Made it halfway through and I just can't take it anymore. The main character's a douchecanoe, which is bad enough, but what might still be a fluffy, inconsequential read is ruined by some of the worst pacing I've encountered in a book.

The author needs her douchecanoe to be at odds with his best friend? Suddenly they are! No build-up, no real explanation, just one morning he announces that his best friend is mad at him. (Later he says that he hasn't spoken to her in a week, but still doesn't explain why that, in particular, would leave his BFF mad at him.)

The author needs an excuse not to disclose the ramifications of her douchecanoe's merman transformation? She just doesn't! Her douchecanoe merman espouses a bare minimum of curiosity about what this means, gets a bare minimum of explanation, and then proceeds to have conversations about the further details as the author believes they're relevant. (I think this is meant to build suspense, but instead just left me irritated that the author clearly believed her readers must be as stupid as her hero.)

It's as if Córdova slapped scenes together as she needed them and decided no characterization (motivations, development, likes/dislikes) was required to glue the story together. ...And, hey, with a hook like mermen, enough sparkly sea critters, and some chemistry between the douchecanoe and his BFF (Layla, you deserve so much better than this womanizing dick), who even needs thoughtful characterization, amirite? Ugh. ( )

Lots of fun, occasionally weirdly fluff, and equally occasionally weirdly grimdark. An interesting mix, and a good read. ( )

I loved Labyrinth Lost, so approached this with optimism. I loved the premise. Merpeople! Secret royalty! Intrigue!

Only... Dear god was Tristan a jerk. And a self-aware jerk at that. And since the book was first person in his head, the reader knows that he knows he's a jerk, but rather than trying to not be a jerk, he just continues in his jerkish ways. Given that the book starts out with the fact that his best friend and his ex-girlfriend hate his guts because he cheated on her... yeah, that pretty much sets the stage for everything.

And maybe I was expecting too much from this, but there were so many things that just fell flat for me. The world building was an A+, and I wish we had spent more time with the cool world Cordova created. Instead, we get a lot of inner teenage boy jerky mental angst, and a lot of high school bullshit.

Alas. The rest of the trilogy may be better since it looks like Tristan finally goes off on his quest instead of fapping about with high school. But I'm not sure I'll be reading to find out. ( )

I've never read a mermaid, sorry merfolk, story before and I'm not sure what I think about this one. I think the writing was good and it is definitely not a story or plot that I've read before (as long as you don't count the teenage boy going on a quest story). The Vicious Deep has good supporting characters. I especially liked Layla and Kurt. I'm dying to hear about Kurt's backstory. But Tristan, the main character, fell a little bit flat for me part of the time. Not always, just part of the time. I liked the freshness of the male perspective on romance and love but thought at times it went a little far. Of course, that could be chalked up to immaturity on the character's part and that before the end of the series, he'll grow out of it.

At any rate, the story interested me enough that I want more. I want to see what happens to Tristan and learn some more about mermaid mythology. ( )

I am starting to really love YA and I enjoyed Cordova's Bruja series, so while I was waiting on the next book to come out I decided to try her first series. I'm glad I did. Fun, quick read about merfolk! ( )