When We Believed in Mermaids: A Novel

Content Warning: The source material for this guide includes descriptions of alcohol/drug addiction and recovery, the sexual assault of a child, suicidal ideation, abortion, and parental neglect.

“My sister has been dead for nearly fifteen years when I see her on the TV news.”

The first line of the novel sets up the conflict that will motivate the main character, Kit, to travel to New Zealand and search for her sister, Josie. This conflict is tempered by the shared point of view with Josie/Mari but continues for the majority of the novel. At the same time, this situation allows for the use of flashbacks to give insight into the characters and to explore the key themes of the novel as these two sisters struggle not only with reconnecting with each other, but also with reconciling the trauma of their childhoods so that they can face the future with a better understanding of their past.

“The house might not be haunted, but I surely am.”

Before a clear connection is made between Mari and Josie, O’Neal is already connecting Sapphire House and the tragedy that happened within its walls to Mari’s secret past. Mari has a seemingly perfect life with her kind and understanding husband and two children, as well as a successful business. That life has cracks in it that begin to show as she recalls moments of her childhood that reveal trauma that altered the course of her life, just as this house is like a museum to a lost time but holds the secret of a murder.