The Mermaid's Mirror

October 4, 2010
Mixing supernatural elements with the types of family problems and growing pains she explored in Flash Burnout, Madigan introduces Lena, a girl obsessed with the sea and learning to surf, which she has been forbidden to do since her father's surfing accident many years earlier. When Lena begins to hear a voice calling her name, she also begins to sleepwalk, to space out, and to see a mermaid to whom she is inexplicably drawn, which all intensify her need to surf at a dangerous cove to solve the mystery. "A thrill of rebelliousness fluttered in Lena's belly. She could almost feel the waves lifting her on the board, could almost taste the salt of the sea on her lips." Certain scenes, particularly when Lena is learning to surf or being told about riptides or other dangers, feel overly instructional, and Lena is developed much more fully than the other characters (except perhaps her father). Nonetheless, the emotions at play feel very real, and Madigan does a good job of evoking the fog of uncertainty that envelops Lena as she uncovers long-buried secrets—she truly is like a fish out of water. Ages 12–up.