Review: Antara by Marilena Mexi

Antara

By: Marilena Mexi

Pub. Date: March 22, 2011

Publisher: Lulu

Pages: 146

Source: Author

Peace and tranquility on the island of Aster, home to both humans and 'merfolk', has long been broken by a devastating phenomenon, recurring every five years. A storm including gusting winds and huge waves mysteriously appeared and eradicated much of the population. The misunderstandings, suspicion and hate born of this disaster have torn the two races apart, and the peace loving merfolk are now in a never-ending struggle to prove their innocence and restore peace to the island. On the human side, things are even worse; under the tyranny of cruel king Orestis, the people suffer and all their king cares for is vengeance against the "fish", as he spitefully calls them, executing merfolk after merfolk for just being near his lands. Secrets, intense emotions and strange phenomena will upset their lives forever.

When the author emailed me asking to review her book, I was instantly intrigued with the story. I've read a few other mermaid stories and really enjoyed them, and Antara had a really interesting premise to it.

Once upon a time, humans and the merfolk were friends and lived in peace. Until one day, a massive storm destroyed most of the human land, and killed countless merfolk and humans. The humans blamed the merfolk for the destruction and since then, the two groups have been enemies. King Orestis, the king of the humans, will have any merfolk killed if they go on their land.

Now, the merfolk know that another storm is coming and they want to warn the humans. Asteria, the King of the merfolk's granddaughter, comes up with a plan to disguise herself as a human and bring out the good in Orestis so he would trust the merfolk and save his people.

As I said earlier, I really liked the story. I thought it was interesting that the humans knew about the merfolk and at one time, lived in harmony with them.  Also, the illustrations in Antara were beautiful! Marilena Mexi is a very talented artist.

The main issue I did have with Antara was the actual writing, especially the fact that whoever was having a conversation with each other used their name in every single sentence. People don't do that in a conversation. One or two times, I could have overlooked it, but it happened a lot. It was too the point that I wanted to skip over many conversations.

The other thing that bothered we was the connection between Asteria and Orestis. They knew each other less then a day and the King was ready to change everything he ever knew, and they were both madly in love. It just didn't seem realistic too me.

Even though King Orestis was a bastard, inside he was a really sweet guy and I enjoyed reading the parts when he was the real him. He was polite and always saying please and thank you. But then he would turn a switch and be a douche again. He was an intriguing guy and I look forward to reading more about him.   

I did enjoy Antara. It was an interesting read. Even if I hated it, the drawings would have been worth picking this book up!!

Two of my favorite drawings: