Reviews with content warning for Murder - Lies We Sing to the Sea

This book featured one of the saddest character expositions I've ever read in a YA fantasy. This book was dark, y'all. Definitely check the trigger warnings before reading this one. As difficult of a read this was for me, I did enjoy it overall.

Buuuut, the story was a little predictable for me. I don't know if it's because the author left too many clues along the way or if I had a keen eye for the big reveal, lol. I did not like the ending- it was too ambiguous and I absolutely detest those kinds of loose interpretation endings. I would've liked to read a more definitive ending for Leto. She who had to deal with so much heartache and trauma and grief deserved a more thorough send-off. Finally, I don't think Lies We Sing to the Sea needed to be nearly five hundred pages! It definitely could've wrapped the story up with a page count of no more than 300. There were a lot of chapters where the plot moved too slowly, it was a bit of a hurdle to get through.

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maddy_sofie's review

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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velsbooknook's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful tense

I very much enjoyed this one and I'm sure I would have loved it even more as a teenager!
Every year, 12 girls need to die, in order to please Poseidon and keep Ithaca safe. The story follows Leto and Melantho who are both destined to lift the curse.
I base my review on the fact that I very much enjoyed the story and characters. I listened to the audiobook and it was so well made! Probably one of the best audiobooks I have listened to so far. After finishing the book I read some reviews because I didn't understand why it got so many bad reviews. I can definitely see why some people are not very pleased with the book and the research that went into it. It's supposed to be a Odyssey retelling but the author did not read the original material?! I also did not read the Odyssey yet so I'll definitely be going back to this book once I finish it!
I still overall enjoyed the story very much and I think since it's a YA novel it's a good way for young people to dive into the world of Greek mythology. I also enjoyed all the characters and loved their inner struggles while continuing the story, the pacing was also well done in my opinion and I overall had a great time listening to this book.

I'm not going to give a ⭐ rating at this point since I can't say much about the origins of the Odyssey. I can definitely recommend this book if you like YA + Greek mythology mixed in!

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julia1205's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

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lisashelves's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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