Smooth criticism on humanity

Die Chroniken der Meerjungfrau - Der Fluch der Wellen
von Christina Henry

Bewertet mit 4 Sternen

Out of all the dark chronicles, this book is by far the most tame, as in there isn't much death and horror. Henrys smooth storytelling takes us to New York in the 1840's and she depictes very well, how women were supposed to behave and how humans value the wrong things. It is very interesting to see humanity through the eyes of the mermaid Amelia, who is confronted with pretty much everything humanity has to offer.  

• Even worse, there was a kind of belief. Belief was more dangerous than all the tale-telling in all the pubs of the world. Humans, Amelia knew, would do anything for belief. They would proselytize from the highest mountain for belief. They would collect like-minded people and form mobs for belief. They would kill one another for belief.
• Objects were more valuable depending on who owned them? Paintings were more valuable depending on who painted them?
• Humans often valued what they should not, she reflected, and most often they did not value what was right before their eyes.
• She'd wanted money to travel and see all the wonders of men? What was there to see besides the misery people inflicted on one another?
• He would not be convinced. Amelia finally realized it was because he himself did not understand what it meant to be different an to have people expect you to change for their sake. She realized that no man could understand this, really, though they expected their wives to do so every day.
• I don't belong to you [...] You thought if I married you that I would, but I don't. I don't belong to any man. [...] I only belong to myself. But belonging to myself doesn't mean I don't love you or I don't want to stand beside you. [...] I want to be your partner, not your possession
• Until I became human, nobody ever told me there was something wrong with my body

There is a lot more that stayed with me, but that could be the whole book then xD I just really like the mermaid Amelia and how she viewed humanity and offended the humans around her with honesty, while not being rude in any way. Being honest goes against being polite and, for the most part, against being a woman.