Literature

Literary Work	Year	Author	Notes
The Mer Series	2018-2019	M. Culler	A young woman about to embark on her "perfect" post-college life faces an unexpected and fatal twist during a beach vacation. She is offered a choice between death as a human or immortality as one of the mysterious Mer. The Mer are a race of mermaid-like creatures that are all former humans. Choosing the name Val for herself, she soon finds herself embroiled in a mystery and a love-triangle.
Aquamarine	2001	Alice Hoffman	Two 13-year-old girls befriend a sassy teenage mermaid looking for love. It was adapted into the 2006 film of the same name by Twentieth Century Fox, and starring Sara Paxton, Emma Roberts and JoJo.
Deep Trouble	1994	R. L. Stine	The 19th book in the Goosebumps series. A boy named Billy Deep finds a mermaid.
The Chronicles of Narnia:	1950–1956	C. S. Lewis	In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first book published in The Chronicles of Narnia series, mermaids sing at the coronation of the Pevensie children. In Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third book of the series, Lucy Pevensie sees a group of mermaids and bonds silently with a young mermaid girl. See Adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia
Emily Windsnap series	2003–2020	Liz Kessler	Illustrated by Sarah Gibb. A nine book middle-grade series about a twelve-year-old girl who learns she has mermaid heritage. She goes on to have underwater adventures with her mermaid best friend Shona.
Everworld series	1999–2001	K. A. Applegate	Mer-people live underwater in the Roman version of Atlantis.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them	2001	J. K. Rowling	A fictional textbook about the magical creatures in the Harry Potter world, including mermaids. They are described as in three different species: sirens, selkies and merrows. Similar to other humanoid magical creatures in this universe, they do not wield or understand magic themselves. They appear in the fourth and sixth books of the series.
The Forbidden Sea	2010	Shiela A. Nielson	A girl, living on Windwaithe Island, tries to protect her sister from a mermaid that is living in the surrounding waters. Followed by Shadow in the Sea (2015).
Forgive My Fins	2010	Tera Lynn Childs	Book 1 of the Fins YA series. A teen girl discovers she's a half-mermaid princess.
The Goblin Tower	1968	L. Sprague de Camp	A human king falls in love with a mermaid. The story goes into hilarious detail about the couple's difficult efforts to physically consummate their love, which nearly ends in disaster (he nearly drowns in trying to have sex underwater, and she is nearly killed by his bodyguards in revenge). In the end, the king marries a human woman, though keeping a platonic friendship with the mermaid.
The History of Middle-earth: The Book of Lost Tales, Part I	1983	J. R. R. Tolkien	Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Mermaids make an appearance.
The Ingo Series	2005–2012	Helen Dunmore	Set in Cornwall, the main characters Sapphire and Conor discover the world of Ingo. Their mer friends Faro and Elvira teach them how to breathe underwater.
Keeper	2010	Kathi Appelt	A young girl searches for her mermaid mother, Meggie Marie.
The Last Mermaid	2010	Brendan Connell	A short story in the collection Unpleasant Tales. It relates how the last mermaid in existence was brought to the table of Carlos II of Spain.
The Little Mermaid	1837	Hans Christian Andersen	Andersen's portrayal has arguably become the standard and has influenced most modern Western depictions of mermaids since it was published. It has been adapted into various media, the most famous of which is the 1989 Disney movie of the same name.
Lost Voices	2011	Sarah Porter	The first in a trilogy about abused girls who become mermaids due to a traumatic event, who sing ships to their doom.
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock	1915	T. S. Eliot	It uses the metaphor of mermaids to emphasize Prufock's plight: "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. / I do not think that they will sing to me." See: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock in popular culture.
Mele the Mermaid	2014	Justin Alexander Cecil (originally published under the name J.A. Cecil)	A mermaid refuses to kill humans like her other fellow mermaids, and is thus turned into a human herself.
The Merman's Children	1979	Poul Anderson	A prince and princess journey in search of treasure and encounter the Great Selkie of Sule Skerry.
Mermaid	2011	Carolyn Turgeon	A novel that retells The Little Mermaid fairy tale as a love triangle between the mermaid, the human princess, and the prince.
The Mermaid's Mirror	2010	L.K. Madigan	A surfer girl discovers a mermaid.
Mermaids of Eriana Kwai	2014–2017	Tiana Warner	A teenage girl who is sent to battle a population of hostile mermaids that's driving her people into poverty.
The Mermaid Summer	1988	Mollie Hunter	Eric Anderson must leave his island home when he incurs the wrath of a mermaid by slighting her. He can never return unless his grandchildren Jon and Anna confront and tame the mermaid.
Moby-Dick	1851	Herman Melville	In Chapter 126, "The Life-Buoy", the crew of the Pequod hear human-like cries in the night. Superstitious crewmen believe they are the sounds of mermaids or ghosts, which signify a bad omen. Captain Ahab scoffs at this, saying they have merely passed a seal colony in the night. His explanation does little to calm their nerves and the next day a crewman falls to his death from the masthead. See Adaptations of Moby-Dick
The Moon and the Sun	1997	Vonda N. McIntyre	Yves and Marie-Josephe de la Croix are siblings and natural scientists who capture and bring a mermaid to the court of Louis XIV.
Real Mermaids Series	2010–2013	Helene Boudreau	A teen girl of partial mer-person heritage deals with both human and mermaid problems.
The Scarecrow of Oz	1915	L. Frank Baum	The main characters are rescued from danger by the mermaids.
The Sea Fairies	1911	L. Frank Baum	A novel about merfolk.
The Sea Lady	1901	H. G. Wells	A mermaid comes ashore on the southern coast of England in 1899, mingles with genteel society under the alias "Miss Doris Thalassia Waters, the mermaid's real design is to seduce Harry Chatteris, a man she saw "some years ago" in "the South Seas—near Tonga," who has taken her fancy.
The Search for Delicious	1969	Natalie Zane Babbitt	A mermaid child named Ardis helps a fairboy save his kingdom.
Sereia de Curitiba	2007	Rhys Hughes	A series of connected stories relate the adventures of a mermaid in a variety of locations, including Brazil, Madeira, Wales, and the moon, where she meets a species of mermaid with the heads of fish and lower bodies of humans who surf the dry lunar seas on motorized skateboards.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth	1936	H. P. Lovecraft	In the novella there is a grim variant of merfolk lore via The Deep Ones. Man-fish creatures are subservient to their patron gods Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. They have an affinity for intermarrying with humans and promoting the worship of The Old Ones.
Sirena	1998	Donna Jo Napoli	A siren falls in love with a shipwrecked sailor, but is unsure if he loves her or her magical singing. Although Sirens of Greek mythology are typically described as being part woman, part bird. However, this book re-imagines them as mermaids.
The Sisters Grimm	2005–2012	Michael Buckley	Illustrated by Peter Ferguson. It features many characters from fantasy and fairy tales, including the Little Mermaid.
The Spiderwick Chronicles	2003–2009	Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black	The series features merfolk and other water creatures like kelpies, nixies, and sea serpents.
Waterfire Saga	2014–2016	Jennifer Donnelly	A four-book series (Deep Blue, Rogue Wave, Dark Tide and Sea Spell) about six mermaid heroines who battle to save their hidden world.
Wet Magic	1913	E. Nesbit	Four children hear that a mermaid has been captured by a circus and rescue her. Their reward is to visit the hidden kingdom of the mermaids.