Lost Voices (Lost Voices Trilogy, #1)

by Sarah Porter

Fourteen-year-old Luce reaches the depths of despair when she is assaulted and left on the cliffs outside of her grim, gray Alaskan fishing village. She expects to die when she tumbles into the icy waves below, but instead undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid.

A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: the mermaids feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks. Will Luce be pressured into committing mass murder?

• ISBN10: 0547482507
• ISBN13: 9780547482507
• Publish Date: 4 July 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Clarion Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[jeannamichel]

When her father died, Luce was forced to live with her alcoholic uncle. When he crossed the line too many times, beating her and punishing this poor 14 year old, Luce transformed into a mermaid.

I haven’t read many mermaid books so I was very grateful I heard about this one. I had some expectations concerning this novel when I first saw the lovely cover, but I was very much disappointed. Just before I get ranting on about this book, I want to say how great Sarah Porter’s voice is. She’s like one of the sirens from Lost Voices. She lured me in and if it wasn’t for her beautiful diction and syntax I would have no desire to finish this novel. This book should be targeted to 12-14 year olds, a younger YA age group rather than for older readers. However the intended audience is a bit difficult to decipher because of certain scenes that seem a bit graphic for younger readers.

The mermaids in this novel are like sirens; they sing and lure humans off their ships. The characters were unique but I thought it strange that Luce accepted her own transformation so quickly. Normally children wish to be older but Luce’s messed up and childlike vision of the world twisted her opinion more like Peter Pan and Neverland. Caterina, the queen of the mermaid tribe, seemed to change her mood every ten seconds. It kept the whole thing interesting like waiting to see what she would do next but by the end it was completely annoying.

The plot was slow. I couldn’t fully get into to it. It seemed to revolve around this tribe of mermaids who made the whole book into a day of high school. It was all about fitting in or being an outcast.

The ending seemed bland. It didn’t really end for me. It seemed that there should be more to it and I’m sure there will be more in the next installments. Overall this book was not for me.