My 8 year old daughter flew through this in a couple of hours. She read it , in two sittings. A sure sign of a captivating read!

She really liked the characters and in her own words “ I actually learned that it’s ok to stop being friends with someone if you don’t have things in common and it’s important to do things that feel right to you and don’t do things just because someone else wants to”

A read that really held her interest and she learned an important lesson from it! Recommend.

A really captivating and enchanting read that I read in one sitting. It is a really good read that I think children will love and learn a lot from.

Vivien always tries to keep everyone happy and not cause any fuss, but in her head she's really funny and sarcastic. She wants so desperately to be normal, with a typical family and non-frizzy hair, and lots of friends. But despite this her moral compass never goes too far astray. Her best friend Eleni is kind of bitchy, she seems to care more about impressing the cooler than cool Hero. I thought her second-best friend Eric should definitely be promoted to first!
Vivien doesn't even really believe in the mermaid but her desires for a new friend and to make her mum take more of an interest in her, it makes her do anything to help Alice with her search. While following the instructions to find the mermaid, she starts to doubt her convictions, maybe the mermaid is real, and maybe that's not such a good thing?
This was such an uplifting read which kept me rooting for Vivien the whole time. I really wanted her to realise she's wonderful just the way she is.