This book is highly imaginative and the author has created an amazing underwater world with fantastical creatures, colors, and new words. My favorites words are currensea, transparensea pearls for being invisble, or Sue Nami for an angry girl. What I really liked about the book was that the underlying story was keeping the humans from destroying the oceans, and the imaginative things the mer people have created from trash that humans threw into the ocean. The hero of the story, Serafina, is a young princess who together with five other girls is supposed the save the mer people from a monster who is trying to escape its prison and kill everyone. And since this is the first book of a series don't expect the problems and mysteries to be solved by the end of the first book. The girls have just started their long journey. There are some paralells to Harry Potter here, as the girls have to search and find some magical talismans in order to be able to defeat the monster. They also haven't completed their magical training yet but have to face huge tasks that take special magical powers. Their group is a mix of different talents, and only together can they succeed because their talents compliment each other. This is not just a coming of age story, it is about good versus evil, about magic, friendship and family, and about keeping peace between different nations. I think my favorite character is the blind girl Ava, who has a piranha on a leash as her service animal. Of course she is the Seer in the story. What I also like is that all the girls are from different nations and ethnicities. During the story the girls are being chased by the bad guys, and along the way they make new friends who help them on their search for the Lele witches, who have summoned the girls to give them their task. All in all, a very promising new series, and I am looking forward to the next books.
