Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

Title: Lost Voices

Author: Sarah Porter

Reviewed by: Cassie

Rating: 2.5 glass slippers

Summary (from BN.com)

Fourteen-year-old Luce reaches the depths of despair when she is assaulted and left on the cliffs outside of her grim, gray Alaskan fishing village. She expects to die when she tumbles into the icy waves below, but instead undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid.
A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: the mermaids feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks. Will Luce be pressured into committing mass murder?

I decided to read this book because I had read reviews saying to hold up their prejudices about mermaids and give it a chance. The plot they presented seemed intriguing and quite frankly, I wanted to read something about mermaids. Lost Voices is a haunting tale about murderous siren/mermaids. The characters are very conflicting and tortured, the world is stunning, and the ideas to create it are very impressive.

You must be wondering, however, why I rated it as only OK. The reason? Well, it was a bit too haunting for my taste. It's a dark book with murder and various other dark things. But what was nice was that it's a mermaid book that's dark, and that it's very unique. I did have my dislikes, but I also had my likes.

The plot-

I won't get too into it, but you find out right away that all of the mermaids come from a dark past and dislike humans. They enjoy luring them to their deaths, except for Luce and Miriam. To combine the theory of sirens, tortured young girls, and mermaids is a very unique twist. However, for me, it just didn't go well with my system. It may have been the fact that there's no romance with the main character (horrible, I know) and that Luce is only fourteen. The girls just seemed way too young for such a dark plot, but it's definitely got the wow-factor going on and it's definitely a beautiful darkness.

The heroine-

Luce has a very dark past that we learn and is very socially awkward and a loner. She also happens to be a reader. Now usually I'd be all "wow that's awkward! ... and totally me." But the thing is, she is extremely socially awkward. She wins gold medal for it. She had no friends in her school and even in her mermaid tribe she is an outcast, despite her abilities. However- she has a very good heart. While 99% of mermaids are murderous, dark human-haters, she is the sole mermaid in her tribe to actually want to save humans. She's complex and she acts in what she believes in, despite the deadly consequences.

World-

I felt like the world was also darkly beautiful. While their singing was deadly, it was gorgeous. While the mermaids were murderous, they were beautiful. While people died, they died in elation. Also- the creatures and environment is described masterfully and the details are impeccable. Plus it's mostly in the ocean, so that was nice. :)

I believe the sequel is out, and that there's finally a boy (GASP) in it... I'll have to read it soon!

Until next time-

Cassie

P.S. - now that I'm back in school I am in BOOK WITHDRAWAL!!! Gah! Anyone else having the same issues?