with such care you really empathise with the main characters, Brooke, Coral, and Merrick. This standalone is at once heart-shattering but also healing with hope truly at its core. It was nice to be able to truly relate with characters who feel anxiety and depression; their emotions feel so raw and how it really feels to be battling with these “Diseases.”

Why you should pick this book up: CORAL truly understands the rawness of mental health and the stigma around it. However, it also really focuses on the hope of “after.” This contemporary-fantasy story is heartfelt and caring in all the right ways with just the amount of plot twists you’ll be happy to find.

Want more?: This book will be published on Tuesday, Nov. 12!

Thanks for stopping by!
MG, #MediaGalReads
https://marenaelizabethgalluccio.com/blog/

Coral is a deep, emotional and impactful read.

There was a lot that I loved about this story. It deals with the topics of depression and suicide which made it a much heavier read than I initially anticipated. I felt these sensitive subjects were handled in a respectful way and provided a lot of insight into some of the feelings and challenges that someone dealing with depression goes through. I applaud Sara Ella in addressing how depression affects not only the person who is suffering from this disease but also the family members who are impacted by it as well.

While I love the content and goals of this book there were some aspects of the plot that left me wanting more. Initially, having the story told from three characters perspectives was a bit challenging to follow. I wasn’t sure of the timeline involved which was a bit confusing and Brooke was really difficult for me to connect with at first. However, as the story unfolded and I understood more about each character the plot moved along quickly. Ultimately, I’d recommend this story to individuals who want a better understanding of how mental illness can impact someone’s life and the lives of those around them.

I was expecting a fun mermaid read. This was everything but fun. It was gut wrenching, tragic, depressing, but not fun. And that’s okay. I think these type of stories are incredibly important. They show us that we are not alone. 

Everything with Hope broke my heart. She’s such a beautiful girl, I hate she was plagued with so much pain. 

Brooke broke my heart too. 

Coral’s POV was fascinating to me. I LOVED how it ended up intertwining with Hope, Merrick, and Brooke’s stories. 

I also love Nikki and Grim. 

The relationship between Merrick and his father, Hiro, was very real. I think a lot of children feel the same way about their parents as Merrick does with his dad. I also thought it was interesting to see how Merrick worshipped his mother, Lyn, although she is also just human. I think it’s really really cool to see such authentic parent/child relationships in a YA book. Those seriously seem to be pretty limited for whatever reason. 

I will say that this is an incredibly heavy book to read, so please be wary if you suffer from depression and/or suicidal thoughts. Please stay safe.

This book is multiple points of view and the story follows are 3 main characters…Coral, Merrick, and Brooke. Coral is the misunderstood mermaid. Her father and sister views emotions as weakness, a disease. Merrick who fells like he can never live up to the expectation his father has put on him. He wants to do things his own way and not be forced into his father’s mold. Brooke is letting her struggles from pas stop her from healing and moving. She doesn’t want help and tries everything to resist the treatment and care that she is receiving.

Coral is a Little Mermaid retelling but it’s no the typical fairytale retelling. This book tackles some tough topics depression, mental illness, suicide. Each character is dealing with their own personal struggles. Through out the story they each go through their own healing. In the end this book is leaves the reader with a very powerful message.“You are not nothing.”

Thoughts: I really liked how Sara weaved the story together and how all out multiple points of view come together in the end. Even though we don’t get the characters from the animated movie making an appearance….we still get little easter eggs from the original fairytale and the Disney movie.

This story is so important. It reminds us that mental illness is real and it wears many masks. That people may look ok on the outside but not on the inside. It’s so important to be there for the people you love and to remind them that they are loved. That they are not nothing and they are not alone.

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book!*

𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴—𝗜’𝗺 𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗿𝘆. 𝗜’𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗢𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀, which I know many people are appreciative of. This book doesn’t hide the fact that it deals with these things. 𝗜 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗜 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲.

𝗛𝗼𝘄𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿, 𝗜 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲. I don’t think I could in good conscience recommend this book to those people. It was quite a dark, depressing book with little to no light.

I also wouldn’t recommend this book to people not affected by those things. It was that badly written. So 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗻𝗼 𝗼𝗻𝗲.

