Whilst this book was extremely powerful - it was too intense for me.

Definitely a title that needs trigger warnings shown very clearly. I Think the fact it has draws of The Little Mermaid could entice people to believe this book is a lot tamer than it is.. Even if it's the Christian Hans Anderson tale thats linked.

While I'm happy it's based entirely on mental health and the detrimental impact is has on everyone's health - I was definitely not in a position to read it myself. I urge only readers who have mental health under control to read this beauty.

Incredibly well written.

I love fairy tale retellings, so this one was a no brainer to pick up! I enjoyed Sara's spin on the story of the Little Mermaid.

This book started out beautifully. Its a heart breaking story about a little mermaid who goes through depression while also handling her sister's depression and other ugly situations. In the mermaids world they consider sad emotions and depression as a disease and if you catch it you will die from the Red Tide. Once our main character Coral turns human and figures out what depression really is we start to see a whole new view and concept of it and not just from the main character but other characters along the way.

I don't think its a retelling of the Little Mermaid just because after reading about 30% of the book, the little mermaid concept goes away and just focuses on the characters depression and neglect. Which I was really upset about because I would have preferred more mermaid action. I was a bit confused reading the book as well because I wasn't sure who Brooke was.... until I got deeper into the story and finally realized the big reveal.

Overall I would have liked the story more if there was more mermaid and less humans.

This was such a TWISTED fairy tale. I don't want to even say a retelling, because it was so unique and powerful that it stands on its own two feet. I really love Sara Ella's writing style as well. I will say, take the trigger warning seriously because this story does get DARK at times.

I'm pretty sure I raced through Coral by Sara Ella. It is a compelling story or rather, more accurately, a collection of compelling stories. Each chapter is written in the voice of one of several different characters. Each voice expresses in very real ways the emotions they are feeling at that particular time and depicts the various things going on in their life. It is quite affecting. It is very real. It may be too real for some readers. It almost was to me.

At the beginning of the book, the author presents trigger warnings and at the end of the book lists ways for people to get help. This book presents real life scenarios in a fictionalized manner; I think that makes it easier to face, easier to understand and perhaps, hopefully, makes it easier to seek help for yourself or even to spot similar situations others may be in so help may be offered.

Sara Ella described depression, it's accompanying feelings of hopelessness and anxiety with its feelings of hopelessness accurately in my opinion. Of course, it varies for each person but I believe that the message comes through. She understands and that is something.

This is an important book about important matters. You may not be able to read it now, you may not be able to read it all, you may not be able to read it at all but it is good that someone wrote it, that someone knew, that someone understand, that someone came through it.

Coral #NetGalley

CORAL is not a fairytale retelling of THE LITTLE MERMAID- while it may have been inspired by some of the fairytale, it is certainly something different altogether. The book is told from three perspectives, Coral, Brooke, and Merrick. Coral is a mermaid who fears the Disease, which has captured the women in her family frequently. They are not expected to show emotion, but feelings creep up on them and can destroy them. While not so specifically categorized, it seems the Disease is depression and/or anxiety.

Brooke is a young woman who is trying a new healing facility for her anxiety. She is not sure if it will help and a bit skeptical of the people there. Her soon-to-be best friend is a younger girl with a history of self-harm. She has a difficult journey ahead of her, and she has already learned to be wary of the world.

Merrick is a wealthy boy who is somewhat directionless. His father would like him to go to college and is therefore not giving him his inheritance (though he is paying for room and board) until Merrick decides what he wants to do. Merrick sees his father as the villain in his own life, and when his little sister Amaya (Maya) attempts suicide, he believes his father is behind it. When his mother disappears after the attempt, Merrick decides to take his sister and go on a quest to find his mother, who he is convinced will help. However, Merrick is in pain and things are not quite the way he sees them.

In terms of what worked well in this book, the take on mental illness, suicidailty, depression, and anxiety were really strong. Through the characters, particularly Coral and Brooke, but also Amaya, the reader sees the toll these can take, the benefits/challenges of treatments, and also the problems with the societal stigmas against mental illness (particularly/most blatantly through Coral's family).

