by Sarah Underwood
Lies We Sing to the Sea is a YA fantasy that takes The Odyssey and Greek mythology as a jumping-off point to tell a new tale about love and sacrifice. Centuries after the events of The Odyssey, all is not well on the island of Ithaca. Every year, the community sacrifices twelve “marked girls,” one for each of the 12 maids of Queen Penelope hanged after the return of Odysseus, to placate the god Poseidon. But still the community suffers, with parts of the island uninhabitable, bad harvests, and a dysfunctional royal family. Leto, the daughter of the island’s vanished oracle, is one of this year’s girls. But what happens after she goes to meet her death on the beach reveals a world of magic, secrets, monsters, and a possible escape for the girls of Ithaca . . . and Leto herself.
Likes: The budding romance between Leto and a mysterious woman named Melantho is the lifeblood of the book. Leto and Melantho are beautifully developed, with strong backstories. There are several romance tropes at play here (a major love triangle, enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers); I don’t read much romance, but I felt they worked well in the context of the book’s plot. The magical powers and settings are fresh, carefully thought out, and bring a lovely touch of fantasy to an otherwise pretty realistic book grounded in historical details. The ending kept me reading up through the last page. Myths don’t tend to have happy endings for all the characters, and this book stayed true to the source material in that regard.
Dislikes: the middle of the book, which takes place at the Ithacan palace, felt slow to me. There’s a “will they or won’t they” romance that dragged a bit. I also felt there were a few minor storylines and scenes that were unnecessary, especially around the characters of Alexios and Olympia. But overall, I really enjoyed the book.
FYI: murder, violence, sexual assault, suicide, death of a parent, death of a sibling, death of a child, death of a loved one.
Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for my advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
Liz Helfrich 