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

As a story, on its own, exciting and thrilling. But as I'm not able to overlook the fact the author has called it a retelling without even reading the original story it is meant to portray, unfortunately I can not rate this better than 2,5 stars.

I'm personally not a fan of time jumps too much and the way flashbacks to memories or stories told were written, I got confused many times when we jumped from an orally told story to a memory instead.

I'm not very knowledgeable in greek mythology, so I'm not able to give an opinion on how accurate those parts of the story are.

I was happy to see Leto gather herself in the end, it frustrated me how flaky she was with going through with things she seemed to be so incredibly set on. But that's also just.. humanity.

Honestly Mathias might have been my favorite character in all this. He truly wanted the best and tried to do all he knew to be able to. I love and hate his ending, I just want him to have everything good in the world!

This is a heavy read for all the grief and especially the pain women go through (of course girls are the ones cursed and at the mercy of men, as it has gone throughout so much of history).

The ending was predictable, but in my opinion it was in a nice way and didn't ruin the book for me. Some things still felt left unanswered in the end, but at least most of it was a somewhat satisfying ending.

So in short: As a story, it's a great one with such grief and also some joy sprinkled in. In context of it supposedly being a retelling, ehhhh... It's a heavy read when you wish so much better for women in general.

I really liked the romances, but there were so many things that frustrated me within them. I understand Melantho's grief over her past lovers, but babygirl, you are allowed to love again. They are gone, taken from you, it's not like you're cheating.
Leto on the other hand... how easily do you forget Melantho as soon as you set your eyes (and lips) on the prince?

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kanadrallegria's review

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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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maddy_sofie's review against another edition

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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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lil_saddie's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

I have a problem with YA where it feels like the author doesn’t trust the audience to grasp the plot or character motivations so things are constantly repeated or said so blatantly it takes me out of the story.

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gondorgirl's review

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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hailstorm3812's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I'm sad... It's so beautiful though. It's also my second favorite

non poly

ending to a love triangle. I just got really attached to the characters and story. It feels like a Greek Tragedy. This story has already happened there is nothing you can do to change it.

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withlivjones's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This book is much less of a mythology retelling and more of a fantasy book inspired by the myth of Odysseus, but even though I’m not a huge fan of fantasy as a genre I really enjoyed reading it!

The prose is excellently written and the pacing is good, particularly regarding gradually revealing information to the reader so there isn’t a ton of exposition at once. The main three characters are developed and likeable, and the different chapters in each of their perspectives adds a good amount of tension to the story. I adored the romance between Leto and Melantho and I think it may even rival the legendary relationship between Achilles and Patroclus in The Song of Achilles in terms of how much it made my heart ache. However, I felt that the love triangle with them and Mathias was perhaps a little unnecessary and cliché (though that might be my hatred of love triangles talking). The ending, although it totally wrecked me, was well-written and fitting for the story.

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belleanndthebook's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.0

This book was ultimately not for me. Although there were many references to Greek myths and Rick Riordan’s writing, this book was not written in the style of either of those things. The pacing was much slower, the action was sprinkled in rather than a main focus, and there were no big plot twists. The story was very slow paced and character driven, in a way that reminded me of Six of Crows based on how much time was spent getting to know the characters.

Ultimately, I would recommend this to people who are looking to read a very slow, atmospheric, wet, dark, and character driven YA Greek tragedy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc!

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