December 7, 2022
Mer: A Caribbean Underwater Adventure
Melissa Fredericks
Aviva Publishing (2022)
ISBN: 978-1-63618-220-9
Caribbean Fantasy Novel Shares Environmental Message
Mer: A Caribbean Underwater Adventure is an exciting new fantasy novel by Melissa Fredericks. Fredericks is a native of the US Virgin Islands, and her background has made her the perfect person to tell this story full of Caribbean culture, dialect, history, and a surprising plot.
The novel’s main character is Tarala McCleverty, a middle school literature teacher on St. Thomas. Tarala grew up on the island and went to the school where she now teaches. She struggles with trying to get her students interested in literature, though she finds coping with the parents is more difficult than with the students, with whom she usually has a good rapport.
But Tarala soon finds she has bigger problems than her career. She begins having strange dreams, dreams in which everything is green and she is drowning. Dreams are one thing, but when she has a daytime vision of the cathedral on the school property being built and is shocked when one of the workmen from the past speaks to her, she seriously begins to think something strange is going on.
What Tarala doesn’t know is her students are starting to have weird experiences also. They notice that Tarala and several of their fellow students often have a green light around them. One student has a vision of slaves on a ship on their way to the Virgin Islands who are shockingly thrown overboard by their captors. Eventually, the students realize some of their classmates are having similar strange experiences and they start talking to each other.
Tarala finds she needs to share also, but she does it with her fellow teacher, Althea. Fredericks has a knack for using St. Thomian dialect and expressions, so here she tells us that Tarala and Althea get along “like freshly baked coconut dumb bread and sharp cheddar cheese.” Tarala has a 187-year-old house she inherited from her family that Althea doesn’t think much of, but she changes her tune after Tarala begins to fix it up. And Althea is more than intrigued when Tarala discovers a secret passage in it that leads downstairs into an underwater observatory chamber. Although Althea doesn’t think it the best idea, Tarala decides she will reward the students who get the highest scores on their essays by letting them have a field trip to her house to see the incredible observatory.
When Tarala’s students hear about the field trip, those who are seeing green lights, including around Ms. McCleverty, decide they have to win the essay contest because they suspect the mysterious light might be tied to Ms. McCleverty and her house. But none of them are prepared for what happens once they reach Tarala’s house.
The result is an adventure under the sea for Tarala and her students. We meet an entire ancient people, the Mer, and learn about their past interactions with the humans who dwell on the surface. We also learn how the humans and the Mer are deeply connected and how that connection ensures the planet’s survival, while human industrial threats to the environment are now challenging the Mer’s very survival. As one Mer informs Tarala, “Mer are the honeybees of the ocean; without us, chaos will reign, and Man will die.” Circumstances can’t get much more dire than that.
Altogether, Mer is an engaging read. The students and their colorful use of language provide plenty of humor to an otherwise serious story, but it is also a story sprinkled with plenty of magical elements. I enjoyed the fantasy and the world-building that Fredericks engages in, but even more I think I enjoyed learning about the history of the US Virgin Islands and how Fredericks uses the characters’ visions in a way akin to time travel to give us a look at the days of immigration and slavery on the islands.
Anyone who wants to escape to the Caribbean for a vacation need look no farther than the pages of this novel. There is plenty of excitement, adventure, relaxation, and education in these pages for everyone. Although technically a young adult novel, it is one all ages will enjoy. It is also perfect for book clubs because of its many themes, and Fredericks includes study questions at the end for further discussion.
For more information about Melissa Fredericks and Mer: A Caribbean Underwater Adventure, visit www.MerCaribbeanUnderwaterAdventure.com.
— Tyler R. Tichelaar, PhD and award-winning author of The Children of Arthur historical fantasy series