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀, 𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲. There are deaths by suicide in the book.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 some of the 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸:
* What genre is this? Fantasy? Magical realism? Contemporary/realistic fiction? It tried to be so many things. AND THEN at the end the plot completely changed! It was a completely different story!!! WHAT THE HECK!
* What the heck is the timeline? It’s like the author just wrote random scenes, including different scene ideas for how people met, and then strung them together any which way. So it ends up feeling like there’s two different stories going on.
* Then the timelines were forced together st the end to have a big reveal that just made me feel cheated and mad and so confused. It doesn’t make any sense.
* There were 3 POVs. 2 were past tense 3rd person, 1 was present tense 1st person. Again, what the heck?
* Badly written. Fragmented sentences. So. many. one. word. sentences.
* Too depression heavy. Where’s the light?
* I didn’t want the couple to end up together. And when I wish that in a book, it means I don’t like the characters, and that’s a bad thing, since I am a character-driven reader.
* It’s like the author tried so hard to write a story about finding joy in life despite depression, but had no idea how to make a story around it. So the message got lost deep in the mess this book is.

Last, I’m going to make a quick comparison to A Court of Mist and Fury. I didn’t like that book. But at least it was well written. And the depression in ACOMAF was handled very well. It talked about it well in Coral too (I understood what the characters were feeling. I’ve never been suicidal, but I have felt the darkness of depression.), but it was too heavy, and the characters were defined by just their depression, and the rest of the confusing story got lost to the depression and suicide. ACOMAF had a believable, interesting story, and wove depression in. Coral focused so hard on the depression, and then tried to write a story around that.

I feel bad giving this book 1 star. But the only thing I appreciated was the author shedding light on the two topics.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a review.

3/5 stars

I really wanted to enjoy this book, and in a way I did. I loved the author's writing and will definitely read future books. However, the author starts the book off with a trigger warning. I have never been suicidal and I've never been as depressed as many people can get, or if I have it's lasted a short while and I've pulled myself out. However, I am a Veterinary Technician. My career of choice is one of the highest for depression, suicide, and compassion fatigue. Which is why reading is escapism for me. Reading about tough subjects just isn't than enjoyable to me because I'm reading to escape reality, not read about more tough reality. That's why I stick primarily to Fantasy and Sci-fi with some other fun genres mixed in. So I guess the 3 stars is just my own personal experience, but I believe this book will be powerful. I believe many will see themselves in the characters. It just wasn't entirely for me.

Before we begin, let me just advise everyone to heed Sara Ella’s warning. This story deals heavily with mental illness, depression, self-worth and suicidal thoughts and attempts. If any of these subjects can be triggering for you, pick up a different book.

Coral was an interesting ride. I, like many of the people I’ve seen talking about Coral, thought that the story was a retelling of The Little Mermaid. I didn’t realize just how loose of a retelling it was going to be, but in all honesty, I’m not mad about it. However, if you’re picking up Coral because you’re desperate for a Little Mermaid retelling, be aware that the mermaid aspect is heavily outweighed by the mental health aspects.

As someone who deals with some minor mental health issues (hello, anxiety), I was floored by the obvious level of research and care that Ella put into writing Coral. The fact that she made a point to start the book with a trigger warning, shows that she did not take the subject matter that she was tackling lightly. She took on a very deep and potentially painful subject matter and wove it into a beautiful and heartbreaking story full of pain and hope.

The writing style of following three main characters got a little confusing, especially with the time jumps, but after the first couple of ‘chapters’ it became easier to follow and piece together. The twist was epic but predictable. In fact, I had the ‘twist’ figured out a little over half-way through. Even though I had it all ‘figured out’, it didn’t deter from the enjoyment of the story and I found myself still eagerly reading to see how, what I believed was happening, was going to play out!

All in all, Coral was an amazing read and I would recommend it to just about anybody, just please heed the trigger warning. Always put your own mental health first.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Coral brings up topics that need to be out in the open. We need to be a world that embraces those with mental illnesses. For that reason, this is a fantastic book.

The beginning is admittedly a bit slow going. It took me a few chapters to get into it and really see what was happening. The ending also has its confusing moments, but the author does clear that up. At the same time, I wonder if that confusion at the end was necessary?

The characters were great. Very real with real reactions to everything that happens. You really do feel their emotions with them- the mark of a good writer!

Scenery and descriptions were slightly lengthy, but it wasn’t too much.

All in all, great book! I loved the ending. Would definitely recommend it.

