Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet

I've had Lydia Millet's Mermaids in Paradise sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now. I remember that there was a lot of hype surrounding this book when it first came out. In fact, I discovered it from an Amazon email promoting it as one of the must-reads coming out that month. As a 90s kid that was exactly the right age to fall in love with Ariel when Disney's The Little Mermaid came out, I was pretty intrigued by this story of a young couple discovering mermaids while on their honeymoon. When I saw that one of my Popsugar reading challenge categories was "a book involving a mythical creature," I knew it was finally time to give this one a shot.

The plot of Mermaids in Paradise follows newlywed couple Deb and Chip as they embark on a tropical honeymoon in the Caribbean. As they settle into their resort, Chip's friendly and outgoing nature leads them to make friends with some colorful fellow-vacationers, including a marine biologist and a documentary filmmaker. Deb narrates, and her wry sense of humor and cutting observations about the other people on the island show her to be a mixture of bemused and annoyed with her new husband's gregarious nature.

Before long, however, Deb and Chip's comfortable little bubble of newlywed bliss bursts when mermaids are discovered on the island. After seeing the evidence with their own eyes, the couple is drawn into a crusade to protect these extraordinary creatures and stop the resort from turning their habitat into a tourist attraction. Working together with like-minded vacationers and locals, they embark on a quest to try and outsmart the corporate overlords of the island.

I was left scratching my head on this one because I'm not sure what this book was trying to be. It started off fairly funny, with Deb's comedic observations on the minutiae of everyday life filling the pages. While not all of her jokes hit, the beginning sections of the novel maintained an overall sense of irreverent fun. Once the mermaids come into the picture, however, the tone veers away from being lighthearted and lands in maudlin territory. Deb still narrates with a sarcastic voice, but the jokes stop being lighthearted and her points become preachy.  I've finished reading, but I still can't even clearly articulate what she was preaching about. It was a bit of a mess.

The plot changed post-mermaid discovery as well, and became boring and contrived. The actions of the resort's "parent company" were ridiculous. They acted in a completely illegal manner, seemingly oblivious to the fact that any tourist destination they set up on such a foundation would be dismantled once law enforcement caught up with them. Deb and Chip's group of budding activists were similarly ineffective, and spent more time planning in hotel rooms than they did actually helping the mermaids. The story stopped being interesting when it became clear that the rest of the novel was going to be about two groups of people who didn't know what they were doing trying to outsmart each other.

The mermaids themselves only appeared in the novel for very brief moments, and only from a distance. They did not interact with the characters in any way, and I did not get to learn any details about them. The mermaids were the most intriguing aspect of the plot for me, so this was a big disappointment. I was left wondering why anyone would bother to write a book that includes mythical creatures if they didn't plan on really including them in the story.

Sadly, Mermaids in Paradise wasn't a winner for me. I started out enjoying it, but my enjoyment dropped off more and more the deeper I got into the story. The ending, which contains a twist that Millet undoubtedly thought quite clever, was one of the dumbest things I'd ever read in my life, and ended the book on a sour note. Still, it wasn't all bad, hence my overall rating of 2/5. Not every story is destined to be a winner. At least I finally read this one, so I can add it to the donate pile and clear up more shelf space.


Challenge Tally
Popsugar Challenge: (A book involving a mythical creature) 14/40
Mount TBR: previously owned 13/60