I read this story mainly because of the cracked.com article linked below. I had read the article a couple times and after reading it again a couple nights ago I decided to give this story a chance. I'm a hater of most things Disney (the older movies have too much singing for my taste and the newer ones are just stupid IMO), but I really wanted to see how good this story was. I much prefer this version to Disney's watered down kid friendly version.

I was truly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I thought most of the story would take place on land and enjoyed that it was split mostly down the middle (it's a little hard to really tell though with an ebook). Mostly I enjoyed the complete lack of a talking crab and flounder. This story really tells what the little mermaid gave up her chance at true love with a man who would never truly know her as she used to be. Of course, Disney made the movie with a happy ending, but the real story makes the point that you can't completely change who you are for someone else and expect to live a happy life. In the end she dies lonely and heart-broken (literally) only to find out that "since mermaids don't have souls (at least according to Hans Christian Andersen), she has to do 300 years of good deeds in order to earn one, only every time a child cries, she has to do an extra day for each teardrop." (End quote copied from Cracked.com)

I would recommend this story wholeheartedly (pun intended). 4.5 out of 5 for me.