Review: To Catch a Mermaid

Goodreads Summary: Boom Broom doesn't think his life could get any worse. Ever since his mother was swept away by a twister, his family has gone crazy. They refuse to leave the house and Halvor, the Viking descendant who rents the room over their garage, will only cook fish for Boom and his sister Mertyle to eat.

When Boom finds a baby mermaid who seems to grant unlimited wishes, he thinks his luck has turned around. That is, until his sister is hit by the curse of the merfolk and starts to turn green. Now Boom and his best friend Winger must find a way to return the foul-tempered merbaby to its mother and save Mertyle before it is too late.

I liked this book because first off because of the way that it portrays mermaids. The only one you ever really spend time with is the merbaby...cranky, hard to get along with...very much like a real baby. They weren't quite as romanticized as you normally see them. And that made them fun. And the mermaids weren't really the focus of the book either though it seemed like it at times.

The Viking stuff made me giggle several times, I really enjoyed Halvor and his frequent stories about how he is the true ancestor of a real Viking and how the Vikings did things. He truly has a Viking story for everything. And he refuses to believe anything that anyone else tells him about them because they are not true descendents. He really is the comic relief of the novel.

Mertyle was easily my favorite character though. I found myself able to relate to her the most, despite the fact that it was her brother that was the narrating character. She had so much curiosity and wanted to know everything about the world around her. Her brother Boom Broom on the other hand just wanted to be a kicking champion. But by the end of the book it felt like he had grown beyond that too and I think the growth of everyone in the family is what really makes this novel. Yeah, its all about having the merbaby and trying to get it back home but more than that its a story about healing a family and a good one at at that.

3/5