The Secret of Moon Lake is a 2019 American self-published middle-grade fantasy adventure book written by Gloria Tesch (under pen name "Sofia Nova"), and illustrated by Marina Terkulova.
The book follows the story of Sam Lawrence, a fourteen-year-old boy living in the fictional city of Moon Lake. He discovers a magical medallion one day which leads him to befriend a centuries-old mermaid and develop psychic powers. Unaware of the dangers that come with his newfound abilities, Sam has to find out the mystery of what's going on before it's too late.
Marketed as a debut novel, The Secret of Moon Lake was released both in paperback and eBook format.
This book contains examples of the following tropes:
- Age-Gap Romance: Sam Lawrence is a fourteen-year-old boy while Aurelia, his new merfriend, is over 300 years old.
- The Catfish: Local bumpkins in this big city are fixated on catching "Big Bass", a legendary fish in Moon Lake that nobody has ever been able to reel in.
- Magical Native American: Mr. Brown, Sam's neighbour, is a stock Native man who not only owns a hawk, but has shamanic powers, refers to Sam as a "young warrior" and apparently also lives in the woods despite the book being set in a city.
- Token Aquatic Race: This trope is unavoidable in a mermaid-themed book, but more enhanced seeing as how no other undersea race gets mentioned in the book (unless you count Vikings).
