I’m naturally a trusting person. Really, I am. My husband and I joke that my method is “you have my trust until you break it,” while his is “you get my trust when you earn it.” And this way of operating holds pretty true for us…unless you’re remaking a story I love.
In that one situation, I will automatically decide that the remake is awful and hurtful and will rob something essential from the core of my being.
I know I’m being dramatic, but I’ve been burned. I won’t name names, but some adaptations have caused me to mourn over the wreckage the author or director has made of the original story. I’m not talking “they left out a chapter!” or “that’s not chronologically accurate!” I mean when the heart of the story and characters have been changed to fit an agenda. In that sense, something feels like it’s died.
This is the fear that clutched my heart when I learned that my favorite childhood fairy tale, The Little Mermaid, had been rewritten as a Young Adult novel. But I should have known I could trust KB Hoyle.
Hoyle is a favorite in our home. Her Gateway Chronicles read like a modern teenage Narnia- a redemptive story of beauty, sacrifice, and restoration. Her Breeder Cycle is one of the best dystopian series I’ve ever read. So when I saw that she had written a gender-flipped version of The Little Mermaid called “Son of the Deep,” I should have trusted. And for good reason—Hoyle took a story that I loved and reconciled it to the redemptive Story that I’m actually living.
In “Son of the Deep,” Orpheo, a prince of the ocean realm (or Deep) has a clandestine meeting with Rose, a princess of the Earth. Like the original story, the merman makes a deal with a sea-witch and loses his voice (the only characteristic Rose knows him by) in the process. The bones of the story stay the same, but the heart of the story soars above anything I’ve ever read or watched.
Unlike other versions, Rose and Orpheo are driven by a deep desire for the reconciliation of their worlds, faithfulness to their promises, and duty towards their respective kingdoms. The conflict comes when these good desires seem impossible to reconcile with each other. Rather than a “but Daddy, I love him!” motivation, the main characters are constantly seeking the highest good of those around them, rather than just satisfying selfish desire. Hoyle adeptly provides a side character, James, that embodies all that we have been told by the world that love is. He is handsome, popular, wanton, and seeks a love that satisfies his desires, not one that serves a higher purpose. In one of my favorite parts, Rose confronts him after his proclamation of love for her. “You don’t love me. You think you love me, but you don’t. You love the idea of me, James. The idea of never having to share me with anyone else…I knew a long time ago I couldn’t love someone I couldn’t trust.” James protests that he would change, to which she responds, “If you really loved me, you would be different now.”
In a lecture on Why Beauty Matters, Dr. Steven Turley made an excellent delineation between love and lust. He asserted that lust seeks to possess and control; love seeks to serve and share the object of its affection to the world. Hoyle gives us a beautiful picture of this. James wants to own Rose, Orpheo wants to serve her and rule with her. This story flipped not only the hero and the heroine, but it flipped the selfish idea of love on its head and gave us a picture of abiding Gospel love instead.
As we head into spring break and summer, this is a book you will definitely want to bring along with you to the pool, the beach, or the park down the street. Hoyle’s adept use of language and imagery and her masterful storytelling will leave you not just entertained, but also emboldened to bravely love those around you as well.
You can find a copy of Son of the Deep here through Owl’s Nest Publishers. This publishing company was started by Hoyle with like minded friends who wanted to provide excellent literature for adolescents and adults that promotes virtue, beauty, and goodness.
You can read more from her at http://www.lifeabundantly.net/
- Remember and Proclaim - September 4, 2024
- Gathering Stories - June 26, 2024
- Review: Son of the Deep - March 13, 2024
Darn, well that doesn’t sound too bad.