Draft:Of Poseidon

Intro

The book Of Poseidon is a young adult fantasy novel written by Anna Banks. The novel was published in 2013 by Macmillan and is the first book of The Syrena Legacy trilogy. Themes in the novel are love, cultural differences and a journey of discovery.

Plot

The novel tells the story of Emma McIntosh and Galen Forza. She’s a girl who discovers her true identity and connection to the world of the syrena, an ancient underwater creature. He is a syrena prince, and his purpose is to find the girl that can communicate with fish and possibly find out the truth about his kingdom. The syrenas know about the humans, but hardly any humans know about the syrena’s. Galen is their ambassador to the humans, and his main human connection is Dr. Milligan, a marine biologist who helps him when needed. Dr. Milligan informs Galen that a new girl in town, Emma, seems to have unusual traits, sparking Galen’s suspicion that she may be one of the Syrena.

While Emma is on vacation in Florida with her best friend Chloe, she accidentally bumps into Galen on the beach. Galen feels drawn to Emma immediately but is fully focused on seeing whether she actually has syrena traits. After their interaction, Emma and Chloe go out in the ocean and Chloe gets attacked by a shark. Without realizing it herself Emma commands the shark to leave Chloe alone, but it’s too late to save her friend. During this episode, Galen is near them in the ocean and sees Emma tell off the shark, confirming his and Dr. Milligan’s suspicion about Emma not being human and most likely belonging to the syrena Poseidon Kingdom.

This discovery is important because Galen is from the Triton Kingdom, which is at conflict with the Poseidon Kingdom. Galen’s older brother, King Grom of Triton, is supposed to marry the first born daughter of the Poseidon Kingdom. If Emma actually is of Posiedon, she can be the key to bring the kingdoms together and end the rivalry. Because of this Galen is determined to take her to his kingdom.

Galen tries to get close to Emma by starting to attend her high school. To help him, he has Rachel, a former agent that now helps Galen blend in with humans while he’s on land. She pretends to be his mom so that he can start going to the same classes as Emma to get to know her better. After a while they start getting closer and Galen decides to tell Emma that he knows about her being syrena. To his surprise, , Emma has no idea what he’s talking about, because she has always thought that she was an ordinary human girl. She doesn’t believe him when he starts to explain how she must be part of the Poseidon Kingdom, so to prove his point he grabs her and brings her into the ocean outside of his house and into the water. Emma doesn’t understand how they can be going so fast under the water, how her sight is better than ever and how she doesn’t lose her breath - then she sees a big fin. She has PTSD from the shark accident in Florida and starts to panic, until she realizes it’s right under her and attached to Galen. He tells her about how he is a syrena and gets a fin in water. While he’s talking she interrupts and argues with him until she notices - she can talk and breathe underwater.

As Galen explains the situation to Emma over and over again, they work together to try and understand her abilities. She can breathe longer underwater than any human, around two hours after a couple of attempts, and she can communicate with sea animals but lacks the ability to get her fin to come out, which should come natural for syrenas. Therefore they visit Dr. Milligan in hope to find answers. After seeking Dr. Milligan's help they find out that Emma is a half-breed, half syrena and half human. Meaning she isn’t fully of Poseidon and wouldn’t be a suitable match for Grom.

Galen and Emma start getting feelings for each other. Galen, unsure of his own feelings at times, avoids telling Emma the full truth about why he’s been looking for her from the start and about his brother Grom’s need for a Poseidon bride. But eventually Emma does find out about Galen’s initial plan: she freaks out, stops trusting him and tries to stay away from him. After this Emma starts to briefly date another boy, Mark, but Galen’s interference confirms to her that his feelings are real, and she starts to trust him again.

But their problems are far from over. Galen discovers that Emma’s mom is actually a long-lost princess of Poseidon who chose to live as a human. And that is why Emma is a half-breed. In the end of the story they both confess their love for each other.

Major themes

LOVE

While Emma and Galen try to find out the truth they can’t help but feel an irresistible connection, even though they both know that nothing romantic can ever happen. It doesn’t help that they have to fake that they’re dating in order for Emma's mom to not be suspicious as to why they’re spending so much time together.

