Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood

5 reviews

lesemaus2303's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved every bit of it! 
Almost didn't want to finish it because i didn't want the story to end. Emotional and so thrilling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

alyxbeau's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

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

1.75

This book was very much not for me. I put aside all the things I'd heard about the disappointing "retelling" marketing, and read from the perspective of "loose inspiration" but it didn't help. 

I am unfamiliar with the story this is a retelling of, so it wouldn't have been hard to do, meaning I really just didn't enjoy this book. I almost returned it to the library many times, but felt obligated to give it a chance after seeing so many bad reviews. They were not wrong. 

Some things that bothered me: 

The calling of Hades as a place and not a name got on my nerves. Hades in this time period was NOT synonymous with a place like it is now, due to misinformation, assumption, and the stealing of the name into Christianity as a place. This is a horrible oversight. 

All the characters excepting the guy, whose name I already forget despite finishing the book less than 5 minutes ago, are completely unlikable. The jealousy and blatant disregard for not hurting the ones you love is abysmal on their parts. Leto said she paid attention to the stories with lessons like Narciccus. Well, she sure didn't learn, by her own admittance. She cares for absolutely nobody but herself, yet calls her actions love to the two others. 

I got to the point with two hours left in the audiobook, and couldn't believe that much time was left. There was NO reason to have this book be so long. Lastly, one particular quote. "I didn't give a single damn." Why the word single? It didn't need to be there. Just nitpicking though on this one. 

Massive spoiler of ending below, do not open unless you have read the book to the end. 

when all but Leto died at the end, I didnt care. I didn't care they died, or how they died. I didn't care Leto was left alone. I didn't care when the gods gave her a vision that they were happy in Elysium. I was mad that is where they ended up. Elysium isn't so easy to get into as that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Rape and Abandonment

Minor: Rape

kassidyreads's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Suicide

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, and Abandonment

kanadrallegria's review

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

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.