I liked the premise, which brought two really opposing viewpoints on ocean conservation into conflict. Story wise, I thought this could have been even stronger if Izar was a touch more likeable or had a less awful motivation for wanting to trawl the ocean, or if Coralline had been a little less sweetly passive. The diametric views could have been a real point of tension if there was a little appeal to both characters viewpoints, but the way it was presented, there was never any doubt as to Izar (who I pretty much disliked throughout) being the bad guy and Coralline in the right.

The world-building is interesting, and I loved the different ‘muses’ we saw - animal soulmates/companions each mermaid or merman has. I also really liked how developed the mer-society was, with its own societal rules, laws, and different setting etc. The only thing I might have liked would be for them to have been even more distinct/alien to the human world. Dieting to fit a wedding dress and wearing corsets are particularly ocean specific. I loved the detail of swimming out windows vs doors in relation to dignified, ladylike behaviour - more of that sort of thing would’ve added the ocean-specific flavour I was looking for from the world-building.

I love a good mermaid or siren story. But I was just underwhelmed by this one. It was entertaining enough, but I was so tempted to DNF it on more than one occasion. It was predictable to a fault and had a predictable HEA...maybe my expectations were too high.

The Oyster Thief was an enjoyable, quick read. I liked the concept and the ending was quite satisfying.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a great concept with a really interesting, fully imagined under-sea world and the meeting of a human with a mysterious past and a mermaid with healing powers.
Unfortunately, it fell short for me. The book seemed to take too long to get to the plot, with the setting up of relationships and characters going more than halfway into the book. The style of writing will appeal to younger readers if they can stick with the plot. The ending was open, so there is possibly a chance for this to be a series.

This new take on the classic mermaid love story (which classic? Pick any one, they’re all represented) strive hard to be fresh and charming. For the better part it succeeds, except for a couple of areas. The story pits ocean exploitation against a complex society of vegetarian merpeople who live on various forms of seaweed and have creatures like whale sharks and seahorses as “muses,” personal companions. The naming conventions are often whimsical, especially if you are reading with a dictionary in hand (or, like me, have a dictionary on your e-reader). Parallel plotlines – an apprentice apothecary engaged to the scion of one of the richest merpeople families and the adopted heir to Ocean Dominion, an inventor who’s devised a way for fire to burn underwater – weave together with mystery elements, betrayals and reversals and an ultimately satisfying ending.

The book is not without its shortcomings, however. It’s overlong for the weight of the plot, and many elements of personality, history, and world-building are repeated too many times. But more than that, the author displays a lack of trust in the reader’s perspicacity. Too many elements are first shown as the action unfolds, then told in a ham-handed way that left me feeling as if I were being bashed over the head. As an example, Izar is desperately insecure and eager to win his adoptive father’s approval. I got that from their first interaction. I didn’t need to read:

He would do anything, invent anything, even another moon, to win Anrares’s approval.
“From the company’s very first days, I dreamt of one day plundering the oceans for precious metals and minerals.”
[A. Who talks like that? B. Metals are the refined product of minerals, rarely occurring in pure form in a salt-water environment. The book is rife with violations of the principles of physics, chemistry, and biology.]

At the same time, to be fair, the prose occasionally rises above the pedestrian examples above:
Tears trickled from her eyes, water meeting water, salt meeting salt. [Let’s not consider how an aquatic species can weep or how anything can trickle when immersed in water.] or:
He pursued clues, she pursued cures. He kept merpeople safe, she kept merpeople well.
People died in the deep sea not of the darkness outside, but the darkness within.

Still, the book merits four stars for its inventiveness and charm. Sonia Faruqi is an author worth watching. I hope that future works from this author will benefit from critical editorial input.

YOU GUYS...it's Finding Nemo meets The Little Mermaid...for grown ups.

The Oyster Thief is a magical, gorgeously written tale of the collision between the human world and both real and imagined marine life.