None of them knows how the other person feels during most of the book. They also have a hard time admitting their own feelings to themselves, but Galen describes Emma as his obsession and Emma thinks that Galen is the one she wants. However they have their own reasons for not being able to be together. Galen knows that it would be wrong since he believes Emma is supposed to be with his brother, Grom. When he later finds out that she’s a half-breed he is kind of relieved because he knows that his brother could no longer mate with her. Emma questions Galen’s motives and wonders if he would even look her way if she were human.

When Emma later finds out that the reason Galen has been wanting to get close to her is his brother's need for a Poseidon bride, she distances herself from him. But not for long because while on a date with another boy, Mark, Galen interferes and she notices that it is true love between them. In the end of the story they both confess their love for each other and don’t want to let anything ruin it, not other people, emotions or even laws.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

In the novel we get to experience many cultural differences between the human world and the syrena world. The syrena’s way of starting a family, communicating and how their society works is very unlike the humans’ ways. Because of this, Galen and Emma sometimes misunderstand each other, but also learn about their different worlds.

For example, different words can have the same meaning. The word “mate” is the syrena’s word for partner. However in the syrena world you can never change a mate –– if you’re mated it means that you’re married, and it’s not possible to get a divorce. The only thing you need to become mated is to gain consent from the king, and in some cases the other person doesn't have to consent as long as the king’s okay with it. For example, a syrena once asked King Grom for another syrena, and after he consented, they were married. When Galen tells Emma about this she gets mad and says that you can’t force someone to marry you. And while Galen agrees with her, at the same time he’s so used to it that he’d never really given it a second thought.

A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

The main quest in the book is finding out the truth about Emma’s origins and her relationship to the syrenas. At first Emma doesn’t know that she is part of the syrena world, until Galen tells her. While she trains to extend her abilities and get a fin, they both think that she is fully syrena and that her parents must have adopted her without telling her. Emma even confronts her mom about it but she denies it and shows Emma her birth certificat, proving Emma wrong. After Dr. Milligan explains that she was a half-breed, half human and half syrena, their next theory is that Emma’s dad was actually a syrena disguised as a human. But they didn’t have any way to prove it, and her dad had died a couple years prior. It isn’t until the end of the novel that they find out that it is her mother who is actually a syrena.

During the time that they try to figure out how she is part of the Syrena world, Emma and Galen also try to figure out what triggers her abilities, since Emma hasn’t always been able to be underwater for multiple hours or talk to fish. Emma credits a recent accident in which she hit her head, for bringing out the syrena part of her. But later they go to Dr. Milligan for answers and he explains what actually happened. He tells them syrenas live for approximately 300 years, thanks to their slow heartbeats, and they develop fully by the age of nine. Because Emma is only half syrena she is fully developed at 18 instead, and that is why her abilities came recently, after her 18th birthday.

Genre and style:

Of Poseidon is a paranormal fantasy romance novel for young adults inspired by mythology.

Development history:

Anna Banks revealed in an interview with GoFish that her inspiration for Of Poseidon came while watching a documentary about the ocean, in which it was brought up that the colossal squid had been a legend for centuries and the scientific community had been doubtful of it’s existence –– until an intact specimen washed up on shore in 2005. That documentary made her think about what else could be out there. She thought, “Why couldn’t mermaids exist?” so she set out to propose how they could. Of Poseidon is the first book of The Syrena Legacy trilogy and is followed by Of Triton (2013) and Of Nepline (2014).

Literary significance and reception:

The New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer said Of Poseidon was “a refreshing story filled with vibrant characters, feisty humor, and an irresistible romance”.

The book also became a Barnes & Nobles Best Teen Book of the Year 2012.

"Entertaining for readers riding the wave of mermaid fantasies"

"Of Posiedon had a bit of a shaky start for me. The plot was interesting, but I wasn't completely hooked. This shortly changed, and I didn't want to put Of Poseidon by Anna Banks down for a moment."

Awards and nominations:

The Syrena Legacy is a New York Times Bestselling trilogy.

External links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Banks

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/books/barnes-nobles-best-books-of-2012/barnes-nobles-best-teen-books-of-2012/_/N-29Z8q8Z1reo?Nrpp=20&page=2

https://www.marissameyer.com/blog/fierce-reads-of-poseidon-by-anna-banks-out-today/

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anna-banks/poseidon/

https://www.yabookscentral.com/of-poseidon/discussions/25576/top-reviewers/