GreatAce.Club discussion

Hi friends! It’s Lucia again (no worries, you’ll get a bit of a break from me in March!) :)

There’s not a lot of February left, but that’s no reason not to read a fun ace book this month, I’m hoping to read Sea Foam and Silence by Lynn E. O'Connacht with you for the next week and a half. It’s an ace retelling of The Little Mermaid, and it’s written in verse, which should be super interesting! Have a look at the blurb:

Be careful what you wish for…

She warned of the pain. She did.
But no warning can prepare you.
Nothing can.

How could I have known
What it is like on the dry sand?
We just watched.

It’s hard, not being able to ask
Questions, though I have learned some speech
With my hands.

I miss my sisters.

I have made friends here.
I have laughed with them,
Learned with them, played with them.
I love them.

She said I would die if he loves someone else.
Will I die? At the beginning I wanted to. It hurts
So much. Life isn’t easy, will never be easy, but…
I don’t want to become sea foam.

I can’t wait to start this book with you! We’ll start reading on Saturday, Feb 18, and finish on Feb 28. The pace will be about 24 pages per day this time, which might sound a bit daunting, but there’s not a lot of text per page due to the verse format, so we should be just fine :)

Sea Foam and Silence is available for sale here (https://www.amazon.com/Sea-Foam-Silen...) and Lynn has generously agreed to provide review copies to those of you who can’t afford to buy the book. If you need one, please sign up here (https://goo.gl/forms/f63lEvM5ADqUFh973).

Lynn is a super sweet and awesome person and I’m so happy to know her, but here’s her author bio for more information:

Most recently spotted in the wilds of continental Europe, Lynn E. O’Connacht lives on a steady diet of fiction. Her favourite treats are fantasy and soft science fiction. The lynnetbird is more commonly known as the lion-bird as cats have built up a positive symbiotic relationship with her. Sightings of Lynn E. O’Connacht are rare as she is a shy creature, most likely to be seen in the early mornings. If one wishes to catch sight of this unique creature themselves, their best bet is to leave out books or RPGs that could be added to her diet, or to play music for her to mimic. One can also leave a plate with a variety of confections as the lynnetbird loves sweets and chocolate. These methods are especially effective in Lynn E. O’Connacht’s own territory as she is often too shy to venture far from it.

Is it available for purchase anywhere besides Amazon? I'm participating in the Grab Your Wallet boycott so would prefer not to buy through them. Thanks!

This has links to some other sites: https://books2read.com/u/m0zYvA

I hope it works :)

Lucia wrote: "This has links to some other sites: https://books2read.com/u/m0zYvA

I hope it works :)"

Thanks! :)

Hi everyone!

It's time to start our new #AceBookClub read, Sea Foam and Silence by Lynn E. O’Connacht. Are you excited? I sure am!

The book is split into three parts; Part 1: Under the Sea; Part 2: On Dry Land; and Part 3: Beyond the Endless.

Let's dive right in, shall we?

(I know, that was a terrible pun)

I don’t remember

Being born.

I don’t remember.

I don’t

Remember.

But I remember being different.

I've never read a novel in verse before, but I'm really liking it! It seems very personal, somehow. What do you think?

One thing I really like is that the merfolk have their own words for humans and human stuff, like "tall-crabs" and "moving lands". It shows a kind of love for detail that I really appreciate.

Our protagonist is a little mermaid. She seems to be the smallest and weakest among her sisters. Do you think there are non-girl merfolk?

Being the smallest, our protagonist gets left behind a lot when her sisters go hunting. They're hunting "tall-crabs". I love how our little mermaid describes those:

Tall-crabs aren’t like crabs.

Not really.

Crabs are hard and cute.

They pinch.

Tall-crabs…

Tall-crabs can move like crabs.

I like that about them.

[…]

Tall-crabs have shells too,

But they’re not very useful.

You tear them off quick as biting.

I’m not sure why they have such soft shells.

I want to ask why.

My sisters do not know or care.

Tall-crabs are easy food,

Better than fish or sharks.

But why do tall-crabs have such soft shells?

Our little mermaid seems curious :)

The first time she gets to go hunting with her sisters,

I am excited. ^_^

How do you feel about the use of emoticons in the text? I think it adds to the close connection we have with the mermaid. It's like we can really see and feel her emotions.

Her sisters don't let her join the hunt, though. She only gets to watch, and she doesn't go hunting with them again. At least not until her sisters convince her to come along again.

We are a family.

We swim together.

Lonely.

It's hard to show this here, but the word "Lonely." takes up a whole page all by itself. Together with the contrast between this line and the last - "We swim together." - this really intensifies the feeling for me.

We hear about the time our little mermaid and one of her sisters got caught in a net.

We are wounded and in pain.

Today, we shall not eat the tall-crabs.

Today, we hunt to soothe our roaring hearts.

Our little mermaid is curious about many things (the sun, most recently).

I wonder whether any of my sisters have a song that

Is theirs alone.

I wonder…

I can’t be the only one with a song.

Can I?

She's clearly different from her sisters in a way we can't really put our finger on yet. Singing with her sisters, our little mermaid says:

It is a comfortable time,

All of us fitted together around the rock,

Skin against skin.

Could we stay like this forever?

ACE MERMAID

Ace mermaid is getting tired of being left behind by her sisters and decides to catch a tall-crab by herself. That'll show them.

Oooh, I had a brilliant* thought just now: Do you think being ace is what makes her a bad huntress?

*possibly not brilliant

We don't know a lot about the mermaids here, but if you think of mermaids as these alluring sirens and consider how she mentioned messing up the "hunting song" earlier and how some aces have NO IDEA how the sexy thing works (or is that just me?), I think this theory...

...holds water.

(Sorry, this is the second bad pun today, I am trash)

If I can catch a tall-crab on my own,

Just me, me alone,

My sisters will have to let me join them.

[...]

I won’t be lonely then

(I feel like this need to prove that she can do it supports my theory)

So she leaves on her own, but it's scary because she's used to being with her sisters.

The sea is not empty,

But it feels that way. :(

A shark finds her, and while she manages to outswim it, she gets lost. She wants to go home, but she doesn't know where it is. She thinks about how one time her sister brought back a cooked fish and it was too tough for them to eat.

"Shouldn’t that make the tall-crabs more dangerous?"

Lost in thought, she doesn't pay attention to where she's going and gets caught in a net.

It surrounds me,

Engulfs me.

With horror I realise that the net is moving,

Dragging me up to the surface, to air.

I should never have left my sisters.

She's hurt from the net and scared that she will get eaten (but still curious about the tall-crabs).

I cry for my sisters. They will hear me.

They have always heard me.

They do not come.

Poor ace mermaid!

This is where we stop for today! What do you think will happen next? And how do you like the story so far?

I'm looking forward to reading on with you tomorrow :D