Faruqi seamlessly blends twinkly, beautiful atmosphere, whimsical humor, and harrowing action into one delightful narrative. And while (as mentioned above) the story has some echoes of Disney/Pixar's Nemo and has roots in traditional fairytales, the plot is unique enough to feel refreshingly new.

Coralline, Izar, and the rest of the cast are beautifully, complexly drawn characters, and while the "animal best friends" bring a delightful sense of whimsy and charm to the story, Faruqi masterfully manages to keep their presence from becoming either too absurd or too juvenile and twee.

An absolute delight. More, please!

I received an ARC of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love anything mermaid so I was so excited to read this book. It had an interesting premise and I admit that it had me hooked, not entirely from the beginning, but at least halfway through.I think there was a lot of good stuff packed into this small novel. Lot's of interesting characters, places, and plots and I think they were really executed well. There are an abundance of really interesting facts in here about the ocean that I never knew, so I appreciated the research that went into this. That being said, my only criticism of this book were the names of people, potions and organizations. It just seemed a bit juvenile to me (Ocean Dominion), I thought it could have been a bit more creative.

Interesting read though, probably good for a younger YA read.

Thank you for approving my read of this book. I had high hopes, but did not like the moral themes that were thread throughout. I enjoyed the idea behind the book, but the actual delivery of the story was a flop for me.

Oh it is so hard to classify this book in the best possible way! We are treated to mysterious backstories with murder and betrayal, a epic journey to find a mythical potion, the political machinations of a dark and seedy company, a who-done-it mystery, social climbing and a rather sweet love triangle (and they are really not my thing, but I liked this one). All of this is set in one of the most interesting and unusual imaginations of an underwater society I have encountered.

2018 really has been the year of mermaid based books and this really does shine amongst them all. It creates a world like no other. I had never thought about merpeople having career paths or their village life etc.etc.  The world-building was just really creative and really made this book for me. I also really enjoyed the environmental themes that were woven throughout the text. 

The books follows the perspectives of two characters Coralline a young trainee apothecary mermaid and Izar a successful human who is the adopted heir to a large Ocean harvesting company. I did find Coralline to be a bit naive for a 20 year old, it may be that she was intended to be quiet a  sheltered individual but with all her drive and ambition and stubbornness her naive attitude didn't really gel. There was a bit of a mixed message about her being strong and independent but also seemed to just have no say or even opinion of her own love life. She just seemed to shrug her way along. Izar was a more interesting character to me, his back story while obvious at points also took quite sharp turns. I feel this may also be down to the structure of jumping between perspectives which keeps tension high in areas of the story. I also think Ecklon (Coralline's other half) was slightly underutilised. I would love to have more of him and his detective agency. 

Overall, I really did enjoy this read and would recommend it to those that have followed the wave (pun very much intended) of mermaid books we have faced this year and was looking for something a bit different from the rest!

Having never read a book involving mermaids, I was dubious about The Oyster Thief. I was expecting it to be either atrocious or brilliant.

I wish it was one or the other!

The plot was better than I was expecting. There was some depth to it and complicated relationships that drove the story. I remained half-engaged throughout, even though it was longer than I anticipated.

I had so many issues though. I thought I was perhaps too old, and that if I was ten years younger, it would be an entertaining read. But that highlighted the problems further!

I felt the under-the-sea world was basically our own. The author has done research into different types of algae and plants found in the ocean. Whenever the world was a too similar to our own, there was a long description about the different vegetation that could be found with various uses – although I imagine the names and uses were fictional. You shouldn’t notice descriptions like that and it drew my attention every time.

There were also quite a few cliché moments. For example, the main character, Corraline, happens to see an “oyster thief” and marvels at its ability to float freely through the ocean. But, of course, she just happens to see the creature only once in the entire book, exactly at the moment where she is having a crisis about her own freedom.

The main problem were the characters though. The main ones, Corraline and Izar, weren’t too bad. Corraline is shallow; she saves Izar’s life and is only happy that she has made a medical breakthrough – she doesn’t seem to care about his life. Izar was stronger – he actually shows development from the beginning and end and has the most to overcome as he straddles the human and underwater worlds.

