Amanda Mahan

Plot:
Evan has traveled a lot with his parents and his brother Ross as their parents work as anthropological/archaeological journalists. At the moment they are in Florida. There on the beach, Evan stumbles upon a key that looks very important. When he tells his parents, they want to give it to a colleague for analysis - much to Evan's chagrin, who always feels at odds with his level-headed, practical family. But when they get stranded on one of the islands in the Florida Keys during a storm and Evan stumbles upon Maera, a softly bioluminiscent, telepathic and infinitely fascinating girl who knows about the key, Evan knows that he has to do something.

Mermaid's Key is cute in a way that is definitely aimed at younger audiences. I do enjoy young adult novels, but I felt that I was too much of an adult for this one. It's flaws may be more easily forgiven by a twelve-year-old, but I couldn't look past a lot of them.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2020/03/26/mermaids-key-amanda-mahan/… (más)

I think the premise of the book is great. The concept of mer people being an offshoot of land people is reminiscent of another book I read several years ago. However, this book went into greater detail about the culture of the mer people and it was quite unique, in my opinion. I enjoyed it.

I thought the author did a very good job with her descriptions. They weren't overly verbose and yet created the scene quite efficiently and effectively. I think she did a good job with character development as well. There was only one character who wasn't fleshed out but, if there are going to be additional books, I would presume that fleshing out will take place in later books since he seemed to be a rather pivotal character.

The only thing I didn't like and the reason for only 3 stars is that the proofreading was horrendous. There were a plethora of errors throughout the book that a thorough once over before publishing would/should have eliminated. If it weren't for that, I would have given it 5 stars because it was an enjoyable read that held my attention.… (más)

This young adult book has the typical teenage romance, but not as fiery as most YA novels. This relationship fits the story since the main objective is not their relationship, but the key. The relationships between the brothers, their parents, and the mermaid is a bit too comfortable especially since many of the characters have less than 24hrs to realize that mermaids even exit.

Overall, I believe the author did a great job at taking the idea of mermaids and making them into a great new species/version. I do look forward to reading the next book to see how well the author builds the mermaid's underwater world.… (más)