Songs from the Deep – Kelly Powell

Songs from the Deep by Kelly Powell

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Received: Simon & Schuster Canada
Published: November 5th, 2019
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Recommended Age: 12+
Genres & Themes: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mystery

REVIEW:

Sweet Jesus, I am so bored.

I wasn’t in the beginning. Actually, I kind of thought I would love it. The writing is elegant and the story atmospheric. It basically starts with a BANG, since we’re immediately thrown into the murder case. I even liked Moira’s voice.

But the more I read, the more I got more of the same. I didn’t feel it in my bones that the storyline progressed somewhere. There were many leads, many suspects, many questions… none answered. I finally stopped reading at around page 170 because I felt like I wasn’t getting anything from this book. And, sadly, pretty writing and atmosphere is not enough anymore to keep me hooked.

Another thing is that Moira became one-dimensional to me. In the beginning, she made her love of music clear, she discussed her family history and friendship history with Jude and I really got a sense of who she was as a human being. But once she stopped talking about herself and what we got was mainly a sense of her personality, I realized that her personality wasn’t that strong and developed. I think it’s great that she’s trying to solve the murder case, but she doesn’t know what she’s doing!

Another thing is that despite the fact that this story features mermaids in the sense that they are discussed here and there by the characters, they’re not actually present. Not in the first 170 pages, anyways. Like, there is no mermaid character. Moira doesn’t even talk to one. Plus, their history is very unclear. Moira basically believes they either were there since the very beginning or were ‘‘created’’ somehow by the sea. Hmm, okay.

A disappointment, but an elegant and atmospheric one.

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