Corraline’s mother, however, is an atrocious character. She only allows Corraline to eat their equivalent of lettuce on the run up to her wedding, claiming she will only be beautiful if she is skinny to the brink of starvation. Imagine reading this as a teenager! What an awful image to present, especially as Corraline doesn’t fight it but goes with her mother’s wishes.

She also entirely blames her daughter for her son’s illness, despite the cause being the fault of humans. She would rather Corraline also died than took a risk saving her brother and it backfire. What sort of mother is this? She’s cruel, shallow and manipulative – and that’s just towards her own family.

Corraline’s muse, a hammer-head shark named Pavonis, also doesn’t score character points. He spends the majority of the book either attempting to persuade Corraline to let someone die, run away or actively kill them. When she tries to help, he accuses her of being sentimental. If he was human, he would be no better than a violent thug and considered a bad influence. His behaviour is inexcusable.

I can’t recommend this book – it pushes entirely the wrong sort of messages, especially for a younger audience.

I am in love with mermaid fiction and will read anything I can get my hands on to do with mermaids, so this was right up my street!
The cover is beautiful and I was very excited by the premise of a mermaid on a mission that doesn't start with her wanting or ending up being human.
Once I delved into the book the major stand-out factor was the world building. Wow! Faruqi has created a world that is tangible and beautiful. I've always thought that this must be the hardest part of creating society in a fantasy world but with all the colourful corals, animals, currents and social constructs, she manages to do this with ease.
The story moves along quickly and you're invested in Corralline and what she wants to achieve.
The ending was perfect and I could have read at least another 100 pages more!

Sonia - please please write some more!

This is a dual perspective book about a female mermaid and a male human when fate pushes them together. Although I enjoyed this book overall, I definitely had some issues with it. The writing felt a little clunky at times and one of the main characters, Coralline, was quite frustrating at times. I did enjoy the plot and I thought the setting was really well done. Overall I enjoyed this and would recommend checking it out, especially if you love books with mermaids.

Set deep within the Atlantic Ocean and focusing on the complicated relationship between a mermaid and a human, The Oyster Thief naturally invites comparison to The Little Mermaid. Tonally, the novel fits between Han Christian Andersen's dark original incarnation of the fairy tale and Walt Disney's animated musical as our hero character sets off on a quest to rescue her brother from slow, agonising death at the hands of pollution. Much like the Disney classic, author Sonia Faruqi has a marine menagerie of talking animals accompany her mermaid protagonist but rather than telling a “fish out of water” tale, she subverts the traditonal mermaid narrative and has her male hero adopt a “human in the water” role instead. It is a refreshing shake-up, and allows Faruqi to explore the inner-workings of her underwater world where merpeople cure illnesses with algae, investigate murders and adopt animal muses as life-long friends.

The level of world-building on display in this novel is amazing as Faruqi not only creates a living, breathing universe under the sea but she also weaves an intriguing backstory for the lead principals of her novel which unravels as the tale progresses, revealing some shocking connections between characters. With most of the novel taking place underwater, Faruqi faces a challenge in bringing this world to life for the reader – something that her descriptive prose and detailed explanation of the inner-workings of underwater life manage to achieve almost effortlessly. Aside from the odd Google of a specific algae or animal, I was able to envisage the underwater environment very easily which made it all the more enchanting. I also enjoyed the names of the characters (Coralline, Pavonis, Abalone, etc.) which felt authentically nautical, making this fantasy world all the more real.

At the heart of The Oyster Thief lies a love story between man and mermaid – a fractious pairing as these star-crossed lovers come from two completely different worlds that are at odds with each other. Alternating between character POVs, Faruqi establishes dramatic tension as events build to unavoidable tragedy to propels the second act of the novel, seeding plenty of dramatic tension and conflict to blossom towards the finale. As the reader, we are aware of the secrets that will form a wedge between the couple, but at the same time, we witness them unavoidably become attached to each other during their quest. This middle-section of the novel is the most enthralling as Coralline and Izar undergo an odyssey across the ocean to recover a mystical elixir rumoured to cure death. Faruqi does such a great job with her characters here, bringing them together reluctantly and forming an unbreakable bond that fuels the final third of the novel. It is entirely believeable that these two will fall in love, and the adventure is extremely enjoyable and makes the more dramatic elements of the final act all the more nail-biting.