As a student of psychology and mental health as well as being a lover of fairytales, I was hopeful for this Little Mermaid retelling, but it fell far short of the mark for me. I appreciated the author trying to speak to mental health issues in a healthy way, but there were too many main characters and stories trying to be woven together to do it well. The characters were rather one-dimensional and after just a few pages I was sick to death of all the sea related metaphors and descriptors. I ended up skimming most of the novel and then gave up.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

**Thank you to Thomas Nelson Publishing, Sara Ella, and Netgalley for providing me this ebook in exchange for an honest review**

First off, I want to give a GIANT trigger warning for this book. Depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and suicidality are all major themes in this book and can be hard for some to read. Please be mindful of your mental health while reading this book, and please seek help if you are in need. A great part of this book is that Sara Ella begins the book with a long trigger warning, which is so helpful.

Coral loosely follows the original The Little Mermaid fairy tale. There are three points of view in this book: Coral, a mermaid princess who feels out of place within her family. Human emotion is considered a "Disease" in the mer-world and her eldest sister falls to the Disease after falling in love with a human prince. Merrick is a troubled young man who's world falls to pieces when his 10 year old sister attempts suicide. He sets of on a journey to help her in the only way he can think of. Lastly, we have Brooke, a young woman who has entered treatment for depression and suicidal ideation. Her story is that of redemption and regaining mental health stability in a world she doesn't feel she belongs. All three separate stories become forever entwined after mutual loss and love.

There is a lot to unpack in this novel. As someone who's professional background (outside of reviewing books!) is in Clinical Psychology, I feel qualified to say that Sara Ella provided a realistic and haunting explanation of the affect of depression and suicidal ideation on the self and the family unit. There are a lot of bad examples of mental health and those who suffer from the disease in the media in society, but I see Sara Ella working to dispel the presumptions and biases and applaud her.

One thing I will say is that the timing and pacing of this book seem off. There was a point where I was very confused about the timeline, and I recognize this is due to trying to keep the big reveal from being realized too soon, but this makes the book more confusing than necessary. It's a good twist, but not worth the initial confusion. Also, the ending didn't seem to wrap up the story as much as I wanted. I felt disappointed in the lack of clear ending and I feel some ends are still loose.

Overall, Sara Ella has woven a story of life, love, and struggling with internal demons - something we can all relate to whether we want to admit it or not. It starts a conversation about healing and recovery from illness, but also continues the conversation about those who succumb to the disease and move on from this life. Again, please be aware of your own mental health when reading this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson publishing for a E-Arc of this book.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get into this book. I so badly wanted to love this book. I was not really into having three MC. That’s only because it was hard to keep track.
I DNF this book at 25%. This is just my opinion. I will definitely try and read this later on or try the audiobook (if it has one). I do feel like this has a great story. I just isn’t my cup of tea at the moment.

Heart felt, hard hitting, deep as the ocean.

I appreciated the insight that this story gives to a lot of very important subjects - such as depression, anxiety, suicide, toxic relationships, manipulation ect. Topics that are so important and need to be represented more in modern literature.

Having said that. this felt like three different stories, jam packed into one, which left me feeling that each character wasn't getting the chance to shine to their full potential. Their interwoven stories weren't done seamlessly from the start and it felt very disjointed between chapters, going from one character to the next, to the next. It really only starts to make more sense and feel more streamlined in the last quarter of the book, which for most readers nowadays is a little too late, sadly. But I am glad that I persevered to see the story line collide and actually come together so beautifully.

If you aren't a fan of multiple character perspectives, done from a chapter to chapter basis, then this will not be for you. However fans of stories that tackle mental health and overcoming life's hardest challenges, will enjoy this book.

*I received a free, digital ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Coral is a story told in three perspectives:
1. Coral is a mermaid fighting the constraints and expectations of being a princess while her elder sister is dying of the Disease.
2. Brooke is learning about herself as she discovers the intricacies of her depression in a group home.
3. Merrick is finding his own two feet beyond his father’s rigid constraints, his mother’s absent attitude, and his own sister’s struggles with mental illness.

