Coral
By: Sara Ella
4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary:

In a world where humanity often seems lost, what does it mean to be human? A new twist on Hans Christian Andersen's beloved--yet tragic--fairy tale "The Little Mermaid."

There's more than one way to drown.

Coral has always been different, standing out from her mermaid sisters in a society where blending in is key. Worse yet, she fears she has been afflicted with the dreaded Disease, said to be carried by humans--emotions. Can she face the darkness long enough to surface in the light?

Above the sea, Brooke has nothing left to give. Depression and anxiety have left her feeling isolated. Forgotten. The only thing she can rely on is the numbness she finds within the cool and comforting ocean waves. If only she weren't stuck at Fathoms--a new group therapy home that promises a second chance at life. But what's the point of living if her soul is destined to bleed?

Merrick may be San Francisco's golden boy, but he wants nothing more than to escape his controlling father. When his younger sister's suicide attempt sends Merrick to his breaking point, escape becomes the only option. If he can find their mom, everything will be made right again--right?

When their worlds collide, all three will do whatever it takes to survive, and Coral might even catch a prince in the process. But what--and who--must they leave behind for life to finally begin?

My Thoughts:
I love seeing ny fave fairytales rewritten by some of ny fave authors, this story is a modern day twist on The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson...
Though at first I was a little lost in how the three characters would collide but when they do... It is totally unexpected. I also like the approach the author took to describe depression and its many facets. Depression symptoms vary upon the person and this is something i have struggled with all of my life even as an adult now I struggle to control my Bi-Polar 2 disorder. When it came to certain parts of the story it really resonated within me, a deep understanding and overwhelming triumph in the way the author decided to write these parts. A beautiful story about growing and changing and beating lifes struggles... Highly reccomend!! Coming soon, thank you to NetGalley as well as the publisher for this early copy in exchange for my honest review!!

Pitched as a Little Mermaid retelling with anxiety and depression rep, I couldn’t wait to dive into Coral by Sara Ella.

But the deeper I swam into this novel, the more it became something I was not expecting. It was not all better down where it was wetter...take it from me.

I was surprised to find that this story is told from multiple perspectives, each of which has its own strengths...and weaknesses.

Coral is our Little Mermaid protagonist. I found her to be the most interesting of the three perspectives by far at the beginning and wanted more of her. Not only because her perspective is the retelling aspect but because descriptions in her chapters had a cool experimental flare where sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings were described as colors just as ordinarily as if they were said to be loud, or foul, or sad.

But I felt a bit bruised and battered when reading her sections; hit over the head with the idea that the Disease was a (quite obvious) symbol for mental illness and that she was indeed the little mermaid. 

Although, I would have suffered the beating, since I found her to be the most interesting of the three, if her chapters hadn’t become the least important and faded into nothing. It’s clear that the marketing team on this one took “little mermaid” to heart (I mean, that cover) and for good reason. It certainly got me hook, line, and sinker. But it ends up being only a small part of this story and isn’t really the focus. So, if Gregory Mcguire-esque fairy tales retold is what you’re expecting here...find another sea to swim in. Not only is it trivial to the overall story when it comes down to it, but the “retelling” is more so based on the Disney version with a few Hans Christian Anderson quotes sprinkled on top. 

Brooke is a troubled teen dealing with a lot of anxiety and depression. Her chapters were the most raw and drove the novel forward with the slight mystery aspect of her story; we wonder throughout who exactly she is, where she came from, and how she ended up where we see her.

Or they would have driven it forward if I didn’t feel like slamming on the brakes during her every chapter. I found Brooke to be almost insufferable. Her avidness to dislike and distrust everyone pushes the reader away much more successfully than her attempts at pushing away the other characters. Her unwillingness to let people in is a fact which she repeats over and over until you really can’t miss it. But only in her thoughts. In her actions, she quickly changes her mind about everyone with seemingly little reason. 

