The Mermaid Girl (Kindle Single)

by Erika Swyler

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Fiction. Literature. HTML: From Erika Swyler, author of The Book of Speculation�one of BuzzFeed's Best Fiction Books of 2015� a short story of a mermaid who ran away from the circus, and what happened when she started a life on land. Before she was a suburban wife and mother, Paulina Watson was the Mermaid Girl of Carnival Lareille. She traveled everywhere with two boxes: the first with red sequins for the dress she wore as a magician's assistant, the second with green sequins for her mermaid tail. She'd grown up on wild stories told by wild circus people. Books, she hadn't had books until she'd found Daniel Watson and stopped moving. The first time Daniel saw her, Paulina was floating in a glass tank, suspended in water that sparkled like it was made from night sky. She has settled down now, living in a house on a cliff on Long Island Sound with Daniel and their young family: six-year-old Simon and his baby sister, Enola. But if you steal the magician's assistant from a carnival, how can you know if she'll disappear? .… (more)

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Read the short story in The Book of Speculation - was not thrilled with that book or the short story - will not read

SleepyBooksandCakes | Aug 22, 2020 |

I received a copy of this story through goodreads giveaways. Review to come. (

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widdersyns | Jul 19, 2020 |

Daniel fell in love with Paulina when he first saw her in the tank she used for her mermaid act. He’d count the seconds as she held her breath. Now, they are married with two children. He still loves her the same he did when he first met her, but things are different. Now, she shuffles and deals the tarot endlessly.

This is a short story about love and change. It is actually the prequel to THE BOOK OF SPECULATION, in which the children are now grown and the subjects of the book. Still, the writing is eloquent and poetic, and Erika Swyler says so much with a few words. Her characters, in spite of the story’s brevity, are well-developed and realistic. (

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Sandralovesbooks | Sep 2, 2019 |

This is the story of Paulina, the mother of Simon and Enola from [b:The Book of Speculation|23014670|The Book of Speculation|Erika Swyler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1422476749s/23014670.jpg|42580799]. I read this immediately after finishing The Book of Speculation, and I am glad I read the book before this story. I felt like there were little clues and hints you would only get if you read the book first. I did not find this story quite as interesting as the book, maybe because I knew how Paulina's life would end. I do think the story is good to read as further insight into the lives of Simon and Enola. (

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readingover50 | Jun 11, 2019 |

Very short story, it's a prequel about the characters from The Book of Speculation. I loved that book and liked the idea of touching base with the characters again, and knowing more about where they came from.

This book is about the mother from The Book of Speculation. This is a little sliver of her story from before she passed away.

You wouldn't need to read either book for the other one to make sense. But if you haven't read The Book of Speculation is just recommend reading it because it was excellent.

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Mishale1 | Dec 29, 2018 |

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Is a (non-series) prequel to

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

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2016-05-03

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When evening crawled in, Paulina was lying in bed, watching a migraine’s oily blind spot drip across her field of vision, remembering the years of hand-stitching sequins.

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Fiction. Literature. HTML:

From Erika Swyler, author of The Book of Speculation�one of BuzzFeed's Best Fiction Books of 2015� a short story of a mermaid who ran away from the circus, and what happened when she started a life on land.
Before she was a suburban wife and mother, Paulina Watson was the Mermaid Girl of Carnival Lareille. She traveled everywhere with two boxes: the first with red sequins for the dress she wore as a magician's assistant, the second with green sequins for her mermaid tail. She'd grown up on wild stories told by wild circus people. Books, she hadn't had books until she'd found Daniel Watson and stopped moving.
The first time Daniel saw her, Paulina was floating in a glass tank, suspended in water that sparkled like it was made from night sky. She has settled down now, living in a house on a cliff on Long Island Sound with Daniel and their young family: six-year-old Simon and his baby sister, Enola. But if you steal the magician's assistant from a carnival, how can you know if she'll disappear?

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