Mermaids in Paradise

Starred review from August 11, 2014
Absurdity and paranoia permeate the latest novel from Millet (Pulitzer Prize finalist for Love in Infant Monkeys). The book follows a newlywed couple on their honeymoon at a resort in the Caribbean. Deb and Chip embody the modern American dream: they float above life, buoyed by career success, good looks, and booze. A couple of days into their vacation, a marine biologist, Nancy, disrupts their getaway when she chances upon a group of mermaids in the resort’s coral reef. After dispelling initial doubts, Nancy insists that the small crew that found the “mer” (politically correct nomenclature is key) proceeds with caution. She fears that if the information is leaked, hoards of reporters will descend on the island, endangering the mermaids and their reef home. Panic ensues when Nancy dies the following day in a suspicious drowning incident, and soon after media teams and soldiers flood the island. The original snorkel crew (Deb, Chip, a Freudian scholar, a Japanese VJ, a jaded academic) brainstorms how to save the mythical creatures—namely with videos, social media, and celebrity connections. In an era of uncharted connectivity, Millet comically deflates clear-cut distinctions between truth, fiction, and moral high ground. With equal parts calculated wryness and pleading earnestness, she delivers a thrilling piece of fabulist fiction.

Starred review from September 1, 2014
A Caribbean honeymoon turns into a media circus over a mermaid sighting in this laser-focused satire from Millet (Magnificence, 2012, etc.). Deborah, the narrator of Millet's smart and funny novel, her ninth, is an LA woman who's snarky to the core: She's skeptical of her fiance's hard-core workout regimen, of the rituals of bachelorette parties, even of her best friend's own snark. So when her new husband, Chip, proposes a honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands, she's suspicious of tourism's virtues. Deb's early interactions seem to justify her defensiveness: One man gets the wrong idea when she accidentally brushes her foot against his leg over drinks: "He made me feel like my toes were prostitutes," she tells her husband. "Like my toes, Chip, were dolled up in Frederick's of Hollywood." The comic, unbelieving tone Millet gives Deb helps sell what happens next: Roped into a scuba dive by an aquatic researcher, she and a small group spot a bunch of mermaids at a nearby reef. Despite the group's efforts to keep the discovery hidden, the resort gets the news and rushes to capitalize on it, while Deb and her cohorts are eager to preserve the sole example of unadulterated wonder the 21st century has offered them. The novel has the shape and pace of a thriller-Deb is held by corporate goons, the researcher goes mysteriously missing, paramilitary men are called in-and it thrives on Deb's witty, wise narration. Millet means to criticize a rapacious culture that wants to simplify and categorize everything, from the resort profiteers to churchy types who see the mermaids as symbols of godlessness. The ending underscores the consequences of such blinkered mindsets without losing its essential comedy. An admirable example of a funny novel with a serious message that works swimmingly. Dive in.

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October 1, 2014
Millet (Magnificence, 2012) extends her run of audaciously imaginative and emotionally complex fiction propelled by ecological concerns in this satirical novel of big trouble in paradise. Deborah, the acidly witty, relentlessly critical, and fiercely unsentimental narrator, marries her opposite, Chip, a hunky sweetheart crazy about fantasy videogames. They honeymoon in a luxurious Virgin Islands resort, where she gets motion sickness in the floating restaurant, and outgoing Chip befriends a motley bunch, including Nancy, a tenacious marine biologist. Deborah's true nature begins to emerge when Nancy recruits them for a clandestine diving expedition to confirm her astounding discovery: actual mermaids are living along the reef. Despite her attempt to enforce secrecy, word gets out; a mermaid frenzy, including the mobilization of religious hysterics, ensues; and Nancy, a strong swimmer, somehow drowns in her bathtub. Was she murdered by the resort's corporate management in a vicious move to capitalize on the ultimate tourist magnet? Millet, devilishly funny, unnervingly incisive, and toughly compassionate, strips bare our conflicts of conscience about our dire abuse of the biosphere, then delivers a truly shocking finale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

Starred review from September 15, 2014

World-class worrier Deb is a quietly hilarious observer of and cautious participant in life, especially her life with new husband Chip, an uber-friendly gamer addicted to extreme sports. When the couple settle on a tropical island for a honeymoon, Deb reluctantly agrees to a scuba-diving adventure arranged by Chip and Nancy, a parrotfish expert Chip meets. A sighting of real mermaids, Nancy's wish to videotape them for scientific study, and the spiraling viral insanity of social media soon unleash all the hellhounds of today's polarized society. When corporate powers using militarized thugs plan to "theme park" the mermaids, Deb, Chip, and Nancy rally a crew of defenders, including an ex-Navy SEAL and a brilliant, gorgeous Tokyo videojournalist. Throw in a possible murder and a kidnapping and thus is born a wonderfully comedic, poignant thriller that will have you believing in the existence of mermaids. VERDICT Deb's endearing insecurity, unexamined courage, and unwavering love for her husband allow for a charming, albeit uncomfortable, examination of the power of skewed worldviews running off the rails, fueled by ignorance and fear, while smarter, cooler heads push back. Brilliant and wildly funny, with well-placed sharp jolts of sobering reality; Pulitzer Prize finalist Millet (Love in Infant Monkeys) is pure genius. [See Prepub Alert, 5/19/14.]--Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2014

The author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Love in Infant Monkeys and Magnificence, a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Millet is always an author worth reading, and her new book promises to bring out the underlying wit of her previous works. While honeymooning in the tropics, handsome, glad-handing Chip and his new wife, the more cautious Deb (who narrates), meet a marine biologist who announces that she has discovered mermaids inhabiting a nearby coral reef--and then promptly drowns in the hotel bathtub. It's up to Chip and Deb, plus a few other vacationers, to join forces against the corporation now sweeping in with plans to create a giant mermaid theme park.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014

World-class worrier Deb is a quietly hilarious observer of and cautious participant in life, especially her life with new husband Chip, an uber-friendly gamer addicted to extreme sports. When the couple settle on a tropical island for a honeymoon, Deb reluctantly agrees to a scuba-diving adventure arranged by Chip and Nancy, a parrotfish expert Chip meets. A sighting of real mermaids, Nancy's wish to videotape them for scientific study, and the spiraling viral insanity of social media soon unleash all the hellhounds of today's polarized society. When corporate powers using militarized thugs plan to "theme park" the mermaids, Deb, Chip, and Nancy rally a crew of defenders, including an ex-Navy SEAL and a brilliant, gorgeous Tokyo videojournalist. Throw in a possible murder and a kidnapping and thus is born a wonderfully comedic, poignant thriller that will have you believing in the existence of mermaids. VERDICT Deb's endearing insecurity, unexamined courage, and unwavering love for her husband allow for a charming, albeit uncomfortable, examination of the power of skewed worldviews running off the rails, fueled by ignorance and fear, while smarter, cooler heads push back. Brilliant and wildly funny, with well-placed sharp jolts of sobering reality; Pulitzer Prize finalist Millet (Love in Infant Monkeys) is pure genius. [See Prepub Alert, 5/19/14.]--Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.