Reviews for Under the mermaid angel

The average rating for Under the mermaid angel based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-11-27 00:00:00 Allie Miller I think I read this book when it first came out. I remember reading it and thinking to myself, a junior high student, that no book in the world could compare to it. The writing was fun, the images were memorable, and the story had all the elements you wanted - good characters and a satisfying ending. I'd often think about the images and to this day, many of those stayed with me. I'm particularly thinking about the hair ironing, the glow in the dark solar system, moon pools of green with golden specks, as well as the line "held me like glass." These were images that just stuck. I started thinking about this book again recently. I couldn't remember the name, except I could remember the image of the red haired angel and I could remember the feeling I had checking it out again and again from the library, knowing no other young adult book would compare. I Googled the memorable things and found the book again. And read it again. In an hour. And I wasn't disappointed. The book is still as good now as it was 13 years ago. The images are still as vivid, the characters still as well-done and the story still as satisfying. As I've gathered more experience in my life, I think I may appreciate the story more now than I did then. I don't think there is a book that makes me feel as tingly as this one. Perhaps I had a Roxanne in my life and I often felt like the Jesse - hanging on to something I just had no control over. There's something slightly magical to the book, though it is nothing mystical nor does it depend on magical elements. Each of the characters is dynamic, but not just because Moore wrote it that way; the characters are so dynamic because Jesse discovers that people are much more than what they appear on the outside and much more than they act in one day. And she discovers that about herself, too. Great read both as a young reader and now as an adult. I'm still going to carry these images, and I still believe few books can compare in terms of the impressions with which it left me.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-05-08 00:00:00 Anthony Glaser I think I read this when I was in 6th or 7th grade. I spent a lot of time in the library during those years and I came across this book. It was pretty deep to read this book at the time because I specifically remember Roxanne telling Jessie that she had a baby boy and it was Jessie's friend that always made fun of Roxanne behind her back. I also remember a girl who was called frog face because of how her face looked like from a car accident (mean). I also believe that Jesse was so much into science that she didn't believe the same things that Roxanne did. Also, Roxanne gave her fur coat to Jesse and she wore it all the time at school one day. I believe her gym teacher thought that Jesse wore it because she thought she was pregnant. I believe this story is called under the mermaid angel because Jesse went to a birthday party with Roxanne and there was a mermaid angel piñata (I could be wrong, I read this a long time ago). Towards the end, Jesse starts to believe in some things Roxanne believes in. Also, Roxanne's boyfriend she had a baby boy with, somehow died and he had a fake hand.