Plain Jane and the Mermaid
Jane has always been told she is plain—at best. She was lonely and sad even before her parents suddenly passed away. Now, due to a quirk of inheritance law, her nasty cousin will get everything, leaving teenaged Jane homeless and alone. That is, unless she can get married within a week.
She may not have looks, but if Jane marries, she and her husband get to keep her family’s mansion and money. Jane figures that might just be enough for Peter, a local boy desperate to escape his cruel father and unpleasant job on the docks. Peter agrees to the match . . . but then is kidnapped by a mermaid, who drags him into the sea. This won’t stop Jane: with the help of a few enchanted items that let her survive underwater, she goes after Peter.
Jane finds a grudgingly helpful travel companion, and the two dodge all sorts of dangers on their way to confront the mermaid who took Peter. Along the way, she realizes that beauty might matter less than she was taught—and that a brave, kind girl can find love, whether she is plain or not.
Plain Jane and the Mermaid is an adventure story with a folkloric feel. Jane encounters a water demon, an eerie sunken ship that isn’t as lifeless as it first seems, a giant sea monster, and more. By turns creepy and funny, Jane’s quest to rescue Peter leads her to startling revelations about everything from magical creatures to her own family to the nature of beauty. We also sometimes see Peter’s perspective as he makes his own discoveries.
Jane and Peter come from a world where beauty is prized. Jane’s plainness hurts her marriage prospects, while Peter’s prettiness makes him a target for a covetous mermaid. Many things in the ocean are lovely but dangerous, and some even use beauty as a lure to capture their prey. Their time under the sea leads both Jane and Peter to reevaluate what beauty means to them and what they really want.
The art style is expressive and active, with a wide variety of characters and settings. Since most of the story takes place deep under the sea, the color palette is heavy on blues, greens, and grays, making the few bright spots—like Jane in her red shawl—really pop. While mostly keeping to this murky palette, the colors change to support the mood of different settings, like the water demon’s house, the wrecked ship, and the mermaid village. There are also flashbacks in grayscale or sepia tones. The characters and settings are straightforward, without a lot of intricate detail, but there is plenty of visual interest from the fantastical settings and creatures and the characters’ poses and expressions. The color schemes and character designs are explored a little in the back matter of the book.
There are a few fight scenes, and the story is full of creepy creatures and danger. There may not be any gore actually shown, but a couple of villainous characters die in gruesome ways that are not actually portrayed on the page. These, too, have a touch of folklore to them, like the witch of Hansel and Gretel being burned in the oven.
The author’s note at the end of this book describes it as a story she would have loved as a young girl who was inundated with messages about the importance of beauty. Those messages are still with us, and this book presents a heartening alternative: a plain girl who goes on an adventure, saves the day, and never gets a makeover to become pretty, but finds love anyway—from others and from herself.
Plain Jane and the MermaidÂ
By Vera Brosgol
Macmillan First Second, 2024
ISBN: 9781250314857
Publisher Age Rating:Â 10-14
NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
Creator Representation:Â Russian-American