The difficulty with the story for me was following the different characters/timelines. I felt like I was reading a few different stories, and the changes between perspectives were too abrupt for me to easily flow between. There is a twist with the perspectives, which was not hard to figure out from earlier on (though how exactly they would fit in time was more challenging), but keeping it a secret twist also made it harder to follow for me. The romance was a bit hard to buy into also, mainly because the main story weighs so heavily that the romance felt too tertiary to the plot for me.

This is a heavy read, and I would recommend considering the trigger warnings by the author very carefully before diving in. I would also not go into this expecting a Little Mermaid retelling- while drawing some inspiration from the Little Mermaid, this book is something unique and entirely different with deep ramifications for mental illness and understanding of these.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

This book is has quite a lot of potential triggers, with a wide range of mental health issues. How ever it is very well written and I did not find it insensitive

Sara Ella has a magical way of weaving the hardest things into a beautiful tapestry of story and truth that linger with a reader long after the last page has been turned.

I really like the concept of this book – which is based far more around mental health awareness and suicide prevention than fantasy btw – but the structure just didn’t work for me. It was unnecessarily convoluted and I still feel having got to the end that we didn’t need three POVs. I like complicated plots where the story calls for it but it just didn’t here IMO. This is billed as a loose Little Mermaid retelling and it has some great moments in that regard, but don’t expect a lot of fantasy – the fairytale is window dressing on a very contemporary plot. The issues the author raises are important one which deserve to be represented in fiction. It just didn’t quite work for me. I found the fantasy and mundane did not balance well and because I never really felt invested in any of the characters, I wasn’t too worried what happened at the end. Part of this is just me not being a place where I need this sort of story, in fairness. I imagine the very things that turned me off are the things another reader will love.

I didn't know what to expect when I started this book. I figured it was going to be another fairytale retelling. Boy, is this book so much more that that. It covers some deep and emotionally heavy topics. So much so, that the author as included an *trigger warning* at the beginning of the books.

This book deals with Mental Illness, Depression, and Suicide, so it was a bit hard to read at times. Mental illness is such a difficult topic to write about in a real and authentic way, and this author managed to do it justice.

There are plenty of heartbreaking moments. It is beautifully written, even though I felt some of the character were a bit flat, but I enjoyed reading their personal journeys.

I recommend this book. We need more stories that are brave enough to deal with Mental illness in a real and compassionate way.

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

"You're too emotional for your own good. Dramatic. Sensitive. Let those feelings hook you, and you'll end up just. Like. Her. Sunken and unsalvageable.

I wanted to like this book so much. I really did. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. The description made it sound so good: A twist on The Little Mermaid, with the focus on mental health and wellness? Awesome, sign me up.

Unfortunately, it feel flat and ended up reading a little more like an afternoon special, rather than a nuanced look at mental health. For fair warning, there is a lot of discussion around attempting and character dying by suicide in various manners. If this is a trigger for you, please avoid this book and this review. I'm also doing my best to use the most correct language possible, but if there is something I missed and should be corrected, please let me know!

But first, let me say that the beginning was awesome. We are immediately introduced to Coral, a mermaid living with her family under the sea. She has two sisters, a father and a grandmother. She is especially close to her eldest sister and grandmother, while her middle sister and father are more abrasive. As part of this, mermaids are taught not to be too emotional, because if they allow their emotions to become too much, then the red tide will come and turn them to sea foam. Coral struggles with her emotions, especially in the wake of her sister's death from the red tide. Her grandmother then whisks her away to the mortal world, where she wants to hunt down the human boy who made her sister fall in love with him and then broke her heart.

