Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Book Review- Lost Voices

I just finished reading Lost Voices by Sarah Porter for a Book-It Forward ARC Tour.

From Goodreads:

What happens to the girls nobody sees—the ones who are ignored, mistreated, hidden away? The girls nobody hears when they cry for help?


Fourteen-year-old Luce is one of those lost girls. After her father vanishes in a storm at sea, she is stuck in a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village with her alcoholic uncle. When her uncle crosses an unspeakable line, Luce reaches the depths of despair. Abandoned on the cliffs near her home, she expects to die when she tumbles to the icy, churning waves below. Instead, she 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. The mermaids are beautiful, free, and ageless, and Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: they feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks.


Luce’s own talent at singing captures the attention of the tribe’s queen, the fierce and elegant Catarina, and Luce soon finds herself pressured to join in committing mass murder. Luce’s struggle to retain her inner humanity puts her at odds with her friends; even worse, Catarina seems to regard Luce as a potential rival. But the appearance of a devious new mermaid brings a real threat to Catarina’s leadership and endangers the very existence of the tribe. Can Luce find the courage to challenge the newcomer, even at the risk of becoming rejected and alone once again?


Lost Voices is a captivating and wildly original tale about finding a voice, the healing power of friendship, and the strength it takes to forgive.
 
Lost Voices was a dark and weird book to me.  I mean, I like the idea of there being something lovely for children who are abused but to me, this version of the mermaid isn't so lovely.  It's revenge-like.  I understand that these children have a hateful view of adults, but I don't think the murders are necessary.
 
And I didn't really care about any of the mermaids.  And after their pasts, I wanted to care but I just didn't.  Luce needed to do more instead of just hiding away in her cave.  She either needed to become the queen or defend Catarina more.  Instead, she didn't really do anything.  The only real emotion I felt was hatred for the newest mermaid Anais (and by the way, we never did find out what happened in her life to make her change into a mermaid).
 
I don't know.  I don't always have to read happy, light stories, but if they aren't happy then I want to feel for the characters.  And this one was just dark without getting any emotion out of me.
 
I gave this book a rating of 3/5.

Lost Voices will be released on July 4, 2011.
 
This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2011 100+ Reading Challenge: 22
2011 ARC Reading Challenge: 20
2011 Debut Author Challenge: 8
2011 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 18

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Book It Forward ARC Tours.

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