Going into this debut novel, I expected more of a The Little Mermaid (1837) vibe, considering all the Hans Christian Anderson quotes and references to Disney’s 1989 movie adaptation. These were both inspirations, but this definitely isn’t a retelling - it’s a deeper dive into the themes of depression and suicide.
All three of the protagonists are connected to incredibly deep, traumatizing mental illness (and to each other) in some way and how they each handle their situations is imperative to the narrative. I think the overall premise of the novel is definitely something that needs to be discussed and I thank the author for not shying away from such difficult topics - especially the difficulties surrounding suicidal thoughts. This will definitely be a novel to open up conversation (though I also imagine, with the content, it will be challenged at some point after its publication).
From a writing standpoint, though, I found the pacing to be incredibly slow. The three perspectives are important but they seem somewhat disjointed and awkward for the first ¾ of the book. I was lost in this structure and felt it didn’t allow for deeper character development. The characters jump from upset to in love in mere seconds, and timelines are played with, and it all seemed very jarring to me without the in between parts to build more backstory. The three main perspectives just seemed “meh” to me because of this and found myself more interested in some of the side characters’ struggles.
I’m sure many will love the references and I believe the hope the story provides is necessary, but I was a bit overwhelmed with the constant references to mermaids and arching metaphors to describe every emotional situation the characters encountered. I realize this is inspired by a mermaid story, but I can only handle so many “expanses of ocean” and “crashing like waves” before I get bored.
Overall, I’m giving Coral 3 out of 5 Awesome Austin Points. I think it’s going to be a novel to help spark dialogue, but it’s going to be tough for some teens to read with the constant shift in perspective and time. Hopefully you all love all The Little Mermaid references more than I did but, if you don’t like them, I hope you can see how imperative the content will be for anyone struggling in similar circumstances.

I plan to post this review to my blog on November 3, 2019.

I dnf-ed after the picking it up again fir the 3rd time. I'm sorry but I just couldn't make myself read this book.

I received a digital advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am usually a sucker for retellings, but this one was just okay. I am also a sucker for books written in multiple perspectives, and again this was just okay. I felt really confused most of the time. It jumped too much and too quickly from person to person and made me feel a bit whiplashed.

I felt something was missing from this story and I just can’t put my finger on it.. It just didn’t grab my attention. As I said before, I love retellings and this one did not really feel like a true retelling. Despite reading the phrase “the Little Mermaid” 100 times in the book. I wouldn’t have really compared like I usually do a retelling. I feel this is more of it’s own book than a retelling of the Little Mermaid.

Kudos, to the author for tackling such tough and sensitive issues such as suicide and mental illness. But there really should be more of a trigger warning for this title.

The writing style while wonderfully descriptive, was still a bit confusing. I wish it had been just a little easier to get through because I really wanted to love this book.

Thank you kindly to Sara Ella, NetGalley, and Thomas Nelson Fiction for allowing me to review this title.
This review will be posted on www.featheredfables.wordpress.com closer to the publication date.

I might have liked this more if it hadn't been advertised as a The Little Mermaid retelling. I was not a fan of the romance and the three POV's were not my favorite, either. It was all a bit confusing until the end, and while I know that the reader can't be in on all the details the whole time, I feel like it still could've been made a little less confusing. I love a mental health rep book and wish that this would've focused more on that and maybe done away with the romance aspect altogether.

A very very loose The Little Mermaid retelling. Heavy on the suicide and depression, I loved the approach to that and how it came across. It was dark and hard to read at times, but I feel accurate. The three perspectives threw me and the insta-love didn’t work. I wish it would have omitted that altogether (weird coming from me because I LOVE a good romance).

First, I really appreciate what the author is trying to do with Coral. Mental illness needs to be discussed more often, especially in YA, and the way that Coral is set up, with the different POVs and the mermaid aspects is ambitious and has potential. However, I don’t think it was executed well, which is a shame.

There are some problems with the writing here, large and small. First, I never connected with the characters. They seemed entirely defined by the people around them, their surroundings, or their mental illness. The writer left tons of things unexplained throughout the book, with no hints or nudges that it’s a mystery, leaving me to wonder if she just didn’t think about it. For instance, Merrick hates his father, even jumping to the conclusion that his father beat up his little sister readily at one point - why? We don’t really know. Merrick’s POV never refers to some event that happened in the past, hinting that it will be explained, or even show Merrick’s dad being anything worse than a little distant. The characters’ reasons for their actions didn’t really make sense except to move the plot forward. And plot? What plot? I don’t actually care if books are plot-driven or character-driven, but this was neither.