Meanwhile, we meet two humans: Brooke, her is in a mental health facility after attempting suicide and surviving. Here, she meets a great cast of characters, including a younger girl named Hope. We also meet Merrick, a teenage boy who is overwhelmed by his rich father's expectations and the mental health struggles of his sister, Amaya. After Amaya attempts suicide and Merrick's mother disappears, Merrick kidnaps his sister away from his father and takes her to stay with a friend in small coastal town south of San Francisco (I believe Monterey, which might be my favorite city in California as a personal side note). Here, Merrick struggles to provide to him and Amaya, as well as track down his mother.

It was a strange feeling. Longing for something she'd never have again. Hoping for the past, while at once realizing there was nothing she could do to change it.

So now that you know the characters, let's talk plot. I thought the first 50% was really good. It was a lot of setup, but I like all three major characters and was invested in each of their struggles. After this halfway point is where things began to fall apart for me. The biggest turning point was when Coral met Merrick on land (they have a brief meeting with her as a mermaid earlier in the book). There was a time jump and very little was explained (at the time) about how/why Coral was in school, when she was only on land to find her sister's "prince." And why did Merrick say he would help her find a "prince"? It's a strange term to use and no character ever questioned it.

While the writing is good, the dialogue didn't really sound like teenagers and a lot of the actions seemed to not be highly realistic either. There is a bit of insta-love (which I hate) and some of the characters are deeply in love without a lot build up to it. I wasn't invested in the love story at all, despite liking each character individually when I first met them. We get a lot of tell, not show, and it was frustrating. There's also a surprise reveal about 60% of the way through, but if you're paying attention, it's fairly obvious. I didn't have a problem with this reveal, other than I really like the story and world building that had been done with this storyline and was sad to see it mostly go away.

The ending was far from rushed. If anything, it was dragged out longer than it needed to be. And while I absolutely agree on how important mental health is, and I hope this book truly helps others who may be struggling, I felt like I was getting hit in the head over and over with inspirational messages. For example:

"No one would ever tell a cancer patient to 'just get over it.' Why people think they can tell those with a mental illness as much is baffling."

This is such an important message, but it is continually spelled out word for word, over and over again. Nuance is not used here and while I'm inclined to believe this was intentional on the author's part, I almost felt like I was reading materials from a seminar or class.

Overall, I feel a 3.5/5 rating is fair. I really enjoyed some aspects of this book and found the topic to be quite important, but felt the execution could have been better and less after school special, especially as the book wrapped up.

"You're not nothing either," I tell her. "I guess that makes us both something."

I received an eARC from Thomas Nelson via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a hard one to get through, but it was well worth it. Huge trigger warning: depression, self harm, and mental illness is discussed in length. Full review can be found at the link below.

I...honestly still don't entirely know what I read. I mean, I know what I read now because the ending explained things, a little bit. But going through most of the book, nothing really made much sense. I get now what the book was trying to do, but I think it didn't really succeed.

I liked the idea of tackling important issues like mental health and depression and suicide, but I just don't know if this book really did the trick for me. Because I guess maybe...the whole mermaid thing just wasn't necessary? And why is it that at one point the story within the story became the story outside the story of the story? Not sure what I just said, but that's how I feel about the book, too. Not sure what was going on.

I did like Merrick, he was pretty grand. And then Coral and Brooke were interesting characters, though I still just don't know how to feel about the whole thing.

I just don't know honestly. This is a terrible review because it doesn't help anyone with anything, but that is my honest opinion on this book. I just don't know.

Disclaimer : I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

*potential trigger warnings for suicide, self-harm, emotional abuse, depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders, and unwanted/non-consensual advances*

"No one would ever tell a cancer patient to 'just get over it'. Why people think they can tell those with a mental health illness as much is baffling." - Sara Ella, Coral

THIS QUOTE. I relate to this so much, especially since I've been "officially" battling with depression for over 6 months now. I saw this book on a bookstagrammer's IG page, and once I knew it was about mental health illnesses, I knew I had to read it. I'm so glad I was approved for an ARC!

