While working, Stella sees a woman jumping out of a ship container. She asks everyone around her but nobody seemed to see it. After that, she looks for the woman in the marsh and, when she finds Laerka, she also finds a beautiful dress which she believes to be from a mermaid.
The characters were nothing out of the ordinary. There was Stella, the main character, who knew how to drive boats, her bitchy younger sister, controlling mother, relaxed father and the mysterious Laerka. There are, of course, more characters but they’re easily forgettable.
The story was also confusing, the author was really descriptive in some parts, being completely vague in others. A lot was left to explain like the corpse Stella found in the beginning of the novel, who was it? What happened? It was never explained. Also, the mermaids. Where they really mermaids? It wasn’t clear to me. The book, even though it was about dangerous Russian criminals, didn’t have much action.
I don’t recommend this book. I had to force myself to read it and the only way I was able to finish it was by skimming the last chapters.

It always takes me a while to drop books, specially when they’re ARCs. When it comes to this one, it took me over a month. I shouldn’t have waited so long.

You see, the story isn’t anything special and the characters weren’t that bad (they were bad, just not too bad). What drove me over the edge was this book’s writing. God, it’s awful. Whenever I picked this book up, I’d find myself correcting the author in my mind, trying to make the sentences better. That isn’t something a reader should do.

So, even after a full month, I dropped this dumpster-fire of a book. And I felt free.

So, if you’re reading a bad book, don’t force it. Drop it like it’s hot.

Rating: 1 star

A beautiful story told with poetic language.