Review: Mermaids: The Myths, Legends, and Lore by Skye Alexander

Publication: May 18 2012
Publisher: Adams Media
Pages: 224 pages
Source: Christmas Gift (thanks Jane!)
Genre: Fantasy, Mermaids, Fiction, Reference
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

Let me start by saying this book is beautiful. Seriously, even if you hate mermaids or are completely uninterested about learning about them you should buy this book simply for how nice it is. It has beautiful illustrations and is written in a blue print (a bit darker from the cover) that is easy to read.

Now onto the review. I’ve been a fan of mythical creatures for a long time. My top two favourite mythical creatures would easily have to be 1) unicorns and 2) mermaids. Since Skye Alexander unfortunately doesn’t have a book like this dedicated to unicorns, I went with her Mermaids book since I really don’t know too much about mermaids myths from other cultures.

The book is extremely informative and gives information about mermaid or mermaid-type figures around the world, from being portrayed as fertility goddesses, water nymphs, nixies, selkies, dragons, until they became commonly called mermaid. While I enjoyed the various amount of information about mermaids/mermaid figures around the world the information did repeat itself quite a lot which made the book difficult to get through at times. The book also includes small tidbits entitled Siren Sightings which tell of actual mermaid sightings from as late as the 1500s to as early as 2011.

I enjoyed learning about how certain images of the mermaid has changed as well as how certain images the Western world associates with evil used to be aligned with healing and womanhood. Particularly I’m talking about the image of the snake since many mermaid-type figures in other cultures are written to have a snake-lower half.

If mermaids aren’t your thing, Alexander has also written a companion book like mermaids dedicated to fairies. For now, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Alexander writes a book dedicated to unicorns!