As much as I want to finish this book, I just couldn't. I couldn't connect to the story or the main characters. I wish it was the book's problem but it wasn't. I am not in the right head space to consume this content right now.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it was what I wanted from a mermaid book. The title was a little confusing and I feel it could have been a different name. I loved the plot of the book and going through this book with the characters,

An interestingly titled book, Marijuana Mermaid is well worth a read. While some characters can be hard to connect with it at first, you began to understand them and it adds more depth and layers to the romance within the plot. Well worth a read!

I was first drawn to this book by the gorgeous cover and I was pleasantly surprised by how captivating it was. If you enjoy mean girl type stories you’ll love this one. I loved watching Leah grow and find herself in this one. There was a slight twist near the end that shocked me. Overall this is an adorable coming of age book with a little romance thrown in that makes a great light read.

Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between an unlikable narrator and an unlikable book.

I still have get to make my mind up whether it was Leah I truly detested and Barnes was simply really good at writing a main character who was just a really bad person, or if something went wrong and red flags were missed in publishing.

This book was ... bad, to put it nicely. I still don't quite understand why it's titled the way it does, or what certain elements entertained into the story which is my rating is so low. There are also several, very underhand comments from characters which make me uncomfortable for a plethora of reasons.

Firstly, the plot was ... confusing. It's never really clear why Leah does what she does, and even more baffling that this is a story told by a 'mean girl' who is completely unaware of how she comes across. Often even in books with unlikable characters which have been written that way that the MC justifies her actions- but Leah is straight up horrible. And I think she knows it. The plot is also very awkward. There are about 6 main story lines all running at once, each with equal importance which makes the overall story confusing. Leah is trying to redeem herself from a crime she committed, save her dads shop, bond with her father, find friends, find love, and also become a mermaid performer. Each of these really could have been there own story. But with such a small page count and so many seemingly important stories it turns out very messy.

Secondly, I really, really did not like some of the comments made in this book. Even though they might have been simply the opinion of a bad character, they seemed very- VERY out of touch. To name a few offending quotes and themes: Classism, Racism, Slut-Shaming, Predatory Behaviour and Ideation. And here are some of the winning quotes: "I was tempted to remind her h!llb!lly ass that her thick Southern accent made her a bigger outsider than I was", "My father is Black. He's in prison because he murdered a white man. He cut him up into a thousand pieces because he was an ignorant motherf@cker who was dumb enough to piss my father off.", "Since we were mostly surrounded by lame-ass losers, I had no problem being perceived as someone who actually had a future.".

Even if the author didn't intent for these comments to hit the way they did, or was trying to prove a point about the attitudes of entitled white teenagers, the effect was disturbing and considering this wasn't a book marketed to try and tackle these important issues ... it really did not sit right. Not only because this book was written by an adult man, but that it was so far off from the actual mind of a female teenager. There was a gross situation where a girl was trying to seduce her teacher, and the teacher responded to the situation with interest, but this was never brought up as the problematic topic it is and instead almost laughed at, there was a really weird situation where this adult author wrote young female characters who were shamed by other characters simply bc of how they dressed and how they were perceived, and this was never actually presented as being wrong! Ach, for something published in the 20s I expected a bit more.

This book was more than just a miss for me, or simply an issue to do with the quality of writing, but that it was just problematic and missed the mark completely. It's meant to be some coming of age but I see very little actual improvement in Leah's personality or relationships by the end of the book. She is judgemental, rude and downright selfish, and she never really grows from this or becomes more responsible for herself and her actions.

I enjoyed this book very much. A quick, easy read but just what I like while I’m winding down after a long day.

Leah is a senior moving schools and states during her senior year after an incident at her old school. Leah found herself mixed up with the wrong crowd and doing things that were unlike herself. Her mom had enough and sent her to live with her dad. She is now just trying to lay low and make it to graduation without any problems.
Enter the “popular” girls who decide to take her under their wing. Leah quickly realized that being in the “in crowd” may not be the best way to lay low.

This book was was a great read. I would recommend!

I’m torn on this book while I really enjoyed the plot but not the characters. The characters were so well described and the author did a great job writing them, I just didn’t like them! This is clearly a very talented author and I would love to read more by him.

It's not terrible but it's not great either?
Gonna be completely honest, I wanted to read this solely because of the title. Still a little confused as to why it's called Marijuana Mermaid but I'm always confused so nothing new there.
As far as main characters go, Leah was well written, however she could be really annoying at times with her constant monologue about Sabina and Monica (who I love, their characters are amazing). Overall all it had an interesting plot, and pretty good characters.

I really liked this book even though I believe there could be a better title. I think the title will actually keep parents from wanting to buy the book for their child or kids will be like "eh, no thanks" upon seeing the title. Other than that, it was unique and a delight to read.