The secondary characters in her chapters spoke only in overly profound sentences that sounded straight out of self-help books. Brooke seemed to find this very comforting somehow, when in reality, I think a person would most likely find it strange and fake. Especially considering that when I say ‘secondary characters’ I mean all of them, whether they were adults or children, creating wholly unnatural sounding dialogue. I couldn’t help but roll by eyes and shake my head during the majority of her sections, at both her and everyone else.

Merrick is the son of a rich business man trying desperately to get out of his shadow and do right by his younger sister. His chapters were most often the glue that held the others together.

I might have liked Merrick if he and everyone around him weren’t fraught with tropes and stereotypes. He had the potential to really be a prince charming at some points but his overall character just got worse and worse. The idea that the only way he could help his sister, who is dealing with suicidal ideation and self-harm, is to find his mother rather than just...I don’t know, talking to her himself?! Getting her professional help?!  was so very frustrating. That’s not his only motive for finding his Mom, though, he also needs her because he would absolutely die if his sister asked him to buy her tampons. My eyes rolled so hard at that one I thought they’d be stuck up there forever.

There’s a romance that blooms amidst the chaos that seemed almost an afterthought. Placed there, perhaps, as a seemingly required homage to the original fairytale. We are told more than shown why and how the two characters come to like each other. The time they spend together, evolving this relationship, is mostly in the time between chapters, and in the periods in which the story skips over. Even if I felt connected to the two characters on their own (which I didn’t), the little time we spend with them makes it even harder to ship.

What was most frustrating across all of these perspectives was that when it came to overall characterization, the role that suicide and suicidal ideation played was...unfortunate. The mental health rep was the second huge reason I wanted to read this book; I’m always ready for good representations of anxiety and depression. 

But this was...not that.

I think, if it matters, that the intention here was pure and good. The result just isn't. Suicidal ideations and attempts are so essential to plot and characters lives that it defines them and the story. Suicide is at the root of most character motivations and events, as if it is a writing tool or a mere plot device, and the book is so saturated with it that it loses impact almost completely. Characters become little beyond their failing mental health. 

 I really don’t think that was the lasting impression that this book was meant to have. 

What made me continue reading for most of this book was my desire to know how all three perspectives came together. From the start, they feel separate, especially since two perspectives are told from third person past tense and one is told from first person present tense.

There are plenty of clues to deciphering the truth in an attempt to keep you enthralled. But they are all quickly followed by misnomers and jumps in time, so that even when you think you’ve figured it out, the story makes you believe that you haven’t. When the perspectives do seem to come together, it appears that one will acknowledge this and another will not, which is more than a little perplexing. It doesn’t feel like the natural, fun, figure-it-out-game of red herrings and piecing together clues, but rather like you’re being tricked as a reader and purposefully led astray so that there can be a big reveal at the end. Then when things are revealed, you realize you were right all along, but merely lead to doubt yourself. By the time I got there, I’d been lead on such a wild chase for so long that it didn’t matter to me.

That being said, the ending did clarify many things, even if it did create as many questions (and plot holes) as it answered. The story takes it time wrapping up, attempting to explain what it denied to tell you throughout and trying to force you into an aha! moment.  But it’s too little to late. At this time, it becomes clear that what this story was trying to do was play with a slightly experimental and complex play with time and storylines. Which, is actually incredibly interesting, but, as is clearly shown here, is extremely difficult to achieve. The result is that I was confused for the majority of the story, and even at the end when things were supposed to be clarified. I felt as if I would need to reread this story in order to fully understand its impact, see what it was trying to do, and the strengths it had (not the ideal reading experience). Otherwise, it’s mostly lost on me. The trade-off of this play with time is also that the story takes place over a long period of time, and sometimes skips ahead months and years with barely a mention of the time that had passed. 

This book just really missed the mark for me. It was not really what it was described to be, and not what I think it set out to be either. The characters were unrealistic and unnatural and therefore hard to care for, and the plot was confusing and overly complicated.

