LIES BENEATH BY ANNE GREENWOOD BROWN (LIES BENEATH #1)
Published: June 12th 2012 by Pulisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake
Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive,
Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But
this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They
blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for
him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of
water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily.
Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistible
good looks and charm on unsuspecting girls. Only this time Calder screws
everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's
more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as
his sisters are losing patience with him.
This is the
first book I read about mermaids or merpeople. And I must say I kinda love it. Lies
Beanth is an interested and entertaining read.
The mood
through the entire book is dark. Ask anyone around, I love dark!
The lake, the cold water and the quest for revenge helps to build it. The description of the scenery is well written and I must say, water monster waiting to snatch you and drown you or not, I’d like to visit the place.
The lake, the cold water and the quest for revenge helps to build it. The description of the scenery is well written and I must say, water monster waiting to snatch you and drown you or not, I’d like to visit the place.
These
mermaids aren’t like your Disney stories. Bonus points there! They’re evil.
More animal than human and beautiful enough to lead you to a death trap
willingly. But not all is wicked fun for them. They can’t be too long out of
the water or without killing someone, they can’t break promises and they’re
link to their families by a psych-bond (not something I’d like, thank you).
Calder is the only male in his family, with his older sister on the lead. They’re bound together and he can’t be free of them or help the need to go back to Lake Superior for the summer every year. His instincts force him to go back as well as to look for people to draw emotion from. You see, merpeople need happy emotions to keep their own dark feelings at bay and maintain their sanity. But Calder is different from his sisters, he wasn’t born a merman and there’s still a large part of him that holds to his humanity.
Calder is the only male in his family, with his older sister on the lead. They’re bound together and he can’t be free of them or help the need to go back to Lake Superior for the summer every year. His instincts force him to go back as well as to look for people to draw emotion from. You see, merpeople need happy emotions to keep their own dark feelings at bay and maintain their sanity. But Calder is different from his sisters, he wasn’t born a merman and there’s still a large part of him that holds to his humanity.
Calder’s
POV was something interesting. Through the book fights between his quest for
revenge on the man guilty of his mother death, the longing for a real family,
his need to consume human emotions and his newly found feelings for Lily.
Lily was a
harder character to get to know, mainly because Calder can’t understand her at
all (boys...). She keeps a lot of what’s going on in her mind to herself. She likes
poetry and dresses as a Victorian poet (Weird even for my standards) and most
of all she senses there’s something wrong with Calder. This is something I
enjoyed a lot about her: Calder creeps her out – considering the guy is
stalking her, she has a right – and she lets him know.
Calder’s
sisters were something else. Maris, Tallulah (I just love that name) and Pavati
are envious, evil creatures. The three are intent on getting their revenge and
you get to see some personal aspects of them. Maris is the oldest and most
evil, bordering on psycho yet I can’t help but like her. From the merpeople POV
you can understand her nature of hunter. Pavati is probably somewhere between
both of her sisters.
She likes to “play with her food” but as a born mermaid
can’t really understand Calder’s feeling and conflicts. She goes along with her
nature but isn’t a soulless creature. Talullah is the closest to Calder and the
one who probably is more like him.
The three add a lot to the book and the story.
Some things
in the ending felt rushed, I’d have like to see some parts more developed and
better laid out in the book but all in all Lies Beneath is an excellent book
that put Merpeople in my radar of reading.
The Next
book in the series will be in Lily’s POV and honestly I can’t wait to see what
goes on inside her head or what will happen next under the surface of Lake
Superior.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne Greenwood Brown: “I am a Minnesota author, writing about mermaid
assassins on Lake Superior. My debut YA series begins with LIES BENEATH, coming June 12, 2012 from Random House/Delacorte. The sequel (currently
titled WATER LILY) is anticipated for
March 2013. Besides writing and reading YA literature, I love all things Irish, romantic movies, beef
stroganoff, and Nutella. If I’m listening to music it’s Violent Femmes, The
Coronas (awesome band out of Dublin), and Great Big Sea (out of Newfoundland)
GET IN TOUCH
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