A mermaid princess meets a human man and transformation ensues. You may think you know this story, but you've never heard it told like this before. Finn is a young man who works at a marine theme park. Erie is the mermaid princess he's been given to train for performances. There are countless predictable ways this setup could have played out, but Speak the Ocean manages to tell an original story while holding onto just enough of the familiar tale to be recognized. By turns frightening, sexy, and heart-wrenching, the plot is fast-paced and full of twists and turns. The characters are well-written, and excruciatingly complex. It's easy to read a book where the hero always makes the right choice; it's another thing entirely to accompany them while they grapple with ambiguous morals and are made to face the consequences of their mistakes. The latter makes for a far richer experience. Despite being a fantastical book about mythological creatures, Speak the Ocean manages to be completely believable and thought provoking. As an avid reader of mermaid stories, I can easily say that this one has moved to the top of my list.

I received an advance review copy for free, and am leaving this review voluntarily.

What first drew me to Speak The Ocean was the concept of mermaids. And not just cutesy, clam-shell bra mermaids. Terrifying, rip your throat out, mermaids. However, I’ve been excited about mermaid books before and been disappointed. I'm thrilled to say that that wasn’t the case here. I think part of the reason I was so dubious was because of the slightly dodgy front cover. However, I was reminded of that little ol’ saying about not judging a book by its cover, and that was definitely true with this book.

The story follows, Erie, a mermaid captured by humans and forced to perform in a Sea-World-type marine park. As Erie begins to teach herself to speak, her trainer, Finn, starts to realise that perhaps the Mer aren't the senseless monsters he thought they were.

Erie was such a great character, I felt there was a real ‘otherness’ about her, and moments where a slightly feral side of her was shown which was really cool. However, she was also kind and sensitive. Her relationship with Niku, her guard dolphin, was so great. I never thought I'd be that emotionally invested in a fictional dolphin but here I am.
I spent a lot of time wanting to bang Finn’s head against a wall. Although I found him frustrating at times, he was still an interesting character, even if he made some stupid choices.
My favourite character ended up being Jen, Finn’s assistant, and if I could somehow get my hands on a spin-off about her, I'd be happy as a clam.

I don’t have many criticisms of the book, although my biggest one would be the rushed ending. I don’t know if there are plans for a second book, and that’s why there are questions left unanswered, but for me I felt everything happened very quickly and some plot points were left unresolved. It just seemed a slightly abrupt place to end.
At times I also found aspects of the romance slightly confusing, there were moments where I wasn’t sure who I was supposed to be rooting for. In parts I felt like the romance element was shoehorned in slightly.

Overall I enjoyed this book a lot. The pacing was generally very good, with only a slightly lull in the middle, and I was always excited to pick it up to find out how everything would be resolved. I thought the points made about forcing other species to perform for the entertainment of humans were done well. The book absolutely can’t be faulted on originality of ideas; I absolutely loved how the Mer were imagined, it was so novel and unlike anything I’d read before. I'd recommend Speak The Ocean to anyone who likes fast-paced and original fantasy stories.