I had a hard time getting into this book at first - the different POVs introduced right away confused me, especially since there was no apparent link between them. Two POVs are from a modern world view, while the third one is fantastical, which made it all the more confusing for me 😅

As the story unfurls, I got more and more involved in the story. I was surprised with how the different POVs entwined together - I hadn't expected this outcome. Especially since I thought the POVs were happening in a linear, parallel timeline. But they don't! That was a very interesting twist.

I absolutely loved the (many) Harry Potter references. I'm a sucker for books like that 😅 I felt the author cleverly portrayed various forms of mental illness. The only "ick" for me is that all the characters who suffered from depression inevitably attempted/succeeded in committing suicide. And that is not my reality, and I am certain I am not alone. Especially since recurrent thoughts of death/suicide attempts are not mandatory symptoms in the DSM-5. Some parts, as well as the ending dragged on a little bit too long for me. BUT, it is a great book worth reading, and it contributes to raising awareness about mental health in this society that cares more about productivity than well-being. 3.5⭐

Speaking to mental health experiences is a challenging topic to tackle, so I have to give the author some kudos for trying. The problem is... I really, REALLY didn't like this book, and the nature of the topic means it's difficult to unravel the personal/subjective reasons from the more mechanical/objective reasons. I've tried to avoid major spoilers, but many of the reasons I disliked this book are connected to spoilers/ "big reveals":
1. Some of the mental health/mental illness portrayals seemed genuine, while others came across as "this is what research told me this would feel like." Understandably, it is extremely difficult to convey something so personal and individual, but as someone who has experienced depression, anxiety, and an abusive relationship, I did not connect with the characters' experiences of these issues.
2. Having chapters split between 1st person present tense POV and 3rd person past tense POV felt disruptive. It also caused confusion for the interconnecting timelines.
3. Critical information was withheld from the reader (like character names) in order to unnecessarily drag out the plot or create artificial tension. That happened over, and over, and over again.
4. The mash-up of realism and fairytale just didn't work for me. I'll give the most spoiler-free example I can recall: no one would ever, EVER sing at a public funeral of someone not their family member. I don't care how good the character's voice supposedly is. That would be incredibly rude, but it was played off in the story as charming or emotionally poignant. This similar sort of thing carried through several major plot points, including the ending, which came across as trite and "too good to be true", departing from how the book had conveyed mostly toxic relationships.
5. The hot-cold behavior of both participants in the major romantic relationship seemed disjointed and choppy. In the end, I had no emotional investment in them getting together.
6. Multiple times, judgmental statements were made regarding background characters who wear "revealing dresses and so much makeup," and this really rubbed me the wrong way, as this judgmental attitude about modesty is something I've personally had to repent about. This seems like the author's personal feelings leaking out as a character perspective. What if these women are struggling with low self-esteem due to social media, or are under pressure from their boyfriends to look a certain way? In a book, these are just nameless passersby on the beach, but it shows an implicit bias that has really hypocritical connotations. I'm literally getting angry again just thinking about it.
7. If you've read this far, be prepared for a spoiler. You know the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode 'Normal Again'? If you get those vibes from this book, you'd be right. I saw that coming a mile away, so when it was finally revealed with a big "ta-da!", the impact fell short.

Firstly thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for giving me this arc in exchange for an honest review!

This book was so much more than I was expecting. I went in knowing it would have a little mermaid feels, but what I wasn't expecting was the mental health representation twist. This little mermaid "coral" isn't our happy Disney version. Coral see's someone she loves and holds dear commit suicide and we get to go on her journey of fighting through that depression and knowing that she is worth something.

It was such a well done process of it and we get two other characters that become intertwined in the story in a different way. We get the POV of a girl named brooke and her journey with coral and Merrick who has to learn how to live with a sibling who suffers from depression. 

Now it does have some wonky timeline stuff in the beginning that's like hmm what? but as you progress in the book it all comes together and is a great story. That's seriously my only complaint is the beginning time hops and wish some were in different spots. 

I will say as she does in the beginning of the book and at the end plus its better much in the synopsis that this could be a triggering book to some. It is however a great read for people to understand the thought process for some and gives us representation thats so important in our YA world.

