The Vicious Deep

by Zoraida Cordova

The Vicious Deep Series, Book One

Book Description

For Tristan Hart, everything changes with one crashing wave.
He was gone for three days. Sucked out to sea in a tidal wave and spit back ashore at Coney Island with no memory of what happened. Now his dreams are haunted by a terrifying silver mermaid with razor-sharp teeth.
His best friend Layla is convinced something is wrong. But how can he explain he can sense emotion like never before? How can he explain he’s heir to a kingdom he never knew existed? That he’s suddenly a pawn in a battle as ancient as the gods.
Something happened to him in those three days. He was claimed by the sea…and now it wants him back.

MY THOUGHTS: 3.75 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Córdova

Tristan Hart is a high school lifeguard who isn’t worried about too much besides girls and his swim team. But out of the blue he is overtaken by a huge wave on the beach, and he experiences very–unusual dreams.

But when he wakes up, his mother lets him know he was not dreaming. Tristan is in fact half merman. And not just any merman, an heir to the royal throne. But there are those who would not be happy to see Tristan come to power. Not only that, he must figure out how to keep his two worlds from colliding. His life is getting more complicated by the minute.

I haven’t had much luck with what I call “merpeople” novels. Lies Beneath was horrible for me, and others I’ve read have just kind of been meh. Vicious Deep has some promise, but unfortunately doesn’t completely deliver.

First off, we have Tristan. He is a grade-A jerk. He is a player who can’t ever remember girls’ names correctly, and rather rude and chauvinistic at that. Yet in spite of all this, he is somewhat in love with his best friend, Layla. She knows his history but still manages to have feelings for him too.

The world of the merfolk (or merkin as they are called here) is very intriguing and I enjoyed being immersed in it. I was also partial to the two merfolk who came to help Tristan, Kurt and Thalia. They were charming in an awkward way 🙂

The biggest problem I had with this novel was the pacing. It. Was. SOOOOOOO. Slow! It took a long time for anything of substance to happen, and I almost gave up on reading it a couple of times. Once it got the end end, it finally started rolling along better.

By the time I got to the end, I was glad I had read it, but there were several unanswered questions. I wish I could have learned more in this book…but it is of course, the first in a series.

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