The Forbidden Sea

Title: The Forbidden Sea

Author:  Sheila A. Nielson

Publisher:  Scholastic Press

Release Date:  July 1, 2010

Received From:  ATWT

When Adrianne comes face-to-face with the mermaid of Windwaithe Island, of whom she has heard terrible stories all her life, she is convinced the mermaid means to take her younger sister. Adrianne, fierce-willed and courageous, is determined to protect her sister from the mermaid, and her family from starvation. However, the mermaid continues to haunt Adrianne in her dreams and with her song.

Yet, when the islanders find out about Adrianne's encounters with the mermaid she is scorned, for this small and superstitious community believes the mermaid will bring devastation to the island if Adrianne does not give herself to the sea.

 I personally love mermaid books! And while there are not a whole bunch of mermaid books lately Forbidden Sea was a cool new look on mermaids, from an outsider (i.e. not a mermaid)

Adrianne was a really strong character, she put up with her aunt's junk and stayed strong for her family. The family drama in this book was very important. This book was written like a fairy tale, because the magic was not really the center of the novel, just a major hindrance. Adrianne is forced to make many different choices throughout the novel and many of them really surprised me based on what her family life was like.

It was really cool to see Adrianne grow throughout the novel and realize the mistakes she had made in the past. And while the ending was really surprising to me Adrianne's overall growth really made this book for me.

I wish this book had been a little longer and that more detail was put into the scenes so I could see them better in my mind. I also wish we could have seen more of what happened after the end of the book, because for me the book seemed to cut off and I wished it would have gone on a little further, so we could see what happened to her and her family.