What is the most frustrating about this is that it had the guts to be a good story. The play with time and story, if done well, could have really driven the story and created something original. The themes that it was attempting to convey (awareness of mental health and specifically those who struggle with suicidal ideations) is so important a message to share. I was invested in what I thought this story had to give me before I started reading and was left painfully wanting. Perhaps with a few more rounds of content editing this could have been something great. But as it stands I had to rate this book 2 out of 5 stars, my lowest rating of the year so far. 

Coral  will be released November 12, 2019.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for the opportunity to read a digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review!

When I first dove into this book, I was confused. It switched between three characters rapidly. Once you caught the hang of it, it came together beautifully. Coral was full of deep emotions. I like the metaphors that were used. Definitely had an important message.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Wow. Where do I begin? I didn't know what to expect going into this book and I'm still surprised at how tragically beautiful it was.

It discusses various mental illnesses in a light that let's those who may be struggle, know they are not alone. (she gives a very detailed trigger warning in the beginning). In this aspect, for me, the novel is relatable.
"you'd be fine, if only you'd choose to be."
"you're making yourself sick."
"it's all in your head."

It pulled me in further and further with each chapter. The story is told from 3 POV's and you can guess what's going to happen about 75% of the way through, but it is magical. She ties everything together perfect. Each puzzle piece fits.

"You're not nothing. You're something."

Strong/amazing imagery used throughout.
Some of my favorites are the use of colors/sounds of colors and then how those colors change throughout the book when the tone changes.
Coral is used because when a coral dies, it fades to gray, losing its color. This had me crying.

The parallels were also really great, but if I discussed those, they'd give everything away.

I really loved this book, it pulled me in every direction, but it worked.

There were a few misused words and missing punctuation, but only a few.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.
Oh, how I wanted to enjoy this book. I had been saving this one for a while, waiting until the right mood took me, waiting until I was ready to fully immerse myself in the world of a very special retelling…essentially A Little Mermaid retelling. I love a retelling, but this just fell flat for me and I can’t tell you just how disappointed I am that this was the case. I was grateful that the author/publisher inserted a trigger warning at the front of the book, but I didn’t fully appreciate just how apt inserting that proviso was going to be.

Before I try to wade through this review, I will give credit where credit is due. Sara Ellis had a monumental task of giving representation to sufferers of mental health. It is a beomoth of a topic. It varies so much from person to person and there isn’t enough representation in Young Adult fiction. Ellis chose the most complex of topics to write about and for that she needs to be commended. This book is just so sad though. It does wrench emotions from you and depending on whether that impacts upon you negatively or positively it could be a good or bad thing. I have a history of mental health problems, mainly PND after the birth of my babies so this did resonate with me. I deal with social anxiety and in that regard, I use books as an escape, a way for me to just forget about real life for a couple of hours. Life is seriously tough and yes that’s what you expect and deal with, but this book just didn’t even give me a glimmer of hope that things were going to get better and I just NEED that. The end result of finishing this book was that I was just damned confused way too much.

The multiple POVs were extremely difficult for me to follow and I did find myself flicking back and forth to try and make sense of what was happening with each character. At points it felt like I was reading three different stories rather than it flowing as one. The writing style was awkward also and it read in a jittery fashion.

The Story complexity just didn’t fit the characters. The internal voices of each character just left me feeling meh. I didn’t particularly care much for any of them and it really shouldn’t have been that way. Corals voice just faded away into the nothingness for me and I got quite confused with sections of dialogue because she wasn’t memorable for me and I wasted time going back to read certain pages again. She should have been the strongest character but instead nothing warmed me to her. I think the storytelling between modern day humans and the life underwater with the merfolk just didn’t gel well for me. It had incredible potential but it’s a no from me.

The thing that has knocked the rating down to 2 stars from me is the fact that the theme of mental health was far bigger than the story. The characters seem to have been written so that the mental health seemed to define who they were, and that FUCKING pissed me off. Mental health doesn’t define me and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t for others either. You didn’t really get to find out more about their personalities, what makes them tick, what they loved, what they hated outside of being a mental health sufferer. There were no complexities to their characters just mental health.

