Book Type: Novel Author: Hannah Moskowitz Pages: 288 Summary(goodreads.com): Be careful what you believe in. Rudy’s life is flipped upside-down when his family moves to a remote island in a last attempt to save his sick younger brother. With nothing to do but worry, Rudy sinks deeper and deeper into loneliness and lies awake at night listening to the screams of the ocean beneath his family’s rickety house. Then he meets Diana, who makes him wonder what he even knows about love, and Teeth, who makes him question what he knows about anything. Rudy can’t remember the last time he felt so connected to someone, but being friends with Teeth is more than a little bit complicated. He soon learns that Teeth has terrible secrets. Violent secrets. Secrets that will force Rudy to choose between his own happiness and his brother’s life. My Review: Although this book has been on a lot of Young Adult mermaid book lists, there is a lot wrong with this book, and I mean.. A LOT. Although the cover of this book enticed me to read, especially with the hooks in the shape of a heart, I was disappointed with the way this book turned out. Let's go over some of the positive and negative aspects of the book. Fishy, Awesome, Exciting! What I Loved: What I loved mostly about this book was the main character, Rudy. Moskowitz was able to create dialect that a typical sixteen year old boy would say, and also created perfect responses for the situations Rudy became entangled in. Rudy is kind of a bad boy; he likes to do his own thing, and hates that he moved away from his home. He mentions that he smokes cigarettes and has had a lot of experience with girls in the past... I think we all know a guy like Rudy. I also love that this book has a lot of YA themes, like dating, romance, dealing with a sick family member and...
SEXUAL ABUSE?? WAIT, WHAT IS GOING ON?? Weird, Weird Weird: What I Hated! : Before I get back to the sexual abuse mentioned above, there were a few other plot elements that annoyed me. Teeth, the merman, is way too similar to Rudy. They both curse like crazy and have the same bad boy attitude. I wish Moskowitz made their characteristics a bit more contrasting. The plot flat lined for about three quarters of the book, and nothing really exciting happened until the end! As the plot continued, more and more twisted and sickening things about Teeth are revealed, which includes a lot of horrible sexual abuse and rape, events that are way too graphic to talk about on this blog. Let's just say that the way Teeth was brought into this world is sick at best. The end of this book was just sad, depressing and twisted, and I just wouldn't bother reading this if you are sensitive towards topics like brutal rape, molestation, child abandonment, developmental issues and feral children. I give this book (**) 2 stars. -Sirenita The Selkie