The Oyster Thief

I love this book. It offers highly relatable characters and mission, yet beautiful and imaginative fantasy at the same time. The story itself kept me reading and wanting to know more; meanwhile, I loved the process of being guided through an amazingly enchanting ocean underworld. The author’s attention to detail had my own imagination pushing boundaries – previously the flora and fauna of my mind’s ocean were those featured in nature programs – now I saw into the lives, homes, and rich kaleidoscope world of the merpeople. I appreciate very much that the author chose to set the story in the Atlantic Ocean, instead of a fictional ocean. It grounded the story for me, and I think it made her message of responsible ocean stewardship strong by giving it an actual place. As I followed the rich lives and adventures of Coralline and Izar and the fascinatingly named cast of supporting characters, I not only loved the storyline and character development; but, I also was grateful for the depth of real ocean research done by the author. Her writing in this book is captivating, as is the world she creates for her readers.

The Oyster Thief is an imaginative tale about a mermaid and the human she meets on a journey to save her brother. Coralline is a mermaid who has recently become engaged and has things turning out for the best. But when an oil spill threatens the life of her brother, she sets out on an elixir expedition in the hopes of saving him. Izar is a human inventor who has recently figured out how to create fire underwater. This will not only make him extremely wealthy, but will also threaten merpeople with extinction. But when Izar finds himself pushed overboard a ship, he is is transformed into a merman and discovers his life may be at risk. With no idea how to become human again, Izar meets Coralline and joins her on her quest to find the elixir. Throughout the journey, Coralline and Izar form an unlikely bond, despite the fact that their worlds are warring against each other. They are both keeping secrets that could tear them apart, but still find themselves continually attracted to each other. There has always been something so captivating about mermaids, and Faruqi has created a completely new and fantastically magical world. I adore the fact that merpeople have muses, which means an underwater animal best friend and adviser. Coralline's is a whale shark named Pavonis. He is fiercely protective of Coralline and insists upon accompanying her on her quest. Sharks are one of my favorite animals, and I love that Faruqi mentions that she chose a shark because they are such misunderstood animals. I absolutely agree! As mentioned in the synopsis, there is clearly a love triangle at play between Izar, Coralline, and her fiance Ecklon. Love triangles aren't typically my thing, but my heart was wrenching for Coralline and her decision. Both Ecklon and Izar deeply care for Coralline and want the best for her. Sure, the result is fairly predictable, but I still found myself enraptured in the tale. The Oyster Thief is also a love song for the ocean. Faruqi reminds us how important ocean conservation is as we watch an oil spill threaten to destroy a small merpeople village. We need to learn to take better care of our planet. Just because we do not live in the ocean, it does not mean that it is not an important part of our world.

It was a good read, seemed to have a little bit of everything: romance, action, mystery, family drama. It took until the last 50 pages or so to finally pick up the pace and get interesting with everything coming together. Glad I pushed through but it did take a while to get there.

Sonia faruqi's "project animal farm" (her other work) was a principled, objective research piece on the unsustainability of factory farms for both the animals and the humans who raise them and kill them. "oyster thief" is a mix of homer's odyssey and marvel comics as she takes us into the ocean world of mermen who live lives strikingly similar to us humans. it is a dialectic of love, ceremony, family and honor versus deception, greed and violence. but, the important part above this entertaining story is this. there may not be mermen, magic potions and communities like urchin grove but, what the oceans hold much like faruqi's factory farms is a community of living organisms that know affection, love, fear and despair. her message is that factory farming on land and sea is inherently violent and degrading to not only the hunted but, also the hunters. read this book and her other one and pass it on.

Writing a book is no easy feat. This book got a lot of things half-right. The author makes an attempt to give the characters internal motivations for their actions and weaves in mysteries to be solved along the way at a pace that makes sense. However, I couldn't get pass how often the author interrupts the story line to give a detailed description of even minor characters. The logic of the book was often confounding (e.g. I always stand here + a tower nearly falls on me = there must be a plot to kill me!) just...no. The author makes an attempt at creating 3 dimensional characters but they still fall flat. Sure, they have desires and histories that spur on their actions but I wasn't captivated by them. Honestly, I blame the editor for many of the problems in the narrative. I enjoy fantasy and YA, but writing in that genre is not an excuse for phoning it in. I recommend searching for another under-the-sea novel to sate your desire for merpeople fantasy.

The Oyster Thief is a beautifully depicted story of a mermaid's encounter with real life. Right from the first page, I felt that I connected with Coralline and her life, and was intrigued to turn each page to read what would happen next. The story has two protagonists, which keeps the story and perspective constantly shifting and interesting. Loved it!

I found The Oyster Thief utterly enchanting. It was such a fast-paced story with lots of unpredictable turns (nothing about it was formulaic). It made me remember how much I enjoyed reading The Harry Potter books. It's been quite a while since I've found a story that pulls me in nearly from the start and keeps me hooked until the end. For the sheer enjoyment factor alone, I definitely find this a "5 star" story. I especially loved how deeply the author approached the story. There are a few mermaid books that have come out this year and I’ve started them but I haven’t finished them because they are mostly regurgitations of Ariel and Ursula in The Little Mermaid; The Oyster Thief, in contrast, creates a full-on world and culture of merpeople. As I was reading it, I enjoyed imagining merpeople homes, their jewelry, their brightly colored tails. Every part of their culture was well-thought out, with intriguing world-building. The author says this in the Notes section at the end of the book: “I pretended that merpeople already existed, and that I, like an anthropologist, was simply “discovering” them.” The ocean is such a different world that it was interesting to enter it through the perspective of this book. The Oyster Thief was the perfect novel to sink happily into with a glass of wine every night. I will be recommending this book to my book club!

Ms. Faruqi has a very painterly style of storytelling. The imagery of the underwater world and its inhabitants becomes very real and vivid with time. I was unsure what to expect at first blush. A children's story? Science fiction? The author has clearly done her research into the science of the sea as well as mineral exploitation. The characters and images are expressed in a real and entertaining fashion. You become drawn into the undersea world of the merpeople. I found the story to be unlike anything I had previously. A great deal of my reading involves mystery and thrillers. This book contained some of those elements. Overall a very refreshingly original story.

A vivid and picturesque setting, adorned by a riveting plot line that unleashes the underworld to make a splash in your heart! This book was nothing less than exemplary that bridged one’s childhood’s imagination of the underworld life with one’s adulthood consciousness of ocean conservationism. Highly recommend the book to all!

So badly written down unimaginative. Not about impact of environment on marine life in any real way.