Review: Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Fairytale Retelling #3

Release Date: September 4^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 304

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Source: ARC from BEA

Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant -- until Celia meets Lo. Lo doesn't know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea -- a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid -- all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she's becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she's tempted to embrace her dark immortality. When a handsome boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, Celia and Lo work together to rescue him from the waves. The two form a friendship, but soon they find themselves competing for Jude's affection. Lo wants more than that, though. According to the ocean girls, there's only one way for Lo to earn back her humanity. She must persuade a mortal to love her . . . and steal his soul.

Jackson Pearce never fails at writing books. I hadn’t fallen in love with Sisters Red, but Sweetly had charmed me from the beginning (maybe because of all the sweet talk…). Maybe it was because I had been expecting Fathomless to charm me even more than Sweetly did, but I have to say that Fathomless was sadly not my favorite. I did enjoy it more than Sisters Red, but a little less than Sweetly, which is still my favorite from her. I think a big aspect of that was that I was expecting something different, and there were some elements that left me confused.

One of the things that I did love about the book was the interaction between the two main characters, Lo and Celia. I love seeing all the point of views, point of views that really helped us understand the struggle happening within Lo, and the determination Celia seems to show to help Lo remember her past. The thing I had trouble understanding was why did the girl have those power. I mean, it isn’t related to the Little Mermaid, and I’m guessing it will (hopefully) come back if there’s a fourth book published. Yet, I just don’t get why the three sisters had those powers. What was the source? That left me with many questions.

Again, Jackson Pearce delivers a great retelling of a fairytale we all seem to think we know. She always excels at making at making these stories her own, and she really created a world to connect her various tales. I love the connections made between the books, some connections I’m sure I probably missed (there’s a couple of them that I got days after reading…) Overall, Fathomless may not have been my favorite book this year, but it is still definitely worth reading. If you still haven’t read any of her books, you should really check them out if you enjoy retellings, since hers really have their own twists.