Review: Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Title: Fathomless (Fairytale Retellings #3)
Author:  Jackson Pearce
Pages:  304
Publisher:  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre:  Paranormal
Release:  September 4th 2012
Source: BEA
Buy the Book at: Book Depository / Chapters Indigo

Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant -- until Celia meets Lo. Lo doesn't know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea -- a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid -- all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she's becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she's tempted to embrace her dark immortality. When a handsome boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, Celia and Lo work together to rescue him from the waves. The two form a friendship, but soon they find themselves competing for Jude's affection. Lo wants more than that, though. According to the ocean girls, there's only one way for Lo to earn back her humanity. She must persuade a mortal to love her . . . and steal his soul.

I have not read Hans Christian Andersn's The Little Mermaid. I only watched the Disney version of it, which I do know have a very different ending to the original tale. However, with only the Disney retelling in my head,  Fathomless  feels like a whole new tale on its own. And a very wonderful one.

Told from two characters' perspective, yet three different points of view (one character has two identities) Fathomless narrates a mesmerizing story of identity, remembrance, friendship and love.



Celia and her Sister (who are triplets) have supernatural powers. One can see the future, the other one the present, and Celia can see the past. Lo is an ocean girl who was once human and lived on land. However, someone turned her into an ocean girl and now she can't even remember what her name used to be... until she meet Celia. Celia and Lo meet for the first time the night they both rescue Jude (the charming love interest) from drowning. But Celia and Lo continue to meet and a friendship starts to grows while Celia tries to helps Lo remember who she once was.

With a bewitching prologue,  Fathomless captured my attention right away. I enjoyed it the different point's of view and I specially appreciate the different chapters that were given to Lo and Naida (the girl Lo used to be) I feel I get to love this complex characters whose two identities fought to overpower each other to whether accept a life as an ocean girl, or remember the past and sacrifice a human' s life to get her soul back. In addition, Celia was a delightful lead character. There is so much credibility to the way she behaves as well as her actions and thoughts. She is no doubt a character that readers will deeply sympathize with.

The background story in how the ocean girls are created, and where they are supposed to go when they grow old, is something that fascinated me and I'd love to see more of these concept. Unfortunately is was covered very little but enough to have a good understanding of the background story.

Fathomless is a very enjoyable story even though most of it goes pretty smooth and didn't blew my mind. However, the last fifty pages of the book is what really did it for me. The last fifty pages were such a wild rollercoaster that I felt like drowning and gasping for air countless of times. By the end of this novel, I was definitely breathless!

With a highly satisfying (and soul-feeding) ending, Fathomless is a beautiful tale that you'll appreciate reading.

Visit the author's website at http://www.jacksonpearce.com