“When We Believed in Mermaids” by Barbara O'Neal – Fifteen Years of Loss
Barbara O'Neal has left her big mark in the realm of books some time ago already, but it's not stopping her from writing more and more bestsellers, with her most recent, and perhaps most grandiose effort being When We Believed in Mermaids.
The story follows Kit Bianci, a woman who believes her sister died in a terrorist attack fifteen years ago... until today, when she sees her face on the TV news. With little debate, she embarks on a journey in hopes of redemption and finding what was once lost, unaware she might be on the verge of losing just about everything.
Barbara O'Neal Opens the Realm of Grief
Loss is the sort of thing in life which we must all learn how to deal and live with at some point. We accept it as normal, for we know unimaginably few of us will ever have a chance to retrieve what we lost, as Kit Bianci does in Barbara O'Neal's When We Believed in Mermaids.
Taking us to the centre of a life filled with pain and grief, the story is one of a sister who gets a chance very few can dream of: to reunite with her sister whom she believed to be dead for fifteen years.
Kit Bianci works as an emergency room doctor in Santa Cruz, and while the last fifteen years of her life haven't been easy, she has learned to deal with the pain of having lost her sister, Josie, to a terrorist attack.
However, it only takes one second for her entire world to turn upside down, as coverage of a club fire in Auckland on the TV news shows images of a woman stumbling through the debris... a woman whose resemblance to Josie is uncanny.
Determined to find her long lost sister whatever it might take, and convinced the woman on television was indeed her, Kit sets out on a journey to New Zealand in hopes of re-attaching some parts of her life back together.
Thus begins her journey through the vast memories of her past and the beautiful years spent with Josie, spilling over into the present day where long-buried secrets and devastating truths are bound to shatter everything they touch.
Though she does have a real chance at regaining something she believed to be lost forever, Kit doesn't suspect just how much she will have to sacrifice in order to make it a reality.
The Complexity of Sisterhood in When We Believed in Mermaids
I think a lot of us who have siblings can vouch for the world of complexity such a relation carries along with it. There are nearly-infinite ways for how it can all turn out in the end, but ultimately we are all affected by it in one way or another.
There are many authors who try and fail to capture the chaotic and convoluted nature of sibling relations, but I believe Barbara O'Neal is one of the few who have managed to avoid falling into this group.
Much of the book focuses on the relationship between the two sisters, both past and present. From the very first tidbits of information we receive about them, it becomes clear their lives were intertwined in both tragic and inspiring ways, from the abuse they suffered to the small joys they shared.
I should give a bit of a warning her I think, there are some passages which were difficult to read for the nature of the content they depicted, including child abuse, neglect and addiction.
If like myself you despise depictions of suffering for the mere sake of it, rest assured it all has its proper place and meaning in the book. I think it shows O'Neal has either done a lot of research into the matter or has personal experience with such affairs.
While the pain endured by the two sisters is fairly prominent, the author doesn't forget to also show us the warmth and love they had for each other, how they both endured with each other's help.
As the story moves forward we learn more and more about the different dimensions their relation traversed over the years, forming a rather complex picture of two people bound by innumerable threads. This is without even talking about the present day, where their reunion and old secrets consistently add new dynamics to the whole thing.
The connection between the two sisters is like an ever-shifting and evolving organism, one I believe the author succeeded in depicting in all of its intricacy.
Fifteen Years of Mystery
The centre of the story's focus, for me at least, was always placed on the relationship between the sisters... but it isn't to say the plot never made its way to the centre stage.
As we leave the beginning chapters and reach more towards the early middle parts of the book, the plot begins to pick up in pace as our own focus is shifted from the past towards the present.
While it definitely isn't a non-stop nail-biting thriller with a million twists and turns, it does have its fair share of misdirection and excitement, and perhaps most importantly, a very acute sense of pacing.
O'Neal has visibly mastered the art of storytelling across her decades of writing, and it always felt to me like the story moved at the exact pace it was supposed to.
Things slowed down a little bit during the moments which needed to be absorbed, while picking up when things got a little more intense. I could best-describe it as an ever-smooth flow which follows the curves and inlets dictated by the plot, one which can make a book of any length feel bite-sized.
There is also quite a bit of intrigue to be had in the whole plot surrounding Josie's long disappearance, the devastating secrets she kept and the questionable life she has erected for herself in New Zealand, of all places.
The Final Verdict
When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal is, in my opinion, one of the few books which seems perfect on every front. It has compelling and complex characters, an engrossing intrigue, and an extremely memorable dissection of the nature of the relation between two sisters.
If you enjoy mystery fiction centred on family life and siblings, then I strongly recommend you give this novel a read.
 | Barbara O'NealPersonal site Barbara O'Neal is an American novelist who has primarily written novels in the romance genre, as well as various guides and self-help books. Over the course of her career she has won the Colorado Book Awards twice as well as the RITA award seven times and was also nominated on seven more occasions. In 2012 she had the honour of being inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Her better-known works include The Art of Inheriting Secrets and When We Believed in Mermaids. |
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