Book Review: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Title: Of Poseidon
Author: Anna Banks
Publisher: MacMillan
Genre: YA (paranormal)
Why I read it/how I found it: Debut author challenge, book signing, and MERMAIDS.

Description:
Galen, a Syrena prince, searches land for a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. It’s while Emma is on vacation at the beach that she meets Galen. Although their connection is immediate and powerful, Galen's not fully convinced that Emma's the one he's been looking for. That is, until a deadly encounter with a shark proves  that Emma and her Gift may be the only thing that can save his kingdom. He needs her help--no matter what the risk.


Review:

I love mermaids. LOVE. Which makes me sad I chalk this up as another mermaid book that didn't work for me.

But let's start with the good stuff. I liked a lot of the dialogue. It was snappy and oftentimes funny, so I enjoyed the humor. And I think the premise was interesting as well. And the mermaids. Because a book automatically gets a point for mermaids.

Now, the rest of it...not so much.

One thing that rubbed me wrong was Emma's reaction to her best friend Chloe dying. Within the first three chapters or so, Chloe's dead. Emma's depressed for about two weeks, has a rough first day of school, and then figures, "I'm not going to be sad anymore because Chloe wouldn't want me to." Uhhh...I have never known anyone to react to a death of someone they're close to quite like that. They might think that, but no matter what, you're emotionally effected. But instead of catching moments of missing Chloe deeply, or having any negative reaction to her friend's death, Emma traipses along flirting with Galen and not even remembering her "best friend." Also, for those sensitive to racial issues, Chloe's black and she dies pretty much right off. This probably wouldn't bug me as much if Emma's porcelain skin weren't mentioned over...and over...and over. 

Let's just say the romantic relationships here are wonky. Galen and Emma...well, I think I could have liked them, if Galen weren't so obsessive and Emma weren't so pigheaded to the point of stupidity. Their relationship's just plain unhealthy. Emma creates a game in which she tries to get Galen to barf. She makes a game to hurt him. How is this a good, romantic thing? And Galen's freaking possessive. I'd say he's between Patch from Hush, Hush and Edward from Twilight in terms of possessive qualities. 

And Galen and Emma isn't the only bad couple. Rayna and Toraf just have issues. I'd have to get into spoilers to explain, but it's just bad. Trust me on this.

And overall, I think this had a slow pace. A lot of introduction rather than action, and the plot doesn't really start until the end of the book when we get a cliffhanger.

Other info: Sequel Of Triton will be coming out sometime. My guess is next year. Anna Banks's blog is here.