The worst rendition of Ariel's story I've ever read. This story is a boring, cliche, and confusing retelling of Ariel and her idiot Prince's love story. Prince Eric was infuriatingly incompetent until the end of the book. He was the damsel in distress and Ariel was his hero, except she didn't really rescue him and he wasn't in distress because he had power he just didn't use it so why were they like that??? The only benefit to reading this book is all the high-level vocab words that are thrown in. This story functions more like a dictionary + word search than a thrilling YA adventure with likeable characters. This fantasy world doesn't hold together and the characters and plot further unravel anything believable about the plot. Ariel was initially interesting to follow - her becoming the Queen of the Sea after Triton's assumed death - but when she returns to the surface and shifts her attention to Eric she becomes less of herself. She slowly reverts back to her younger naive self, pining over Eric despite her goal to save her father from Ursla's captivity. This in itself is fine to introduce conflict, but once Eric starts talking it becomes a struggle to understand her attachment. We only get once scene seeing her use her abilities as a Queen of the Sea! When she uses her powers it's unintentional but just happens to work out. Ok go off Queen I guess?? There's just not much to enjoy about Ariel in this story.

Now about Ursula... She is reduced to a vain, short-sighted version of herself which is so insulting and disappointing. Honestly her characterization reminds me of the bland villainesses that appear in otome isekai manga - that level of one-dimension-ness. In the Disney movie Ursula is wise, driven, and evil with an understandable motivation. In this story, Ursula was successful with marrying Eric, making her the princess of his kingdom which apparently makes her no longer interested in ruling the sea. She's only focused on taking over the land because humans are easy to manipulate and there is fun land magic... WE'RE THE MERFOLK NOT EASY TO MANIPULATE? SHE GOT ARIEL'S VOICE BY LYING TO HER AND TRICKING HER AND USING THE VOICE SHE STOLE TO SEDUCE THE MAN SHE FELL IN LOVE WITH. WHAT DO U MEAN HUMANS ARE EASIER TO MANIPULATE???? I SAW HER DEN WITH THOSE WORMS - ALL ASSUMABLY MERFOLK THAT WERE TRANSFORMED BECAUSE SHE WAS ABLE TO MANIPULATE THEM!!!! And also she no longer cares for Triton's trident despite that being the WHOLE REASON for her to fuck with Ariel in the first place. She's so vain in this story it's painful. She just wants riches, to gain more power, and to be revered in the most shallowest ways possible. Braswell tries to justify this but it doesn't work because it doesn't feel like Ursula, it feels like her fake identity "Vanessa" - and I don't give a single FUCK about Vanessa! Ursula is literally iconic, all Braswell had to do is build off of who Ursula already was, not tear things away. Vanessa has no depth and she was only able to come across as intelligent when it came to dealing with Eric, but as the story continues it's obvious that it doesn't take much thinking to outsmart Eric in any regard.

And Eric. Mad Prince Eric! What a waste of a character. Truly he could have been in a coma and still provided as much entertainment, depth, and help as he did in this story fully awake. In the story Eric was the damsel in distress waiting for his lost legless lover to come and rescue him. He is a waste of a prince, I don't even know if he knows what a prince is. Does he know what he can do as the one in charge of his own kingdom??? He never shows that he does! He decides that in order to continue tricking Ursula he needs to continue acting as the Mad Prince - i.e. letting Ursula run his kingdom and control everything politically while he makes his sadboy music and compositions . He makes his choice after he realizes that Ursula is pushing his country to go to war with all other kingdoms across the continent and his people are suffering for it. Like why is this his response? He is a PRINCE and he KNOWS THIS and he's BEEN THIS all his LITERAL LIFE, yet he does absolutely nothing with his authority to halt Ursula's plans. Like sir - YOU ARE A PRINCE. ACCUSE HER OF TREASON NEOW . In one scene him and Ursula are having dinner and Ursula is basically like "yea I put you and your entire kingdom under my spell and I know Ariel is here and that she broke the spell I put on you and I'm forcing your kingdom to go to war because I want absolute power but just keep letting me do this ok ty teehee bye" and Eric's response is to be snarky and whine about it like a fucking brat. After the dinner, he STILL continues to act like the Mad Prince DESPITE Ursula knowing he's no longer under her spell ! WHY?! Because he decides he can't stop acting until he knows what her motivations are. SHE KNOWS YOUR ACTING NOW, YOU CAN STOP IT. Just investigate her as yourself ! In any political, social, or rational angle he does nothing to lessen Ursula's control. Truly a worthless prince through and through. This retelling doesn't need to exist because it takes more away from the story than it gives to it, and theres not much to discuss or ponder about this reduction other than "why?". I'll end this rant with my most hated interaction involving the Idiot Prince and Ariel.

you're... a mermaid now? yes and you can talk now. yes and you came back for me? i came back for my father. i received word he might still be alive, as a prisoner of ursula oh... your father. of course that's the main reason i have returned. we have thought he was dead all these years. i'm here to rescue him i just thought... i mean... i had hoped you came back to take me away from all of this. to live happily after somewhere. under the sea, maybe.
She just said she was here to RESCUE HER FATHER SHE THOUGHT WAS DEAD and you still made this about you? I swear imma-