Mera: Tidebreaker (graphic novel) by Danielle Paige - Paul's REVIEW

*I received this book as an eARC from DC Ink via Edelweiss. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

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Title: Mera: Tidebreaker
Author: Danielle Paige
Illustrator: Steven Byrne
Release Date: April 2, 2019

About Danielle Paige
Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series and the Stealing Snow series. In addition to writing young adult books, she has worked in the television industry, where she’s received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. She is a graduate of Columbia University and currently lives in New York City.

About Stephen Byrne
Stephen Byrne was born in Dublin, Ireland, where he studied at the Irish School of Animation. He has worked in Ireland and the United States in the fields of animation, TV advertising, satirical newspaper cartoons, and video games. He now lives in London, where he works on his true passion, comics.

About DC Ink
DC Ink is a new young adult graphic novel line from DC. The line will introduce DC’s most iconic Super Heroes to a new generation of fans with stories told by some of the most successful authors from the young adult publishing space. DC Ink titles will be standalone stories, not part of DC’s ongoing continuity, and completely accessible to new readers who have no previous knowledge of DC characters. The line will launch in April 2019 with the release of Mera: Tidebreaker by Danielle Paige and Stephen Byrne, followed by Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale by Lauren Myracle and Isaac Goodhart in May, Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo in July, and more titles to be announced.



Synopsis: Princess Mera is teenage royalty and heir to the throne of Xebel, a penal colony ruled by Atlantis. Her father and the entire kingdom are expecting her to marry and introduce a new king. But Mera is destined to wear a different crown.

When the Xebellian military plots to overthrow Atlantis and break free of its oppressive regime, Mera seizes the opportunity to take control of her own destiny by assassinating Arthur Curry—the long-lost prince and heir to the kingdom of Atlantis. But her mission gets sidetracked when Mera and Arthur unexpectedly fall in love. Will Arthur Curry be the king at Mera’s side, or will he die under her blade as she attempts to free her people from persecution? Mera is forced to choose between following her heart and her mission to kill.

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Review: DC Ink is bringing Young Adult stories about DC characters to the graphic novel format! The first book is Mera: Tidebreaker written by Danielle Paige. Steven Bryne illustrates this story in mostly blue tones with highlights of orange for Mera's (and her father's) hair.

This graphic novel tells the story of a young princess trying to live up to the model left behind by her deceased mother who was both a queen and a warrior. The royal politics of the underwater world is at the forefront of this story. There are a lot of princess tropes that Paige plays with. It's like if The Little Mermaid was on a mission to kill Prince Eric. 

This is a fun "fish out of water" assassin princess story. Mera thinks she has it in her to kill the Atlantean Prince Arthur and bring his head back to her father, but is that really the type of person she is?

I give this book a 3.5/5. Paige merges classic tropes with empowering characters, but it could have had more of an original feel to it, in my opinion. I'm looking forward to the other DC Ink titles. I already have downloaded Raven's!


--PAUL