The overall tone of the book is dark, but Coral’s sections earlier on in the book especially doesn’t really match the tone of the writing. It’s like the author was trying to make it fun and whimsical, like the Little Mermaid movie, but it’s just jarring in a novel that’s largely about mental health, suicide, and death. I felt like every page, Coral’s inner monologue would reference something about the sea, i.e.:

“...as graceful as a manta ray's glide”
“The intrusiveness of his gaze wrapped Coral's nerves in jellyfish tentacles.”
“The earthquake inside her bones rivaled a shifting seabed.”

A little heavy-handed. Coral’s POV also referred to her as “the little mermaid” about six times too many. I was most intrigued by the mermaid aspect of the book, so it was disappointing when those sections were the most annoying. Some of my gripes make sense later on in the book, but I still think it’s lazy writing not to flesh out this portion of the book, or at least hint at later revelations about it.

The story kind of gets turned upside down right near the end, and I had a big problem with it. Nothing made sense throughout most of the book about Coral’s life, Brooke’s history, or how their POV’s connect with Merrick. This gets resolved near the end with this dramatic reveal, and I honestly felt cheated by it. I’ve seen books do a plot twist like this well, but it simply made me mad in Coral. It seemed to me that the author just misled readers by changing details so that there’s no way they would guess the twist, which means it came out of nowhere, with no breadcumbs that could be followed from earlier on in the story.

I don’t want to complain about this book forever, so I’ll quickly list the other negatives:
- I didn’t connect with the romance and thought it was unnecessary.
- There were huge sections of the book that jump forward in time or leave out details (to service the twist at the end, I think).
- Side characters that could have been explored and fleshed-out were only given a cursory glance. I would have loved to know more about the grandmother and what exactly happened between her and - - Coral to strain their relationship.
- The mermaid/underwater portion of the book is heavily emphasized (cover and all) but was not really a major part of the novel.

Again, I respect what the author was trying to do here, but I really struggled to even finish this book, much less enjoy it.

I only got to 55% in Coral, please keep in mind that being said, it is nothing wrong with the book itself but an error between my e-reader and the file. It will not continue any further and just makes a white screen past 55%. Therefore, what I have read of Coral, it is standing at a 4/5 stars. With huge potential for a 5/5 stars.

This Little Mermaid retelling is so far out of the box, it takes its own spin on it. The three main POVs we view in this book are all so completely different; Coral, Merrick and Brooke. It goes from one characters POV to the next, and jumps from partial storyline to the next. I love books that travel through this way. You get all three character POVs and then again and again. Each time it goes around I have more questions and more guesses to continue throughout the book.

I cannot wait for this book to come out, so I can finish it and know how it ends. I have already pre-ordered it.

Title: Coral
Author: Sara Ella
Pages: 384
Release Date: November 12, 2019
Genre: Young Adult\Fairy Tale Retelling
Series or Stand-Alone: Stand-Alone
Stars: 3.5/5
LGBTQ?: No
Pass the Bechdel Test? (Depiction of Women): Yes
Trigger Warning: Lots of warnings! Thoughts of suicide, attempted suicide, and death by suicide.

I received a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Story: Coral follows three major characters, Coral, Brooke, and Merrick. Coral’s story is a very, very loose retelling of the Little Mermaid, while Brooke and Merrick are two humans whose paths cross after both experience the suicide and attempted suicide of a family member. They continue to meet while both looking for people who might help with their current situations.

When we start, Coral is a little mermaid who loses her older sister to “red tide” and feels increasingly out of place in her father’s palace. Brooke is a young woman checked into a mental health institute and has nothing left to give the world. Merrick comes home from a date to find his little sister has tried to commit suicide. He thinks she would be better away from their father, so he takes her and runs.

I don’t want to give any more away since the story slowly reveals how the characters are related. I wasn’t able to guess how they would interact, if at all. It’s a slow reveal, with most of it not coming together until about two-thirds of the book.

Likes: I think this book took a bold chance by centering the book on mental health issues. It worked most of the time and I became attached to several characters.

Dislikes: I have to admit that I got confused several times about what happened to who, etc. It cleared up more or less, but I think if I read it a second time the timelines would make much more sense. However, I don’t know if I would reread it. I’m glad I read it once, but I’m very picky about what I reread.

Recommendations: I’m hesitant on who to recommend this to. I think those who do not suffer from depression would benefit from reading from the viewpoint of a depressed person. I’m sure this is helpful for some experiencing depression, but each person would have to decide that for themselves. It is central to the entire novel, so I hope this review is able to clarify who may want to give this a chance and who may need to put it aside for now.