Book Reviews

Book Blurb

The Little Mermaid feels out of place in the ocean. The Dry Lands look like her promising new beginning. New body, new feelings and Nava, the princess of her dreams. What will Shireen (now going by Shay) do to get all she's ever dreamed of? 

Queerky Tales is a series of classic fairy tales retold with LGBT characters. The classic tale by Hans Christian Andersen becomes a story about identity, the struggle to fit in and the power of love. 

For children and adults alike. 

Book Review

In the second story within the ‘Queerky Tales’ series, the author stays very close to the original Christian Anderson version of the fairy tale – which ends rather badly, at least as far as I am concerned. As I realized this was the case, I began to fear the ending, but I was lucky. Rhys came up with an ingenious way of staying true to the original, yet turning it into something even the incurable romantic in me was truly happy with. As a result, this version of the little mermaid is all about the search for acceptance when you’re different from everyone around you, the value of honesty, and the hope that true love, in the end, will be victorious even if in a somewhat unexpected way.
 
Shireen is the youngest of six daughters, and can’t wait to be finally allowed up to the surface to see “the dry lands”. But since she has to wait for her sixteenth birthday to be allowed to leave her father’s palace, she has a long time to wait and imagine all the wonders that might be waiting for her. Over the years, as she sees sister after sister make the trip, Shireen also begins to realize she is different not just from her sisters, but from all the other mermaids and mermen she knows. She is not interested in jewelry, dancing, or boys. She is convinced she will never fit into merfolk society, and will never be accepted and loved for who she really is. Once she does make the trip to the dry lands and falls for a beautiful princess, she is willing to do anything to be the prince her beloved wants.

As in the original version, Shireen trades her voice for legs – and in this case, a change in gender as well. Now a man, she does her best to make the princess realize how much Shireen loves her, but it is not meant to be… at least not the way Shireen expected. What she ends up learning is that being who you are and being true to yourself is more important than your species or your gender
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If you like fairy tales with a difference, if you want to know what might have happened if the little mermaid had fallen for a princess instead of a prince, and if you’re looking for a read that carries a powerful message about acceptance (internal and external alike) as it is imaginative and beautiful, then you will probably like 'The Little Mermaid and the Dry Lands' as much as I did.  I’m looking forward to reading the next story!

 

 

 

 

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Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Short Story, 42 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	12-December-2012
Price	$1.99 ebook, $5.99 paperback
Buy Link	http://www.amazon.com/Little-Mermaid-Lands-Queerky-Tales-ebook/dp/B00AND5XBA