The plot was pretty much dead in the water. Sorry for the pun. It was slow as all hell. Every chapter I got through, I found myself wondering just when would I work out what the plot was? You would think by 50% that I would have worked that out, but no, it was not obvious at all. The three characters didn’t come together until quite far on at the expense of a perceived big twist that really wasn’t all that twisty and ruined the experience that could have been woven intricately by this point. I do like what the author tried to do but it just didn’t work for me.

Before I begin there are trigger warnings in this book for suicide, depression , self harm, just for info.

I absolutely 100% love Sara’s writing, it is so beautiful and so well constructed, her world building is so good. The different POVs are done so well, they are clear distinct voices of each character each time it changes you know whose perspective it is. Its an emotional read, deals with such difficult issues but handles them so well and with sensitivity. This is not a light read, don’t think because it’s based (albeit loosely) on the little mermaid it’s light and fluffy, this isn’t Disney, this is loosely based on the original little mermaid story! It’s a rewarding read, not easy by any means, but such a beautiful read. Thoroughly and highly recommended.


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

**Before I start, I want to bring your attention to the author’s note. If subjects of suicide, self harm, depression, anxiety, or the death of a loved one will bother you, please use caution.**

Wow. Just wow.
Sara Ellis is an author to watch for. She is an expert story teller.
I found it confusing to follow the story at first because Ellis jumps around from chapter to chapter and character to character in a swirl of thoughts. You don’t realize who the characters really are. I realize now that this was done on purpose, and it was executed beautifully! She keeps you guessing the entire way through the book, wondering how everything is going to finally fit together and make sense. It feels almost as if we are living the mental health trauma with the characters.
I don’t think I’ve ever been more mentally or emotionally invested in a novel. Truly, it was a wonderful read!

This was raw, beautiful, and amazing. I loved the characters and following their struggles. While it was based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, I feel like Ella made the story her own.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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I received an advance copy e-book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed are my own.
As many have said in their reviews, please read Sarah Ella's warning and note before reading this book.
This book was rather confusing at first, in that there are many different viewpoints and stories going on at the same time, but I stuck with it, hoping it would be made clear in the end, and I believe it was. It's a rather sad story because it's about depression and suicide. The author handles the issue with tact. It's a difficult subject to write about. I do wish that she had written more about finding help and hope in Jesus, as He really is the answer. (And I'm not saying that you shouldn't get help from medical professionals, because I think you should, but speaking from experience, you need to find your worth in Him!)
Anyway, thank you for writing a book for teens and young adults from a Christian perspective. We need more Christians writing for teens!!

Coral by Sara Ella starts off with three seemingly disconnected stories that are bound to come together at some point. There is Coral, the mermaid whose oldest sister is taken by the Red Tide. Then there is Brooke, the girls who is committed to a mental institution for trying to commit suicide. And finally, there is Merrick, the boy who hates his dad and has a sister who also wants to take her own life.

As the story keeps going, certain details unfold, and you realise that a lot of it is not what it seemed in the first place. There were so many revelations that I fell from one shock into the next as I was reading. The fact that the whole mermaid story was completely made up by Brooke to be able to write about and deal with the loss of her oldest sister, River, was such an eye-opener. I had never seen that coming. Even though I did know there had to be some connection between Brooke and Coral because of the little details in their stories that added up together and just seemed to fit.

What stuck with me most is the way Sara Ella deals with mental illness in Coral. It illustrates that mental illnesses such as depression are just as much a real disease as for example cancer. It’s not a choice or just a mood that will just go away. No one would tell a cancer patient to “just get over it”, but it seems okay to say that to someone with a mental disorder. This struck a chord with me, because I’ve had people tell me so many time that I should just stop thinking about my anxiety and it will go away. That’s not how it works. Additionally, the book is riddled with great quotes that made me stop and think for a while every now and then.

When the book is released in November, I’ll be the first to order it. This is just one of those books that I need to have in my collection so I can get back to it and enjoy it for the rest of my life.

* I received a free eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my thoughts or opinions of this book *

This book, was just, WOW.

