The Merman

By Carl-Johan Vallgren

Book Overview

The Merman is a dark and haunting novel about sibling love and betrayal--and about what happens when the mundane collides with the strange and beautiful. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1681773104
• ISBN13: 9781681773100
• Release Date: January 2017
• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Well-written, riveting and stomach-churning

This is one depressing story. The narrator is a 15-yr old girl who lives with her developmentally challenged 13-yr old brother, their chronically drunken mother and their jailbird father (who, fortunately for the kids, is usually behind bars but not during this story). The parents are neglectful and indifferent to their offspring, most of what the kids have to eat and wear is shoplifted by the daughter. She has plans to leave this miserable life when she's 16, taking her brother with her, but in the meantime she deals with it as well as she can. In addition to the terrible homelife there's a burgeoning psychopath bully from school who often targets her and her brother when he's not doing other horrific things elsewhere. On top of all of this, the fishermen brothers of one of her very few friends catch a merman one night -- a real, actual, fishman -- and she and the friend try their best to save the merman. And that's all I'll say about the plot. I honestly don't know if I can recommend this book -- it's very well-written and holds the attention most of the way thru, even when you wish you could look away and not see what your eyes are reading. I am glad I read it and will try more of Vallgren's work but I doubt I'll ever read The Merman twice. Make of that what you will.