Susann Cokal

I received this book from Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review.

Sanna is an oddity among her matriarchal mermaid 'flok'; she has been raised by her father and nobody can remember her mother. A spell has been cast to make everyone forget her birth - because her mother is human. Sanna begins to work with her flok's seawitch to learn magic, specifically to learn to walk on land to find her mother.

She stumbles into a town's feast for a saint and accidentally turns bushes of white roses into red roses in front of the whole town and the imperious Baroness Thyrla. Before she knows it, Sanna is engaged to marry Thyrla's thick son, worshiped as a saint by the townfolk, and engaged in a subtle battle of magic with Thyrla, all while searching for her mother.

Sanna is a decent main character. She's thoughtful, intelligent, and driven, with a kind heart. Though she was an outsider amongst her flok, and an outsider among the humans, her empathy for others isn't damaged.

Mermaid Moon felt a little bit different than a lot of current YA, the style reminded me more of Patricia McKillip or Anne McCaffrey than most 21st century YA. I liked that there was little to no romance and that the resolution of the story was not what I expected.

I do think Sanna's driving force - locating her mother - was a little too neglected and left me mildly unsatisfied as different plot threads took precedence.
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