Dive Into What "Lies Beneath"










Title:  Lies Beneath
(Lies Beneath #1)
Author:  Anne Greenwood Brown
Format:  E-Galley
Length:  303 pages 
Publisher:  Delacorte Books for Young Readers


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 unuspecting 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.
-Goodreads

My Thoughts
There are so many reasons to love this book.

 1.  The fact that this book is so unDisney in its approach to Mer-lore.
Mers are allowed to be vengeful, predatory,  calculating, manipulative, dark, and just a bit base.

2.  This story is told from a male point of view.  Merman...can you say YUM!

3.  The mers in this book do not waste time trying to embrace their humanity or trying to 
downplay their animal natures.  They have a pride and dignity that calls out to be respected.

4.  The story that surrounds Lily's father and grandfather and serves as the motivation for the happening of the book.  The back story involving these men and promises made to Calder's mother
serves as the story within the story that stars Lily and Calder.  The thing that makes these too stories so special is that don't get the ending to the first story until near the end of the second!  Surprise!

5.  The choice of love or family that Calder has to face and the ramifications of that choice.

Thank you Anne Greenwood Brown for a book with bite.  These are not the mers that frolic with Sabastian and sing "Under the Sea".  These are the mers of pirate nightmares, beautiful creatures who live in an emotional vacuum and feed on the warmth of the human soul.
Readers will be transfixed by the juxtapositions of Lily's landlocked struggle with her family and Calder's similar struggle with his in the water.
Add to this Calder's duty to the memory of his mother and his instinctual bond to his sisters; both of which he seems almost captive to and his desire for his freedom...great story right?

But there's more...

Lily...she is bait, food, love, his world?
What secrets does she hold?
Is love enough?

See...great story!
Read it NOW!
Before you go into the WATER.... 
My Rating:

 

3 comments:

  1. OOoh nice!! I heard many good things about this one! Bought it awhile back but haven't gotten to it yet since I had too many review books to read and still do!

    Can't wait to read it! Love it! Love Disney but I do still love the darker side of fairy tales that they were originally too!

    Great review!

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  2. I may have made a mistake on this one. I had it for review, but have recently read a lot of mermaid stories that just didn't do it for me, so passed on reading this one. I will have to rethink it. This sounds like it may be THE mermaid book. I often enjoy a male POV. Thank you for your review.
    Your blog looks terrific BTW.

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  3. Great reivew. It makes me want to get this novel off of my TBR pile!

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