Coral is a loose re-telling of The Little Mermaid that reminds me of movies like A Cinderella Story or Another Cinderella Story. This book is a modern day story of a girl trying to find her legs and her balance in a world out of her control. Depression and anxiety have rocked the boat like the red tide and she has to learn to move on and live with this disease. Told from three different points of view (Coral, Brooke, Merrick), the book provides perspectives of someone who is struggling with depression, someone who has had a love one die by suicide, and someone whose family member survived a suicide attempt. I can’t give a spoiler, but there is a realization I came to about half way through the book that it is critical to understanding the timeline and plot to this story, as well as the characters themselves.

All of the discussion of self-harm and suicide could definitely be a trigger for someone that is suffering from anxiety and depression. The author has written a warning at the beginning of the book, as well as include the suicide hotline information at the end. As someone who has struggled with depression, if I had not been in the right frame of mind, it could have been debilitating to read this.

As for the method of writing, I’ve seen many people criticizing the method of the three perspectives and the difference between fantasy and reality. I think once you realize how two of the characters are connected, things will make more sense. I do agree that these transitions could have been better and the connection of the characters could have been more explicitly explained. However, I do not think that this takes away from the amazing story that Sara Ella has here.

Overall, I loved it. I give Coral 5 stars.

I felt like the main characters and plot were a tad underdeveloped. I might have felt differently and less confused if I had seen only one characters perspective.

Coral is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" with multiple perspectives of mental health. And while I applaud the mental health representation, this book left me feeling confused and frustrated. Here are my reasons why:

1. The writing style wasn't easy for me to read. There were too many sentence fragments and one-word sentences for it to be comfortable.

2. I felt it was too jarring to go from a mythical mermaid perspective to a modern day one.

3. The multiple points of view felt disjointed. I felt that some perspectives got more depth at different parts of the book, and while that may have been on purpose, I like reading perspectives that are equal in quantity and quality so I can understand all of their experiences. For example, Coral's perspective dies out near the midpoint, then picks up again later. Instead, Coral's voice should have been at its strongest. That midpoint and onward left me confused at her character and the plot.

4. The timeline of events gets very jumbled near the end in order to serve the author's "big reveals." I felt frustrated because it felt like the author was willingly withholding information from the reader in order to make the plot seem bigger than it actually was. Big pet peeve. Even now having finished it, I'm still confused with the timeline, and I don't think I could accurately summarize what happened.

5. The mental health message is bigger than the story and characters. Don't get me wrong—I like messages in stories, and I think Coral offers a great one about having hope when going through depression and anxiety. But I don't think the message was weaved into the story and characters enough. The characters and plot seemed to serve the message too much, making the characters seem unreal and the plot fabricated. In an effort to preach mental-health awareness, it just didn't flow like a believable story.

I do think this story could be a powerful read for those struggling with mental health. Perhaps I didn't fully understand this book because I've never had the experiences that the characters had. But I do feel like the story was lost and the characters too underdeveloped.

Writing Aesthetic/Style: 2.5
Plot/Movement: 2
Character Development: 2
Overall: 2

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC! This book will be released on November 12, 2020.

Absolutely beautiful, heart breaking and ultimately about the power of love. I note that many view this as a retelling of The Little Mermaid but I beg to disagree. I found this to be slightly inspired by it yes but only as a vehicle to tell a profound story about depression and the ugly consequences.
This quite rightly carries a trigger warning as it's a very heavy subject but told in a deft intriguing way. Its surprising, profound and imaginative. Told initially from the point of view of Coral we gradually learn about Brook, Hope and those around them. There was a moment I became confused and then as I read on I realised that the characters imagination and sheer overwhelming need for peace and escape had her sinking down into a pit that she needed help escaping.
The author takes us on a ride through imagination and tragedy and it will not please everyone. If blunt at times I wanted to simply walk away but I persevered and found this story pulled at my heart strings and made me feel for these characters. A unique way to get us to think about depression as a disease and I'm extremely glad I read this book to the very end.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair