Book Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Pub Date: June 12, 2012

Hardcover, 303 pages

ISBN: 9780385742016

 

My rating: 4.5/5.0

My Review:
I can't remember reading a book about merpeople before so this was a first for me. And it was a very good first. I was enthralled by the story that Ms. Brown creates in Lies Beneath and the backstory to the White family of mermaids and Calder the merman. I love that she interwove the backstory into the story so it wasn't all thrown at you at once, it unwound itself through the story and kept me interested through the whole book.

Calder was a great character. Torn between what he is supposed to be and how he feels, he is a great tortured hero. But he's not too tortured. He comes across a little more clueless at times, and that makes him a little more cute. But the truth is he know what he is and he knows he's not Disney's idea of a mermaid like Lily is thinking. And Lily. I love Lily, such an antithesis herself. She dresses like she thinks a poet should dress, she rebels in ways, but she adores her parents and would do anything for them. I love her. And her ideals are beautiful. There is a quote towards the end that I would love to share. I highlighted it as I read the book on my Kindle, but I don't want to share because I don't want to give anything away. But it shows the beauty of Lily's thinking. She's such a pure spirit to Calder's tortured soul. And she's happy so that's nice for a change. She's an interesting character that makes the book very enjoyable.

The characters do a great job pushing the story along, but the plot also does a great job. At the center of the plot is Calder and his three sisters who are the ultimate in bad guys. But you get the feeling there are varying degrees of badness in the sisters. I'll let you be the judge of that. The plot moves along swiftly and made it hard for me to put the book down after about 100 pages. The first 100 pages were interesting, don't get me wrong, but it really took off after that point. And by the end it moves so fast your head is spinning. But it's not a bad spin. It wasn't one of those, why did the author wait until the last minute spins, because she didn't, she wraps everything up nicely, but there is an opening for the book(s) that follow. I cannot wait to see where Ms. Brown takes this series next.

With fascinating characters and a fast-moving plot, Lies Beneath made the merpeople angle very interesting to me. Intense, interesting and hard-to-put-down are ways that I would describe this book. I don't want to give anything away because it's just one of those books you have to read to understand. And I suggest if you like YA with a darker side that you read this one. It's different, it's intense and it's a great read.

About the Book:

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistable good looks and charm on ususpecting girls. Only this time Calder screws everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as his sisters are losing patience with him.

***I received this book through Netgalley for The Teen Book Scene for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***