Mermaids in Paradise

The fantastic elements in accomplished novelist Millet's (Pills and Starships) latest work highlights the humanity, and lack thereof, that her characters display upon the discovery of the titular mermaids. Deb, the book's main character, is an intriguing mix of shallow, faintly racist, American coastal superiority and keen, surprisingly incisive introspection. When her dream Caribbean honeymoon is interrupted by her husband's discovery of mermaids, she is absorbed into an unlikely arrangement of former strangers whose shared aim is to protect the mermaids from threats that include a multinational conglomerate, religious fundamentalists, and the bored and curious. Narrator Cassandra Campbell's deft voicing of so many characters elevates from good to sublime the experience of listening to what is already a thoroughly enjoyable book.