This hasn’t been the best reading year for me, and I’ve especially had to tough it out through some books I really didn’t care for because I didn’t have time to find something else to fit a specific book bingo prompt. So I am happy to say that Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol was an absolute delight and I read it in a single sitting.
Jane is very plain. She’s plump, she has brown hair that doesn’t style well, and there’s nothing exceptional about her features. She’s also lonely, shunned by her parents and with no real friends. When her parents suddenly pass away and her slimy cousin stands to inherit her family home, she finds herself soon to be out on the street. What’s a girl to do? Obviously, propose marriage to a handsome young man whose father bullies him. The only problem is, they have a little tiff and he goes and gets abducted by a beautiful mermaid.
Jane may be plain, but she’s also determined, so she makes a bargain with a witch for the magic items she needs to go rescue her man. Or her boy. Jane is 14 and I’m not sure how old Peter the blonde heart-throb is, but he also seems pretty young.
Along the way, Jane will face peril, find allies, and have to make decisions about what really matters to her, and help others make similar decisions.
Plain Jane and the Mermaid is written for a middle grade audience, but it should appeal to anyone who enjoys fairy tales or fantasy stories. There are lots of nods to common fairy tale tropes and elements; some of them are given a twist, some are presented in a pretty standard way, which keeps the reader guessing about how things are going to go.
Above all, this book has a message that we can all use the occasional reminder of at any time in our lives: we are so much more than our looks. If you want to get pithy about it, the moral of the story is “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Jane doesn’t get a makeover. Jane doesn’t learn that she was beautiful all along, or laboring under a curse. Instead, Jane learns that she is kind, and brave, and clever, and that she should forgive herself for her mistakes.
The art style matches the story well. Each character has a distinct design, making it easy to tell them apart and remember who they are. Jane does in fact look plain next to other characters, especially her crush Peter, and the mermaids have a very otherworldly beauty. There’s great use of color for different underwater settings, too.
I’m very glad that several of my friends recommended this book, and now I’m in turn recommending it to you.
CWs and TWs: Parental death; emotional abuse by parents; disappearance and presumed death of a sibling; cartoon action and violence; body shaming.
Source and Format: I read this as a hardback from Sno-Isle Libraries.
Book Bingo Prompts
SAL/SPL Adult Summer Reading: Read in the Sun. This should have been such an easy prompt to get. First I tried reading the latest volume of Saga on the beach, but then I was reminded that Saga has a lot of full frontal nudity and graphic violence, so I tucked it away. I did get a gnarly sunburn for my efforts. I then realized I didn’t actually want to review a book that far into a series, so when I heard about this book, I thought it would be just the thing to read in the sun. So I picked it up from the library. And then the weather proceeded to be gloomy for something like two and a half straight weeks. I finally ended up plopping a chair down in my driveway on a rare sunny day and reading this just a day or two before it was due back at the library.
Book Bingo Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 20 out of 25 prompts complete. 3 bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 17 out of 25 prompts complete. 3 bingos.
SAL/SPL Adult Summer Reading: 22 out of 23 prompts complete, 8 bingos.
SBTB Summer Romance: 8 out of 24 prompts complete, 0 bingos.