Lost Voices by Sarah Porter Review

Title: Lost Voices
Author: Sarah Porter
Age Group: Teen/Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Lost Voices, book one
Star Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

I borrowed this book from the Kindle Unlimited library and reviewed it.

From the time I was a child, I've been obsessed with mermaids. I guess The Little Mermaid is to blame for that. Ariel was my favorite Disney princess until I was sixteen. And I've wanted to read Lost Voices since it was published a few years ago. When I saw it in the Kindle Unlimited library, I borrowed it right away.

Lost Voices opens in grim, dark, wild Alaska, starkly beautiful against Luce's struggle as an unwanted girl, invisible to all, except her alcoholic Uncle Pete. When her life and abuse becomes too much to bear, she transforms into a mermaid. Freed from a life of fear and shame, she finally finds acceptance from Catarina, the queen of her tribe, and the other mermaids.

But such acceptance comes at a terrible pride: Luce must sing humans to their deaths. Torn between her bitterness at life's cruel circumstances and her guilt over taking human life, she discovers that power may be too much to control.

This book was beautiful, exquisitely dark and chilling. It reminded me slightly of The Lord of the Flies I loved that. A bunch of teenagers, tossed aside by society and blessed (or is it cursed?) with murderous power, seductive, destructive music no human can even hope to resist.

Luce was the shining star of this novel. A lonely girl, forgotten by all except her dead father, forced to live with a drunk, resentful uncle, and then thrust into a painful, frightening transformation into a killer fish girl, literally. I really related to her, to get struggle for acceptance, and family. She was a great character.

The other mermaids managed to get into my heart as well. All castoffs, pariahs, and so drunk with power they don't seem to mind getting the blood tithe that fuels their way of life. They scared me, even as I sympathized with them. Catarina, especially, was a dear character to me.

The pacing of this book was breakneck, I couldn't put it down, from the first page. I wanted to give this book five stars, but at times the drama between all the girls got to be too much, and it seemed to take away from Luce's struggle as a new mermaid. The bottom line: A darkly enchanting tale about loss, acceptance, and ethics, I loved Lost Voices! Next on deck: Waking Storms by Sarah Porter!

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