Review: The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill

Publication Date: 3rd May 2018
Publisher: Scholastic
Source: Bought

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Blurb:

Deep beneath the sea, off the cold Irish coast, Gaia is a young mermaid who dreams of freedom from her controlling father. On her first swim to the surface, she is drawn towards a human boy. She longs to join his carefree world, but how much will she have to sacrifice? What will it take for the little mermaid to find her voice? 

Hans Christian Andersen's original fairy tale is reimagined through a searing feminist lens, with the stunning, scalpel-sharp writing and world building that has won Louise her legions of devoted fans.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of this year and I was so excited when I picked this novel up. Yet, there was something lacking for me. 

Going into the novel, I was so excited. A combination of two of my favourite things - Disney and feminism?! Heck yes! As I began reading though my excitement began to wane a little. 

The novel is told by protagonist Gaia, a beautiful mermaid with a great singing voice. She grows up in the palace, daughter of a ferocious king who reigns over his kingdom and daughters. I found the oppressive world Gaia lives in to be so well written. The mermaid society is extremely patriarchal where the mermaids live to serve the mer-men and are judged upon their talents and beauty. Even the king lines his own daughter up in terms of preference, which I found extremely disturbing. 


Gaia has grown tired of this horrible world, where she has been sold off to a suitor 50 years her senior and longs to go to the surface. I found Gaia's suitor to be incredibly creepy and abusive, his scenes were pretty disturbing to read. As we know Gaia makes a deal with the sea witch, Ceto to swap her voice for legs. 

Ceto for me was the best character in the novel. Although she was not a good or evil character, she was the most feminist and positive character in the novel. I really enjoyed her first meeting with Gaia and her return near the end of the novel. I also liked the mother of Oliver, who was a strong and interesting business woman. 

The feminist aspects of the novel were somewhat underlying for me. I expected the novel to be more in-your-face girl power and empowering, but it slightly went a different route. Gaia for me was an internal misogynist, she thought the sun shined out of her romantic interest even when he was quite horrible. I also loathed the grandmother character. She was also just compliant to the misogyny happening in the kingdom, and when Gaia told her of her suitors abuse towards her she did nothing to help. 

The sisters were interesting characters, I felt they had a great ending. I enjoyed reading of their interactions. I also was interested in the sister who was hinted at being gay, but wish we could have seen that more explored or at least fully confirmed and have her expected. I also loved the female servant in Oliver's house and her interactions with Gaia. I wish we could have seen more of that also. 

The male characters were just awful to read about, from the king to Oliver and his friends- it was pretty uncomfortable reading. The boys on the surface were misogynistic, abusive, racist bully's and at first it was hard to see why Oliver was friends with them. Apart from George, the one semi-decent moral male character but he also was somewhat passive and did nothing to stop bad things happening. 

I felt the book did not live up to my expectations. Is this because my expectations were quite high or was I expecting the novel to take me in a different direction? I did find my interest waning in places as the plot began to seem slow, but the end was well written. Overall this was a nice read, although it did not pack quite the feminist punch I was hoping for.