One of my criticisms of the novel comes from the final third, where Faruqi has to unravel the secrets and mystery she has skillfully set up throughout the novel – there are moments where character's have huge unrealistic monologues to fill in every gap in the plot and I feel that there may have been more natural ways to reveal this information. In an effort to ensure that her earlier clues were noticed, it feels that Faruqi overexplains some of the mystery. There were some reveals that I figured out early on due to the heavy-handed nature of some of the clues, so when the exposition came, it felt inorganic. I also had some issues with character's making leaps in logic, particularly in the final few chapters, so some more work on the back-end of the novel would have tightened up some of those inconsistencies. It seems like there was excitement to reveal the secrets and put those final puzzle pieces in place that the book lost some of the measured pace and realism of the earlier half.

While Faruqi deserves heavy praise for her world-building, it is her wonderful character interactions that also ensures that novel doesn't sink beneath the surface. I loved Coralline's group of animal friends that accompanied her and Izar on their quest: Pavonis, a whale shark; Nacre, a sea snail and Alstair, a pregnant male seahorse. Each with unique personalities that suit their species, these creatures provide light relief throughout – much like how Ariel is supported by Flounder, Sebastian and Scuttle. It is these little reflections of The Little Mermaid that make The Oyster Thief, and its underwater world, seem familiar yet completely different as events take darker turns. I would recommend The Oyster Thief as a YA novel for fans of The Little Mermaid who want a more complex and adult take on the genre. That said, it is equally enjoyable for adults who've sat through multiple viewings of the Disney classic!

Surprisingly, since it is a debut novel, The Oyster Thief is rich with confidence thanks to its strong world-building and engaging character work. Sonia Faruqi does a great job at tackling the genre with a fresh voice and creating a story that stands apart from The Little Mermaid. While there are a few missteps towards the end, I found the novel truly enchanting throughout and would definitely recommend it to anyone who ever wanted to be a mermaid, or meet one!

CWs: sexual assault

I had - if not high, then at least some - hopes for this book. The synopsis sounded intriguing, and I thought there was some good potential for enemies to lovers. A bit like To Kill a Kingdom, maybe. And the cover was lovely, so there was that too.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out - to say the least.

To start off with, the writing was fairly poor. I know that's something completely subjective and everything, but on the first page, there was mention of "Algae Appreciation Day" and "Horrid Humans Day", and it felt kind of... childish? For lack of a better word. So that kind of put me off the writing from the start. It wasn't flat out awful - I have read a lot worse - but it felt kind of clunky, especially when it came to the speech. You know how you can find some writing styles easier to read than others, like they read more naturally? This one is one of those that doesn't read particularly easily. So I struggled a bit with that.

Also concerning the writing, the author had a tendency to skip fairly rapidly between Izar and Coralline's point of view. Now, I get the value of minor cliffhangers, sure, but when there's one every few pages, but you just know you only need to read another couple of paragraphs before you find out what happens next? They don't really work. And, they kind of stopped me from getting properly into either Coralline's or Izar's story. I would be just about getting used to one, and then it'd change.

