Book Review: Coral by Sara Ella

**Disclaimer: I received a free electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
Genre: Fantasy, Retelling, Romance, YA
Release Date: November 12, 2019 
Description:

" There is more than one way to drown.

Coral has always been different, standing out from her mermaid sisters in a society where blending in is key. Worse yet, she fears she has been afflicted with the dreaded Disease, said to be carried by humans—emotions. Can she face the darkness long enough to surface in the light?

Above the sea, Brooke has nothing left to give. Depression and anxiety have left her feeling isolated. Forgotten. The only thing she can rely on is the numbness she finds within the cool and comforting ocean waves. If only she weren’t stuck at Fathoms—a new group therapy home that promises a second chance at life. But what’s the point of living if her soul is destined to bleed?

Merrick may be San Francisco’s golden boy, but he wants nothing more than to escape his controlling father. When his younger sister’s suicide attempt sends Merrick to his breaking point, escape becomes the only option. If he can find their mom, everything will be made right again—right?

When their worlds collide, all three will do whatever it takes to survive, and Coral might even catch a prince in the process. But what—and who—must they leave behind for life to finally begin?"

"Coral" is a loose retelling of the classic tale of "The Little Mermaid". I'm not super familiar with all the nitty-gritty details of the classic, just the kids friendly Disney version that most of the general population have come to love. Aside from this, I can confirm it is a VERY loose retelling.

This book has a very interesting premise, but once I started to read it I began to lose interest. First off, the story starts out slow to the point where I'm just wondering why there are even three perspectives in the first place if the story was moving at such a pace. Secondly, I was left confused more than I probably should be. In fact, throughout the story, there were many instances where I felt even lost. I thought maybe it was the writing style or me just not paying enough attention to the story or even I'm just not reading thoroughly enough. Despite all of these speculations of mine, I will conclude that the story was written with an air of vagueness. There are topics, phrases, incidents, and memories that occur in the story that are repeatedly mentioned but are not thoroughly explained nor flushed out. For example, the "Red Tide" is brought since the first chapter but is never explained until the end. 

Another issue I had with the story was Coral's transition from her underwater life to land. The way she was able to easily assimilate into the human world kind of left me scratching my head. Even though it is later revealed why the story happened the way it did in the end, I wished that aspect was developed more because once Coral was on land, everything of her mermaid life was never mentioned or seen again. As readers, we don't know the ending so to us it looked like a bunch of loose ends. 

Now the character themselves were nothing special. Maybe it's just me, but I found the supporting cast to be more interesting than Coral, Brooke, and Merrick. I kind of wish they had more screen time than the main trio to be completely honest. Ever since I finished the book, I truly cannot recall anything significant (good and bad) about the main characters.

Despite all the qualms I had with this book, I do appreciate the sensitive topics that it does heavily focus on, which was mainly mental health. It was evident that the story heavily focused on mental health from the very beginning till the very end. I also appreciate how the concept had to be explained to the main characters so they can understand it better because sometimes we don't understand things that are caused by it.

Overall, I applaud the author for focusing on such important topics. However, the story had missed the mark in execution. 

Overall rating:  2.75/5