The Surface Breaks by Louise O’Neill – Book Review

The Surface Breaks by Lousie O’Neill promises to be the feminist retelling of The Little Mermaid. Disney animated films are widely popular in today’s culture, so when I learned of this retelling, I felt intrigued. There are many differences between the fairytale and what many know as The Little Mermaid, and reading this book allowed me to explore this.

I read this book as a part of the Disney Read-a-Thon I participated in throughout August. The prompt, “read a book with a dreamy cover,” matched perfectly with The Surface Breaks! I mean, Look at it! [insert heart-eyed emoji here]

Disclaimers:

I received a free/gifted copy of this book, which in no way impacted my review of the book. In addition, this is a voluntary review.

Clicking the title of the book will bring you to book depository, where you can pre-order/purchase this book. This is an affiliate link meaning that I will make a small profit from every purchase made through this link with no impact to you. Thank you!

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Content Warnings: Loss of a parent, discussion of body image, pedophilia, sexual assault, blackmail, PTSD, suicidal ideation, discussion of suicide, suicide, masturbation, allusion to rape, rape

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I struggled when reviewing this book. The reason for this is, that there are SO MANY amazing reviews about this book, and I wanted to like it as much as everyone else. But, in reality, it fell short.

Looking at the book objectively, I can understand where fans are coming from. The writing is straight-forward and concise, giving a good, fleshed out retelling of the well-loved fairytale.

It is very clear that the author wrote this story through a feminist perspective. The world that O’Neill builds holds strong patriarchal values, with men controlling every little detail of the main character, Gaia’s, life. Furthermore, the author doesn’t shy away from showing the ugly side of a patriarchal society, oftentimes to the point of making me feel dirty and uncomfortable. However, I appreciated this aspect of the book. The author sugar-coated NOTHING.

However, while this exposition of the trials Gaia faced felt raw and real, I found myself getting increasingly frustrated with the story. Men are the cause of every single problem Gaia faced. Every single one. And yes, of course I understand why the author did this. I know the feminism is supposed to be blatantly obvious. However, I just became tired. Every chapter read the same, until the final few pages. As a result of this, it made for a very bland story.

Another thing that frustrated me came with the lack of characterization. Although the story finished quickly, none of the characters read clear enough for me to understand their motives, or care about their future. In addition, I believe my previous experience watching the Disney adaptation of this fairytale provided the only visuals for the setting as I read the book. That is to say, I didn’t find much world-building in the novel.

Upon finishing this book, I struggled to formulate my thoughts. I flipped back and forth between 3 and 4 stars, finally landing on 3. I am grateful that this book is available to so many young readers. This book gives the reader exactly what they signed up for, nothing more and nothing less. Maybe I was just looking for something more.