Brandann Hill-Mann's Reviews > The Mermaids Singing

Told from the points of view of three women, daughter, mother, grandmother, I really thought this book would have been more than a quest to find love and meaning based on what a man can fill in. I was looking for more of a "what the women in my life mean to me" kind of book, and thought that there would be a story of healing from damaged mother-daughter relationships over three generations of Irish women.

Instead, what I found was yet another story of the people who lost someone to cancer and how their lives were torn apart. A story of how sex destroys you if you aren't careful (oh, the slut-shaming messages!) and how good girls wait for a man who really loves you. Also, any woman who isn't nurturing is cold.

However, it isn't completely without good qualities. The women are not completely two-dimensional, and they have some fierceness to them. There is an element of Gaelic lore and mythology that adds a beautiful touch.