If the writing was what made me less keen on the book, the worldbuilding is what made me rate it 1 star instead of two. Firstly, the mermaid world is a direct mirror of a human world. Down to the misogyny and rape culture. Because why would you extend your imagination to come up with something new when you can just do that! There's a whole government system, there are police, detectives, houses, tables, corsets - none of this is a particularly interesting world. What are the chances, if you have two different species, with minimal contact, that they would develop into matching societies? Pretty fricking low, you'd have to guess. And yet. In this book, we're supposed to believe that merpeople hide away from humans but still have a mirroring society. But what is worse about this, is that we can't even escape tired old tropes like a sexual assault scene and some lovely misogyny in this merpeople society. Starting with the misogyny, what we get is this conversation between Coralline and her fiance:

"You've never left Urchin Grove before. You're delicate - like the algae after which you were named-" "I'm not delicate." "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it in an offensive way. What I mean is that you're fragile, feminine. You don't know how to wield a dagger-"


On top of this, Coralline is expected by her mother, and society, to just marry well, learn how to cook, provide babies. Sound familiar? (Along similar lines as this, when Izar gets turned into a merman, one of the first things he comments on is that... it's emasculating not to have hair on his chest? Because yes. Yes, that is What Makes You A Man. Please, spare me.)

Then we get to the rape culture. Let me set the scene. Coralline and Izar have just been to visit someone to help them on their quest, but he is killed while they're there, and Coralline seen clutching the dagger. So, they find the furthest away hotel they can, which is kind of a seedy place. And while they're getting rooms, Izar overhears these two mermen talking about how they would "like a piece of" Coralline, such that they ask for the room next door to where she'll be staying. Now, he doesn't tell Coralline this. Oh no. He rationalises it as he's using her to get what he wants, he doesn't really care about her. So, the next morning, the brothers break into Coralline's room and try to rape and kill her. And Izar has to save her. Because what is a fantasy story without an attempted rape scene so the hero can save the girl, huh? A lot goddamn better than this, I'm telling you. And that's the point where I just got angry and hateread the rest of the book.

In addition to all this mess, there was a particular idea that got propounded a few times that I really hated. It was centered around two characters (including the one who ends up murdered). Basically, his wife is dying, so he goes and finds the magical elixir to save her life. And apparently, according to Coralline, this means she's indebted for life to him. Because she ends up falling out of love with him, and leaving him for another man, and Coralline calls this selfish. It feels a lot like the author's pushing the idea that she doesn't have a right to decide she doesn't love him. Which is just stupid.

A few final points. First off, there's so much girl hating going on. There's not one single intimate and kind female relationship. Coralline has no friends besides her shark, her mother is absolutely horrible, Rosette is supposedly competing for Coralline's fiance's attention so is also terrible and spends her time spreading malicious rumours about Coralline, her fiance's mother hates her and her mother, her mother hates the apothecary, the list goes on. And it's so tedious. What is the point in writing this into your book? Personally, it's a guaranteed way to lose me as a reader.

Lastly, to top off the misogyny, a woman gets fridged in the last part. Because we didn't have enough of it yet.

So yeah. This book? Not worth it.

Quality Rating: Two Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Stars

Well, that was disappointing. I got around 15% through this book, and had been looking for an excuse since the first chapter. Was there a specific thing that annoyed me no end? No. But everything just... wasn't very good.

The writing is so analytical and over-descriptive that it just becomes boring. Simple tasks take a page because it's just being filled iwth unnecessary words. And the description isn't even adding anything! It's there for the sake of sounding poetic, I guess. But it comes across more like a textbook than narration. At times it just feels pretentious and vapid. I mean, these names, come on. They aren't artistic choices or symbolic, it's just trying to create a style without doing the groundwork.

Upon reading a few other reviews, I've seen The Oyster Thief described as 'awkwardly formal', which is dead on. It might be that the author is trying to recreate a fairytale style. If so, then the direct dialogue would be okay, but then you need to have symbolic imagery. It's all about subtext. Dialogue isn't believable if the characters come straight out and say what they're thinking, because people don't talk like that. We don't say what's bothering us, but it's there in the subtext. Yeah, fairytales use a slightly different style where they speak plainly, but in those cases the subtext/moral/meaning or whatever else you want to call it is in the setting, the action, the imagery.

Ultimately, why I gave up on this book was because nothing was happening. I mean, nothing. I was sat there thinking 'are you going to give me a plot line or just tell me everyone's life stories?' Not only does it distract from the plot, but I really didn't care. In the brief moments of (cliché) where the the story held together for a moment, it depended so much on how invested I was in the characters. Which, sadly, was missing.

