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

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood

31 reviews

nyst's review against another edition

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adventurous sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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girlreading's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

An enjoyable and heart wrenching read that was not at all what I'd expected based on the blub/original marketing.

This isn't a retelling of The Odyssey, it's honestly a push to call it a retelling at all, it's more a story which takes loose inspiration from the idea of Penelope's twelve hanged maids and goes on its own path from there.

Lies We Sing to the Sea is nothing mind-blowing or especially new. It's a classic YA fantasy with a touch of tragedy. I enjoyed my time with this one and am definitely intrigued to read more from Sarah in the future as I liked her comfortable, easily read writing style.

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ntstucky's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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kassidyreads's review against another edition

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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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woelkchen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

3.5

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bookish_hollyx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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fossilreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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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