Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

Wow! The book that I just got done reading totally surprised me. And that book is Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly, the first book in the Waterfire Saga!

Now I wasn't sure what to expect going into this, but I went into it with an open mind. Mermaids aren't normally something that I read about, so it was pretty interesting to see a story like this. What a pleasant surprise! So let's get started on why I really enjoyed this one.

What's The Story?

Serafina is daughter of the Queen of Miromara, being raised with the expectation that she will one day rule over merfolk in her town. But on the night before her Dokimi ceremony, she has a nightmare predicting that an ancient evil has returned. Most of all, however, Serafina is concerned that she is going to be able to live up to the standards of her mother. Her Dokimi goes according to plan, but an unexpected event takes place. An assassin's arrow hits Serafina's mother, and the entire kingdom begins to crumble. So she and her friend Neela embark on a journey to find the assassin's master and prevent a war from starting. Along the way, they meet other mermaids from the scattered seas, and all of them team up to uncover something that is threatening their entire world.

Likes

Okay, so I didn't really expect to like Deep Blue as much as I did. Like I said, fiction with mermaids in it is not something I come across often, nor is it something I really read from. But this was totally an unexpected surprise! I've never read a book from Jennifer Donnelly, so this really makes me want to read more from her in the future.

While the story was something we've already seen hundreds of times, it was still super fun! So let me dive right into this! (Bad pun detected).

Of course, there's the world the story is centered around. It's all starts out where Serafina lives, in a world of her own merfolk. There's restaurants, shops and overall it's an underwater version of a city we might live in. For most of the book, the scenery was full of imagination and I just really liked it.

Then we have the word play used throughout the book. I know this is silly to add to the list, but hey I'm just putting it out there! I actually liked it when I came across it, I'll explain to you what I mean: In this world, if you have a girlfriend she is called a merlfriend. If someone is being a jerk or a bully, here you might call them a guppy. Instead of going to a rave to party, the teenagers here go to a wave. You see what I mean? Like I said, it's a little silly, but I enjoy a little bit of word play and puns in my life. And don't worry if you don't get some of the words in it, Jennifer Donnelly added a little glossary in the back for reference!

Also, I enjoyed the fact that it was focused around Serafina's friendships instead of romance. One cliche you can find in just about any kind of fantasy is that there is already some kind of love interest or love triangle. And while Serafina does have someone she knows she's romantically attracted to, that's not the main focus here. If I'm being honest, I'm actually glad for that. I appreciated the fact that it was mostly about Serafina's friendships and the saving of their world.

Another obvious thing to point out is how likable the characters are. They were all perfectly written and just awesome to read about. Of course, we learn to love Serafina because she's very brave and is just great as the main character. Also, I loved Neela and she was personally my second favorite character of the book. She was just super fun and overall I liked reading parts where she was involved.

Dislikes

Not that much to talk about here, because I practically loved every moment of Deep Blue. But like I said, the overall plot was something we've seen many times before. A peaceful world is drawn into chaos, an evil is rising and there's a monster hungry for blood. While it was a really cool story, this was personally just something that most fantasies already covered. But then again, I can't say that I'm not pleased with the final result. Moving on!

Is It Worth Reading?

This one is for my fantasy lovers out there!  I'll definitely be digging deeper into her Waterfire Saga and I can't wait to see where it goes from here! So in short, if I were you I'd gladly give this one a try.

Rating

★★★★☆