In all honesty, it feels like a kid's book, and not a very good one - definitely not what you want from an adult fantasy. To give credit where it's due, the idea could've been good but I don't think the choice of style and the decision to stop making edits at this stage were at all right. As it is, this book wasn't really worth it.

Harry Potter meets Little Mermaid and fails. I was excited to read this, but it was just to all over the place and the way the characters talked was weird. I didn't finish. It started to give me a headache.

Rich in detail and fabulous world building, the mermaid pov was a delightful perspective. I struggled to keep interestwith the slow pace, mostly because I am just coming off of a sci-fi bender.

The Oyster Thief is a fantasy novel that takes place underneath the vast ocean in Urchin Grove; it follows Coralline as she works an an apothecary and becomes engaged to a nice merfellow, named Ecklon. Izar, a human, works for Ocean Dominion and has finally found a way for fire to exist underwater when sinister things begin to happen. This is where we start and the real plot doesn't come along until almost halfway through the book. As a result of an oil spill caused by an attempt on Izar's life, Coralline's brother is infected with black poison and she decides to track down a legendary elixir to cure him. She sets off with her trust shark, Pavonis, a smattering of other creatures and stumbles upon, Izar, who holds a clue to the location of the elixir. He's also transformed into a merman. Curious.

However, this book is not good. Not only is the story line all over the place, but the style is completely wooden and awkwardly formal. There are sentences such as "You're delicate like the algae after which you are named" and descriptions like "Izar looked down at the scrape that tore through the palm of his hand like a straight, orderly earthquake." What kind of earthquake is orderly? And furthermore who actually thinks or talks like this? It doesn't make a lick of sense and I find that it only makes the characters seem awkward and silly. My favorite is when the author refers to two random bad guys as a cantaloupe and a carrot for no reason beyond their coloring. It makes the book come off as silly when Izar seemingly fights magical fruit and vegetables. More importantly, the scene fails to be serious or suspenseful because I personally could not figure why they were being called that. Honestly, it really bothers me that no one questioned this choice at all.

I hate to be negative but I am completely flummoxed by this book and the world it presents. I really want to like it and become fully immersed in the sea but the author fails to explain how humans and mermaids coexist and generally more about how the two worlds are connected. I really wanted more an explanation especially when the hummers were introduced without batting an eyelash. It still reads like the first draft where the author is still figuring out the tails and how everything fits together. In other words, it's a good idea but it still lacks polish. At this point, I hope the final version has been reworked and edited for flow and clarity.

The Oyster Thief by Sonia Faruqi promised to be a fantasy world that delved into the simultaneous presentation of humans and their hybrid counterparts in the form of Mermaids. As Coralline is dealing with the upset surrounding her new engagement and the various social and economic clashes that accompany it, Izar too, in the human world, is engaging with the legacy he promised to fulfill; this legacy threatens Corallines oceanic world and existence. The two subsequently become entwined in an interspecial fate. I wanted to love this work of fantasy, alas I could not. The writing style was understandable enough, and the jump between water and air made it all the more readable. Izar's above-water dwellings provided much relief from the fantasy catastrophe that was Coralline'a fictional world.

Some bits of constructive criticism:

-the world building that constructed Coralline's life was clumsy, cheesy, and appeared half done. Faruqi centred Corallines world too much in the realm of what is human. For example, Coralline "swum" into her "bedroom," which although small is just an example that made the world less stable and more clumsy to read. A lot of the establishments in this world were also clumsy and felt lazy, such as the detective agency that Eckron works for, or the medical establishment that offers Coralline her employment.
-the language used to create this fantasy world, such as "the children anti-cresting act" of the "under ministry of youth matters." Examples such as these seemed lazily written and jarred the text as though they had just been slapped into it.
-the dialogue between characters was forced and often embarrassing to read, which created very two dimensional characters