The Book That Did Not Want to Be Read Review

The Blur 

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First written in 2010, the Emily Windsnap series is still ongoing and is pretty popular. It has all the elements of a great story for girls (who WOULDN’T want to be a mermaid when you hit the water?), and is very fast paced. Emily lives on a boat with her mother, having never known her father. Her mother is portrayed as a bit scatter brained. Later we learn she is being drugged to forget that her husband is a merman, which is why her mother does not wish Emily to take swimming lessons. When Emily does eventually convince her mother, she learns she turns into a mermaid when she swims. Thus begins her story of finding out who she truly is and attempting to locate her father in the process. It’s not a badly written book but there are certain elements that gave me pause. Firstly, the relationship between Emily and her mother is more of a friendship than one of a mother and daughter. While it isn’t enough for me to not recommend the book, it wasn’t a great element. When Emily first learns she is a mermaid, she lies to her mom about being afraid of the water. Her mother then takes her to their friend “Mystic Millie” to be hypnotized. It was a bit of a silly part of the story and I wasn’t too concerned. However, by the end of the book, Millie takes on a more important role in the story and at one point, has to “realign the chakras” of a man Emily had knocked out. The story then delves a little deeper into New Age thinking and that is when I quit reading. Research into some of the other stories in this series revealed more New Age nonsense as well as stories based on climate change.