Merrow

Starred review from September 26, 2016
Twelve-year old Neen Marrey has been raised by her maternal aunt, Ushag, and brought up on stories of merrow (mermaids), selkies, krakens, and changelings. When Neen was a toddler, her fisherman father drowned and her mother disappeared soon after, leaving whispers and speculation in their wake. Neen harbors the secret belief that her mother simply rejoined her true family, the merrow that live below the sea, and that she will soon return for Neen. The discovery of a hidden cave and the arrival of a near-drowned “Northman” lead to unexpected revelations about both the local lore and Neen’s mother. This quiet, introspective novel from Australian writer Braxton-Smith sparkles with lingering imagery and expressive writing. Readers will be easily drawn into Neen’s determined efforts to piece together a true understanding of the mother she barely knew, whose story has been muddied by the unkind stories and rumors shared by locals. Neen’s sense of displacement fades as the wall between herself and Auntie Ushag, created by long-kept secrets, begins to crumble, earning them hard-won contentment and kinship. Ages 14–up.

Starred review from October 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-Twelve-year-old Neen has heard the stories the people of Carrick tell: "Her Pa was a drinker who'd killed Mam by mistake." "Pa married a merrow-a mermaid-and Mam went after him and drowned." "Mam lost her mind after Pa died and walked the island until she was nothing but a skeleton." But Neen believes none of these. The only tales she'll listen to are those of Skully Slevin, the island's blind fiddler, and his ma. Skully tells Neen that she has merrow blood running through her veins-the proof is in the itchy red scales that appear on her each year. The only one who doesn't tell stories is bitter Auntie Ushag-she's more concerned with day-to-day tasks that need to be done, and all she'll say is that Neen's mam left because of a broken heart. But as the girl stands on the border between childhood and womanhood, she is restless and desperate for answers, and her search for them will take her to unexpected places. The author has done detailed research on the customs and language of Carrick, and this novel perfectly captures the harshness and beauty of that culture. This exquisitely told work examines the power of stories and how a well-told tale can transcend truth and history. VERDICT Readers will want to curl up at the feet of this narrator and listen to her spellbinding account. Recommended for all YA collections.-Heather M. Campbell, formerly at Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Neen was almost 3 when her mother, Ven, disappeared, but a decade later she still has more questions than answers; grim Auntie Ushag's tight-lipped, but some say Ven had merrow blood and returned to the sea.Carrick's inhabitants have endured famines and Viking raiders. With the millennium approaching, proselytizing Christians preach redemption along with terrifying warnings of what will befall those who remain pagan. Some islanders, such as Ma Slevin and her blind son, Scully, hedge their bets and hang onto the old faith, too, with its rich tapestry of myth and folklore about Others and merrows. Despite their prickly relationship, Neen and Ushag share the hard labor of fishing, hunting, cleaning their catch, curing hides. They make and mend nets, gather honey and beeswax, scavenge beaches for wooden spars, rusty bolts, and occasional treasures from shipwrecks, all described with poetic precision. Restless, Neen pesters Ushag for answers--what was her mother like? "Just like you," she's told, which only deepens the mystery. Neen too loves the sea; like Ven's, her skin gets scaly in the summer heat. As storms and earthquakes reshape the island, Neen recounts her quest for proof of her mother's nature and therefore her own. Though she sprinkles her account with Manx, Neen's no tour guide to the Middle Ages but an authentic Everyteen whose hard, beautiful world readers will recognize. A sparkling paean to the stories we tell--plain and embroidered, fantastical, amazing, true--that get us through the night. (Historical fiction. 14-18) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from August 15, 2016
Neen was almost 3 when her mother, Ven, disappeared, but a decade later she still has more questions than answers; grim Auntie Ushags tight-lipped, but some say Ven had merrow blood and returned to the sea.Carricks inhabitants have endured famines and Viking raiders. With the millennium approaching, proselytizing Christians preach redemption along with terrifying warnings of what will befall those who remain pagan. Some islanders, such as Ma Slevin and her blind son, Scully, hedge their bets and hang onto the old faith, too, with its rich tapestry of myth and folklore about Others and merrows. Despite their prickly relationship, Neen and Ushag share the hard labor of fishing, hunting, cleaning their catch, curing hides. They make and mend nets, gather honey and beeswax, scavenge beaches for wooden spars, rusty bolts, and occasional treasures from shipwrecks, all described with poetic precision. Restless, Neen pesters Ushag for answerswhat was her mother like? Just like you, shes told, which only deepens the mystery. Neen too loves the sea; like Vens, her skin gets scaly in the summer heat. As storms and earthquakes reshape the island, Neen recounts her quest for proof of her mothers nature and therefore her own. Though she sprinkles her account with Manx, Neens no tour guide to the Middle Ages but an authentic Everyteen whose hard, beautiful world readers will recognize. A sparkling paean to the stories we tellplain and embroidered, fantastical, amazing, truethat get us through the night. (Historical fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* The earwigs (eavesdroppers) in town bustle with rumors. Some say Neen Marrey's father axed her mother in a drunken stupor. The Slevins, neighbors to Neen and her auntie Ushag, believe that the Marreys' bloodline is intermixed with that of merrows (Irish mermaids). After losing her father to a shipwreck at age two and her mother mysteriously a year later, Neen dreams of sea spray, pearls, and one mournful merrow in particular. She seeks the truth from Ushag, who remains tight-lipped even in the face of Ma Slevin's Other-tinged tales, the arrival of a marooned Northman, and Neen's Scale a peeling forearm irritation. Convinced that knowledge of her mother's past could illumine her own murky present, Neen roams the sun-dappled depths of the seaside, where she unearths inexplicable remainsand with them, metamorphic truths and a story all her own. While the indeterminate time period, flecked with fragments of Manx and Old Norse (handily supplemented by a brief glossary), imparts a distinctly otherworldly atmosphere, it is Braxton-Smith's hypnotic prose that resonates most. Lush with dazzling detailfrom the silky swells of the Irish Sea to purring honeyed hivesMarrey Cove thrums with life. Neen's narrative, crackling with memories, folklore, and flashes of humor, earnestly confronts both the secrets we keep and the truths we seek. A singular story about the singularity of storiesentrancing and extraordinary.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2017
Neen Marrey is a heishan--in Manx, the language of the Isle of Man, neither girl nor woman, but somewhere in between. And as the relentless sun beats down on her and her aunt during this summer of in-between growth on their tiny island, Neen wants answers. Gossips say that her father drowned and her mother was a merrow, or mermaid, who returned to the sea, but practical-minded Auntie Ushag will have none of it. As Neen scavenges among the sea-wrack (and the local folklore), boring into the shifting sands and rock caves as never before, she gets glimpses of an amazing truth, answers that will change her aunt and herself forever. The forcefulness and musicality of Braxton-Smith's prose seems born from the very waters of her setting--the Irish Sea, at a time when Norsemen still roamed and raided; when selkies, merrows, and krakens were considered to be real. Neen's forthrightness, her precise, pungent way with words ("[The sun] had no pity, and under its rays all the dead of last night's great tide had shriveled to black guts and silvery-fine fish leather. The stink of them seemed to walk abroad like it was its own creature"), intensifies our sense of the grumpy obsessiveness of her adolescent restlessness. A vital, surprising tale, in which description itself is full of passion. deirdre f. baker

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)