When I went into it, I was expecting a retelling of the Little Mermaid, but, oh my gosh, this book is so much more than that. It was a beautiful and exquisite take on mental health in today's society, and for that, I honestly cannot recommend it enough.

However, I will say that I experienced a lot of difficulty following along with the story, especially towards the end. While it begins as a YA contemporary fantasy blend, somewhere in the middle it does a complete genre-switch that I wasn't really expecting.

It also became super-graphic at times, which made it a very difficult and emotional for me. As some of you may know, I have been diagnosed with both depression and anxiety, so it hit me that much harder while reading it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. Now that I have a better understanding of the genre/message of the book and the direction in which it was heading, I'm hoping that I'll be able to re-read it in the future to gain a fuller appreciation of it!

3.5/5 stars

Trigger warnings: depression, anxiety, suicide, cutting, etc.

Sigh... this book... this book is heavy. Way more heavy than the summary on goodreads actually details. I had to stop this book at 38% because of how heavy it is.

By this point, I found the trigger warning the author gave and I honestly wish I would have read it before I decided to read the book. This is not to say that there is something wrong with the book because there isn't. The writing is fantastic. Although I would not even remotely call this a retelling of the Little Mermaid fairy tale that is actually pretty misleading. But I digress, the writing is fantastic and how the author, Sara Ella, was able to add so much depth to these characters in a very short amount of time is unbelievable.

Due to my personal reasons I was unable to complete this book but it is not due to the lack of trying. Normally I would not rate a book that I dnf but in this case I will. If you are strong mentally and are able to view other people's stories in regarding to mental illness, you wouldn't go wrong with this book.

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42772077-coral?ac=1&from_search=true

Thank you Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for an e-ARC of Coral by Sara Ella. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Coral is contemporary/magical realism novel that deals with heavy topics such as depression, suicide, self-harm, and metal illness (trigger warning: there are some really heavy topics in this book. That being said, they are delivered eloquently and with much understanding. I can see where these topics can be really difficult to read though.)

There are mermaid aspects and it is loosely based on the Little Mermaid fairy tale but is very much it's own different story.

The POV switches between three main characters, Coral the mermaid, Brooke, and Merrick. I enjoyed the premise of this book but overall I was a bit confused and it just didn't flow easily for me. I did feel for the characters but things jumped around too much at times and I just couldn't connect with this book like I wanted to.

A poetic story, Coral deals with the fallout of suicide, depression, and mental illness through the lens of the Little Mermaid.

The story starts with following three different characters, Coral, Merrick and Brooke, as they deal with mental illness in those closest to them. What makes it particularly interesting is that Coral is a mermaid, the youngest of three daughters of the sea king. The eldest, the crown princess, is sick with the Red Tide, an overwhelming wave of emotions that lead to disaster and death, brought on by loving a human. As Coral is dealing with the fallout, the reader jumps over to Brooke, a young woman in a mental health center, and Merrick, a wealthy young man whose villain is his father.

Overall, it's an interesting novel that touches on a very real and painful topic. That said, the constantly shifting point of view, while seeing the connections there, make it harder to emotionally attach to any of the characters. I was about halfway through before I really got into it.

Coral is a very loose retelling of The Little Mermaid. I enjoyed it but I also had a few issues.

This book heavily featured mental illness which I thought was executed brilliantly. It’s hard to weave something sensitive into a book like this but I thought the author handled it well and had obviously done their research.

I did find the beginning somewhat slow and found myself preferring to do other things other than read. Following the three different perspectives (Coral, Merrick and Brooke) I found to be confusing and I struggled to connect with them. The book did pick up and I started to become invested in the story.

