Monday, June 25, 2012

Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown


Title: Lies Beneath
Author: Anne Greenwood Brown site
Format: eARC, 303 pages
Published: 6/12/2012
Publisher: Delacorte BYR
Source: Netgalley
Challenges: Ebook Reading Challenge (hosted by Workaday Reads)

“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.”

Basic Synopsis:
Calder and his three sisters, Maris, Pavati, and Tallulah, have a mission. To avenge their mother by killing Jason Hancock. Ever since their mother died, Maris has become the matriarch of the family. She is the cruelest sister, and all Calder wants is to be out of her control. Maris makes Calder an offer, get close to Lily and use her to lure her father out into the lake and she will set him free. If he fails, she will never let him go. Getting close to her is easy, and soon he has Lily wrapped around his finger. The only problem? Calder has started developing feelings for her. Will he trade freedom for true love?

Characters:
Calder is just your usual murderous mythical creature, fighting against his nature. He was very self pitying and in the end tries to be a martyr.

Lily was kind of an empty character. She has a thing for Victorian poetry. For supposedly being strong willed, she would do pretty much anything Calder told her. As soon as they get together, she completely loses her fire. I also didn’t like that she romanticized everything.

Is it just me, or do these characters (and set up) sound familiar?

Plot and Story:
I didn’t like the way that the chapters would jump far forward without a lot of explanation. I also thought that some actions of the characters in the book weren’t very well described. And the worldbuilding left much to be desired. It was confusing. However, I was a little surprised by the ending.

Overall:
I’ll start by saying that I’ve never really read a mermaid YA book before. They are starting to become quite popular. This book was definitely a letdown, but I won’t give up on mere-fiction just yet. I give Lies Beneath 1.5 of 5 stars.


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