The Mermaid's Secret

Hola Merfolk!

Flipping through The Mermaid’s Secret by Katie Schickel makes me want to reread it. I love Schickel’s characters, world building, and writing. Living in a small island town on the East Coast, Jess Creary can’t move on from her sisters boating “accident.” The book has that typical mysterious feel that I often get from a mermaid story.

One of my favorite characters is Drag Queen Lady Victoria in part for the way she flamboyantly talks to Jess. Jess, the main character, lives in an apartment across from Victor. It’s strange for Jess to see Lady Victoria as Victor. Lady Victoria tells Jess she’s so beautiful. Victoria suggests, she’ll find a man if she pops a little color on like lipstick and a scarf. Jess asks isn’t inner beauty more important? Lady Victoria waves her long red nails and says, “It’s about letting the girl you are on the inside shine through on the outside.”

Jess becoming a mermaid is in part inspired by Ne’Hwas, The Mermaid from Charles G. Leland’s book The Algonquin Legends of New England or Myths and Folk Lore of the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Tribes, 1884. A long time ago an Indian and his wife and two daughters lived by a great lake. The mother told the girls not to go in. The girls snuck in, turned into mermaids, and couldn’t get out of a strange slime.

There is some romance with Captain Matthew on the fishing boat where Jess flips burgers, but the romance isn’t the first thing I think about when recalling The Mermaid’s Secret. 

If you’re looking for a mysterious mermaid story The Mermaid’s Secret by Katie Schickel is a great summer read. Grab your suntan lotion and towel, and read on the sandy beach.

Make Waves!

Oceans of Love,

Melissa Ceseña