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Andie Holman writes contemporary fantasy fiction with sassy female leads and three chili spice, but the main character is always Nature. The science in her stories is real, whether climate, fish, or bug facts.
As a child, Andie believed faeries lived in the snapdragons. She’d make them bouquets from lantana flowers and stalks of grass, hoping they would take her to their world.
She's an Earth roamer. She’s lived on tiny islands (Bermuda), in massive cities (Boston and London), and on isolated mountain tops (Colorado). She’s currently nestled in the Canadian Pacific with her husband and menagerie of animals. When she’s not writing, she feeds the bees or talks to the trees.
Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite
In Andie Holman’s first book in The Laughter of the Sun series, The Mermaid's Wrath, a warrior mermaid named Scyphozoa “Jelly” discovers that she is made for greater things when the coveted Vetula Pearl awakens in her. Her rage triggers an explosion and makes her realize that the pearl that grants her power also makes her prey to powerful enemies. A malevolent Fae Prince called Terrun is doing everything to get the pearl so he can use it in his apocalyptic designs against humanity. Jelly also faces threats from possessed sea creatures that attack her home. All she ever wanted was clear water to swim in, freedom for sea creatures to live and not die of plastic waste dumped into the sea. Now she must stop the humans, and to do so, she will need the magical beings she has been taught to hate, the Surfecti, who have all kinds of amulets and talismans that act as conduits for powerful magic. With the help of her friends, can she beat Terrun and stop the humans from destroying the planet?
The Mermaid's Wrath was a page-turning read with appealing characters, especially the heroine, Scyphozoa. Her anger is justified, but it also poses a danger. Andie Holman shows how female rage can be harnessed to become a revolutionary, rather than a destructive force. Scyphozoa’s rage is depicted in a way that counters narratives depicting female rage as something to be suppressed. While this tale is loaded with conflict and sophisticated characters, the impeccable way the author handles the theme of environmental pollution captured my attention. The story presents a sea surface that is saturated with plastic dumps and a pristine underwater realm that is worth protecting. There is so much to praise about this book, from the well-sculpted characters and the enticing first-person narrative voice to the clever exploration of the conflict between human mindlessness and the struggle for the preservation of the ecosystem. A novel that forces us to rethink our roles as custodians of the universe.
