Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood

6 reviews

lisa_m's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

This book was very interesting to read. I finished it in a single day and I wasn't bored for a second.

I've read about people saying the author did not research this book well because she did not read the Odyssey. Still I think this was a good story in its own right. I probably would have liked it more if she built her own world instead of using Greek mythology as a setting but still.

I think the thing that I liked most about it is how much is she committed to the ending.

It would have been easy to give it a happy ending, and many other authors probably would have done that too, but that would have taken away from the story. The whole plot is based on the Prince having to die so him not magically coming back was a good thing in my opinion. While reading the ending, I thought that he may turn into a sea-creature like them but i'm glad he didn't.

The thing I did not like was the cheating aspect of the relationships between the characters. If it had been better defined as either polyamory or something else I would have perhaps understood it more. But because of the jealousy involved it still felt more like cheating, which is a big no for me. I was positively surprised that this was a sapphic story, since I did not know that before starting the book. Originally I was convinced Leto would just fall in love with the prince which would put make it harder to kill him so I liked that twist to the story.

I did feel like some aspects of the story were underdeveloped or just not explained well enough. But especially for a debut novel I am very surprised by how well written this book was.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

sandymaple's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I don't understand why this was marketed as a retelling of the Odyssey - it is not. I thought the writing style was quite beautiful, but to be honest, I did not like much else. There was insufficient character development, I didn't like any of the characters, the premise of the curse was not clearly explained, the ending was drawn out, there was way less mythology than I expected, the love triangle was completely awkward and felt forced... I am stubborn and wanted to get to the end, but this easily could have been a DNF for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Confinement

melist6's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault and Suicide

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

elderwoodreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

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

3.25

The first third of this book could've been about a quarter of the length. I honestly couldn't tell you much of what happened outside of the bits of backstory sprinkled in. The last 2/3 the book really shined, however,

the love triangle felt so unnecessary and really made it a struggle to get through at times

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Suicide

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Murder

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Blood, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kanadrallegria's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

hanne_'s review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.0

Gods, what a slog. Had one early moment with properly horrific use of familiar imagery (the feet, what else?), and then… kinda fell apart. This could’ve been sweet and lush, but tried to do too much with too little and was narratively all over the place. It’s a reimagining of how the Odys— okay, it’s not really doing that rigorously but it’s an intensely personal exploration of— nope, it’s one of those “monarchic inheritance acts like a reality show competition” books— but don’t worry, this YA love triangle’s *bisexual* and even drifting toward polyam— oh wait, now we’re doing the senselessly tragic nature of capital-F Fate— whoops, have two sudden twists… and it’s over. Exhausting. 

I think the author needed to pick one or two things to really commit to: the worldbuilding as an extension of The Odyssey, the consistency of the magic and plot elements she wanted to include, Leto and Melantho’s first-person voices (which started out refreshing and distinct but soon blended together), the three protagonists’ relationships, or the political/governing elements. Instead, the story rushes past each in turn in service of the others, and the only reliably well-developed element is actually… the violence? If you for some reason want to read a lot of detail about people, mostly children, being disturbingly murdered and assaulted, this is the book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

It’s not creepy if the centuries-old entity having sex with a young woman also looks and acts like a young woman, right? No, nope, wrong, absolutely creepy, and some memory loss to reduce the weight of her years of experience does not fix it.