What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. Children with their Uncle on a ship in an ocean between time
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I told the plot to my Dad and he found it on google in 5 minutes.(i looked for it ALL AFTERNOON)
It's The Drift House: The First Voyage by Dale Peck
The Drift House: The First Voyage
Glad you found it!Thanks for the update. :)
I thought I pulled it off a friend's bookshelf and she let me borrow it, but she doesn't remember the story when I describe it.
The TL;DR is A girl, and her two brothers go on a boat with their Uncle in an ocean where time doesn't exist/is at the end of time. There is a talking parrot, mermaids, pirates, and a dumbwaiter that always brings you whatever you ask from it.
SPOILERS AHEAD
This is what I remember of the plot, I hope this sounds familiar.
There's a girl at that age when she's trying to act like an adult, but is still a child (probably 12 or 13). There's a scene where her room is tidied and her bed is made with her teddy bear on top of her sheets. She hides it because she's embarrassed. Her parents may or may not be dead. She has 2 brothers, both are younger than her, though one is around 4 or 5 years old.
They go to stay/live with their older male relative who I believe to be their uncle/great uncle(?). He's an eccentric and has a talking parrot (though he assures the kids at first that it can only mimic noises and cannot actually 'talk'. He either lives in a big house that has weird magic portal qualities, or literally lives on a boat.
He has a 'maid' of sorts who always sends things up through the dumbwaiter, and tidies up the kid's rooms, but we never *see* her. She has an unassuming name, like you wouldn't suspect she's not a real person. Surprise- she may be an actual person, or some sort of entity in another dimension. But she can always send the things people ask for in the dumbwaiter.
The kids quickly discover that their uncle is weird, and the parrot can actually talk and is quite intelligent, though maybe a bit of a snob because of it. They go on a trip together on this house/boat/thingy.
BUT- here's the shaker- the ocean isn't a normal ocean. It's an ocean where time doesn't really pass, day and night happen, but you don't age. It's like an ocean not where time doesn't exist- but an ocean between time.
There's a mermaid and the girl is DELIGHTED to meet a mermaid. They hang out for a while and there are random scenes where the girl is weirded out that this mermaid eats raw fish. They try to get the other to try their food, but neither of them like it (the mermaid is more rude about it, throwing a biscuit in the ocean). The girl notes that when the mermaid talks, it's like there a background sound to her speech- something melodical.
Side note: this mermaid is a little suspicious.
They have to go talk to these pirates about something, but their captain isn't with them. So they decide to masquerade as the captain. The problem: this captain speaks French. Lucky for us, the parrot speaks French. So they set up this complicated system where the parrot basically puppets the girl by squeezing her shoulder to let her know to move her mouth while the parrot does the talking. (I think there was a point made that this captain was short, so it is reasonable that a 13 year old girl could pass as him). I don't remember the point of this conversation, but it happens and ends in hijinks.
Also the mermaids are pushing their boat, to help with... something? Plot twist: the mermaids are evil. Their queen wants the girl to go into this whirlpool that drains the ocean. When you're there, you feel compelled to go inside it, and are effectively erased from existence or die or something of that nature. The mermaid and the girl ride there in a large whale who has accepted that his time has come (as all things must come to an end).
At some point, the youngest brother goes into the dumbwaiter and comes out tragically wiser, like he spent decades in this alternate world and no longer acts like a 4 year old.
Her other brother winds up on an island where all the 'last' things go. The pirates from before aren't bad, they're going across the time sea to different times and collecting species before they go extinct. The captain of the pirates lives on this island.
We learn at this point that there is a sort of 'mother tongue' that when you speak, you are automatically translated into the hearer's native language. So the background noises you hear from the mermaids and other creatures is what they are saying in their own language, even though you hear their intention in your own language. BUT if you speak with the intent to speak in your own language, then the other person will hear your intended speech.
So the whole bit where the parrot walks speaking to the pirates in French was a hilarious waste of time and really confused the pirates (because the parrot was intentionally speaking French and the first mate isn't very good at french).
The girl, mermaid, and whale are at the bottom of the whirlpool (it might be called something akin to 'the great drain' but I'm not entirely sure). There are 3ish books there that have names written in them. I think these are the books of life (also maybe death?). The mermaid queen I think tempted her with eternal life if she was able to close the books (because if the books are closed then no one dies anymore). It may have had something to do with how she lost her parents and how she doesn't want other people to die (though that is entirely conjecture and I don't remember it).
The few mermaids are the last of their kind, and don't want to go extinct, even though it's their destiny to do so.
The whale jumps into the whirlpool, but manages to throw the girl and the mermaid out of the pull of the current- or almost does, because then the mermaid sacrifices herself to make sure the girl gets the rest of the way.
I think all the mermaids can no longer resist the call of the end and wind up washed into the drain, and that's all I remember? There's some sort of happy end? This might have been book 1 in a series but I don't remember.
I hope this rings some bells, thanks!