Overall, it’s not a bad book and it may just be not to my taste. I would still encourage people to give it a go :)

This book has a very interesting premise, but once I started to read it I began to lose interest. First off, the story starts out slow to the point where I'm just wondering why there are even three perspectives in the first place if the story was moving at such a pace. Secondly, I was left confused more than I probably should be. In fact, throughout the story, there were many instances where I felt even lost. I thought maybe it was the writing style or me just not paying enough attention to the story or even I'm just not reading thoroughly enough. Despite all of these speculations of mine, I will conclude that the story was written with an air of vagueness. There are topics, phrases, incidents, and memories that occur in the story that are repeatedly mentioned but are not thoroughly explained nor flushed out. For example, the "Red Tide" is brought since the first chapter but is never explained until the end.
I appreciate the sensitive topics that it does heavily focus on, which was mainly mental health. It was evident that the story heavily focused on mental health from the very beginning till the very end. I also appreciate how the concept had to be explained to the main characters so they can understand it better because sometimes we don't understand things that are caused by it.

While I certainly applaud the author for raising awareness of mental health and putting a warning in the book about how it could be triggering for some people, I had to stop reading. The further I read, the further I felt myself getting depressed. Make sure if you do read this book, read the warning as well

Rating: 2.5

Coral is a re-imagining of The Little Mermaid, where young mermaid Coral believes she might be afflicted with the dreaded Disease. The Disease is carried by humans and it gives mermaids feelings, which more or less marks them for death. Simultainously with Coral's story, we follow Brooke: a human girl struggling with her mental health. Then suddenly, their two worlds collide. Throw in a prince ready to sweep someone off their feet, an old sea witch and a transformation, it's starting to sound like a cool version of The Little Mermaid, which is what drew me in!

The sad thing is, this book did not live up to any of my expectations. It was captivating in the beginning, but it quickly became a huge mess of me trying to figure out what was even going on. I think the book could have been clever, with the stories merging in a way, but I struggled so hard to separate them that the whole thing was lost on me. I was also severely disappointed with the second half of the book, where the mermaid aspect of the story was more or less gone. It was simply no longer the book I signed up for. I loved the mermaid part of the story, the lore behind the Disease and the way the stories knitted together at the end, but apart from that, this simply was not for me. I didn't care for most of the characters and the important issues of mental health were un-interesting to me more or less because I was not here for it. Don't get me wrong, I love stories depicting mental diseases and struggles and reality, but I wanted a simply retelling of The Little Mermaid, not a story that was 85% humans and no magic.

I'd recommend this book to people looking for a book about mental health and the journey of a young girl struggling to grasp a hold of hope. Mix this with some elements from The Little Mermaid and you've got Coral. Sadly not for me, but nontheless an entertaining read!

The premise of "Coral" sounded incredible interesting to me (I am forever on the lookout for a good mermaid book) but I found the execution somewhat lacking. That’s not to say that I did not enjoy the book or the story, the middle of the book just left me wanting more.

I was left confused at several parts of the beginning of the book and at first I thought I had missed something because I was reading too fast or not paying enough attention but I was still confused even after rereading whole sections. The story is written with certain events having an air of ambiguity, there is the fairy-tale aspects and the difficult subject matter of trying to describe what mental illness feels like and by the end of the book everything does make a lot more sense, but while I was reading, I was left confused about what had just happened. While I really liked how everything played out in the end, I didn’t enjoy being confused while reading and almost gave up on the book, especially when Coral first turned into a human and then was suddenly in high school and acting like a normal teenager.

I also found it a little jarring to switch between characters POV especially at the beginning of the book. Two of the POV’s are written in third person with Brooke being written in first person which seems a little odd at first and kept taking me out of the story every time her chapters started. Again, this makes perfect sense by the end of the book but I wish I didn’t have to know the ending to understand.

I really did enjoy the story and how everything worked out, and I loved how the author dealt with such difficult subjects, I just wish this was executed a little smoother. You almost have to read the book twice, once to get to the ending and then again to actually understand what happened.

I was given this e-arc to review on netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Im giving it 3.25 out of 5 ⭐
I was really looking forward to reading this book as I am a fan of fairytale retellings, but unfortunately I was not a fan. The story itself takes on an iteresting perspective as each character is in some way dealing with the effects of mental health issues, and as much as i appauld the author for blending these difficult and still taboo subjects with the ideals of a fairytale to give it more of a realistic feel. I just felt that it outshined the overall plot of the story, which was a shame.