Major Characters:
- Verónica(Vero) Rentería: Verónica is a seventeen-year-old girl with hip dysplasia who lives in central Florida. Verónica’s dream is to become a mermaid, and since she lives close to Mermaid Cove, an area where professional mermaids perform, her obsession for her dream increases. Unfortunately, she is the daughter of Mr. Rentería and Mrs. Rentería, who both dislike mermaids, don’t want their daughters to be in any relationships, and are generally too overprotective. Verónica starts to love swimming because it lessens the pain caused by her condition as well as prevents people from seeing her scars caused by her surgeries while she’s in the water. Soon, her dream to become a mermaid becomes stronger and harder to ignore, as well as her feelings toward Alex, her new neighbor. After a spot opens up at Mermaid Cove, Verónica will have to decide if she is willing to audition and tell her parents about the relationship she is in, or not do either and regret the decision forever.
- Danitza(Dani) Rentería: Danitza is Verónica’s younger sister. Although the sisters are very close and share a very strong bond, they both get into arguments involving Verónica’s hip dysplasia and how it affects Danitza because their parents tell her to keep Verónica happy. Danitza plays an important role in Verónica’s life because she is the person that Verónica is the closest and shares all her secrets with and influences the way she thinks.
- Mr. Rentería: Mr. Rentería is Verónica’s father and the person she stays away from. He influences the whole family by making decisions he expects them to follow, and expects his daughters to have no romantic relationships. Mr. Rentería believes that his two daughters should have a very good career and academically challenge themselves. As an immigrant, he wants to make his children make the trouble he faced worthwhile. While doing this, he neglects his children’s own dreams, and doesn’t tell Verónica the truth about her own medical condition.
- Mrs. Rentería: Mrs. Rentería is Verónica’s mother. She is an important figure by making Verónica feel comfortable and happy. In addition, however, she shares the same ideas as her husband and wants their daughters to choose good careers and be financially stable. Verónica is very close to her mother, but since she doesn’t want to choose a job that is considered financially stable according to her mom, she has to distance herself from Mrs. Rentería as well.
Alex Morales: Alex, Verónica’s boyfriend, is a very important person in her life. He encourages her to do what she loves, and ignores her medical condition, which makes her feel normal. Alex is always supporting Verónica, no matter what choice she makes. When she decides she needs to tell her parents that she won’t be able to fulfill their wishes and everything they want for her, Alex stays right by her side.
Review:
Seventeen-year-old Verónica Rentería’s dream is to become a mermaid, even despite her hip dysplasia. Since she lives in central Florida, which is the home of Mermaid Cove, a place where professional mermaids perform, she constantly goes to see the performances, since she was a kid. As a result of her medical condition, her doctor instructs her to spend more time swimming to relieve her pain, and as a result of this, Verónica’s love of mermaids increases as she becomes more comfortable in water than she ever did on land. As she becomes more close with Alex Morale, the new boy next door who Verónica is starting to like, she gets nervous as to what her parents will think. Verónica’s mom and dad told her with finality not to get in any relationships and to have a financially stable job when she’s older. When a spot opens up at Mermaid Cove, Verónica’s dream place, she needs to decide in a limited amount of time if she wants to audition and try to get the spot, or skip the chance to achieve her one dream. As she is still debating what to do, she realizes that her parents have been keeping a secret about her medical condition from her. Soon, she understands that she won’t be letting anybody control her body and mind anymore, and figures out that she needs to let her parents know the truth about herself.
This book was very enjoyable and had a very important and relevant overall theme. However, I believe that the book would have been better if the author had included the perspectives of Verónica’s parents. This is because the main reason Verónica feels afraid to share the truth about the type of life she wants is because of her parents, who have not been paying attention to Verónica’s dreams. I feel that if the reader was able to understand why Verónica’s parents neglected her dreams, it would make the story more complete and give the reader a better idea of Verónica’s environment at home. Also, this book should include the perspectives of Alex and Danitza so that the reader could understand the story from the point of view of the people who are not directly involved. It would make the story better because the reader would be able to understand how Verónica’s parents were behaving to an outsider. Other than this, this book was very necessary and had a very important theme about staying true to yourself and being who you want to be.
I enjoyed this book and I believe other teens will like it as well. It is a very important book to read because all teens, just like Verónica, will have to find out about the type of lives we want to lead and our future, whether or not it pleases other people. I think this book will benefit all teens because the theme of this book is to stay true to yourself, which is a lesson every person should remember. Overall, I think this is a great book and I recommend this to teens who like fiction books about overcoming obstacles as well as teens who like to read inspirational books about following your dreams.
