I’m a big fan of Greek mythology. I love retellings. I’m not sure if this is actually a retelling or an expansion on an existing story. Whatever it is, it’s FABULOUS. So well written and such a good story! Romantically graphic, graphically romantic.. The author didn’t shy away from hard scenes and descriptions. She boldly detailed the hard truths throughout the novel. Leto’s relationships with Melantho and Mathias were both beautiful and difficult. I loved following the twisting, winding path of trying to break Poseidon’s curse and the history of the curse’s making. The ending was both wonderful and heartbreaking. I absolutely recommend this book!

I went into Lies We Sing  to the Sea with an open mind. I had seen where the author, Sarah Underwood, cause controversy for saying she did not read the Odyssey before writing the book. Given that she billed it as a sequel I had hoped that she would have done research to make sure it was accurate.

That unfortunately was not the case. I will not pretend to be an expert but I spotted quite a few inaccuracies. The largest is was that 12 maidens are sacrificed every year on Ithaca for over 200 years. In ancient Greece human sacrifice was not a common occurrence. It was greatly looked down upon. The best example I can think of is the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis. The whole Greek army was taken aback by Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter for a fair wind to sail to Troy. I find it hard to believe that these sacrifices were made at that frequency with no repercussions.

Another inaccuracy was with Leto's mother. It is stated that her mother was the royal oracle. She would return home everyday to Leto  and her husband. While oracles did not have to be virgins, they did swear an oath to forsake men while they served. It was a religious office. They were seen at the literal mouth piece of the Gods. Leto's mother would have lived at the temple same as the priests and priestesses. She would not have been married with a daughter while serving in such a revered position.

A further issue I had with the book is the characterization of Melantho. The author tries to redeem Melantho and paint her as a victim. This is where it is most apparent that Underwoood did not read the source materials or do any research.  Melantho is the only named maid in The Odyssey. It is stated in The Odyssey that Penelope raised her like a daughter. While that might be the case she actively sought out and seduced Antinous, the richest of Penelope's suitors. Melantho is also unnecessarily cruel to Odysseus while he was disguised as a beggar in the source material. It seems to me that Underwood chose Melantho simply for the reason that she is the only maid whose name is given.

I can recognize why Underwood would want to see justice for the hanged maids. However having 12 additional girls murdered every year does not really make sense for the cause. I stopped reading the book a third of the way through. Nothing is ever explained. Why is Poseidon demanding 12 girls be sacrificed every year? Why is this part of a curse that is not explained. Why is the only way to break the curse, according to Melantho, to kill the prince of Ithaca. How did she come a out this knowledge if she never interacted with Poseidon? By that far in the book some of these questions should have been answered.

After struggling to read this books I decided to look up the article that caused the controversy. Underwood comes off as a bit arrogant in the interview. She states she never read The Odyssey because "it's so long, and written in a 'prose-y' way that's kind of impenetrable." Instead of reading the source material for her book she states she has "read a lot of stories within The Odyssey" citing the Percy Jackson series. As someone who has read The Odyssey I can safely say it is quite readable. I am not sure what translations Underwood is talking about it reads rather contemporary and is a quick read. I finished it in a little over a week. And that is with working two jobs.

I honestly had high hopes for Lies We Sing to the Sea. I loved the idea of a sapphic retelling. One sees playoff retellings featuring the love between Achilles and Patroclus but you don't  really see any relationships between two women. I think there is potential but this book was not executed well.

Overall, I can safely say this book deserves the bad reviews it is recieving. The plot is meandering and much is not explained. There are a great number of inaccuracies that show Underwood did not do any research or read the book she is writing a sequel to. There was potential for the story but is was was wasted.

While I did enjoy this, overall, it didn’t hit quite as hard as I thought it was going to. I think it was a little too long for the amount of story that was told, there was a little bit too much time where it felt like nothing was really happening. Too much reiteration of things without new information or things happening. It was kind of weird how everyone in Ithaca just kind of accepted Leto and Melantho showing up and being/acting super out of place…and not really even interacting with anyone. I think there could have been a lot more interaction with people in the palace, that would have lent more tension and intrigue to the story where it felt like it was just kind of drifting. I also felt like the buildup to Melantho’s full story didn’t really match the actual reveal of it.

Despite those things kind of pulling me out of the story a bit, I did still find it interesting and I think it is definitely worth reading.. I’m also hoping the brief scene with Adrasteia is a precursor to another book with her story because I would love to read that!

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperTeen, and author, Sarah Underwood for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review. Lies We Sing to the Sea comes out on March 7, 2023!

This book has very contentious reviews after the author revealed she never read The Odyssey, yet this novel is a retelling based on the prolific piece of greek writing. This is not a retelling, because it misappropriates key parts of The Oddessy. That aside, if this book was marked as a fun, YA greek mythology series, like Percy Jackson or Lore, then this book would have been much more successful. I did like the queer retelling since some of my favorite books are Madeline Miller's books.

This book has so much potential. I found a lot of the writing to be lyrical and engaging, and the premise of the book is a great one. But ultimately I did not finish reading it. One thing throughout this book that began to bug me was that there are a ton of hyphens - like, so many. At times it was extremely distracting. It works as a story which is somewhat inspired by greek mythology, but one simply can't retell these stories without reading the originals. All in all, while beautifully written, this is a bit of a let down.

I love the premises and the flow of this book. It is a refreshing take on a tale that I have grown up reading over and over again throughout my life. My biggest issue with this book is at times it gets a little lost in details that muddy or slow the story line. By no means do I want to rush this story in any way, but occasionally it did seem to drag longer then I personally felt was necessary. I love the way the challenge of morally becoming okay with the concept of killing someone even to end a curse is not linear path but circles around as new elements are discovered, including when they actually meet the prince and the actual application of any plan they come up with. I look forward to reading this book once published and it has finished with all its editing. I am a huge fan of all greek based stories.

I do not think I can put into emotions how much I adored this book. The characters, the emotions, the growth, the twists and turns that keep you heart wrapped in the story. The love. The absolute love you feel in this book. It is so full. One of my top reads of 2022.

Excuse me, I need a moment to brush away the tears and hug my phone for a bit.

I want to say first off that this is not a retelling. I don't know if there are some summaries of the book calling it a retelling that so many people in these reviews have read, but this is a Greek mythology story inspired by a minor character from the Odyssey. As for them using the term reclamation to describe it? I couldn't tell you why honestly.

Following Leto, the orphaned daughter of Ithaca's oracle, this story tells of a 300 year old curse that has plagued Ithaca. Every year, 12 girls are marked to be hanged in sacrifice to Poseidon or the island will face punishment from the god. Leto is one of the chosen. After she is hanged with the others and thrown to the sea, she wakes up to find Melantho and learn of a way to break the curse. Killing the prince of Ithaca, the 12th and final killed. So our story goes.

I think the premise of the story was good, I absolutely love Greek mythology, so of course I requested an ARC. I had no prior knowledge of the author or this book before I read it, and I'm not going to speak to the apparent widespread controversy (though I will say that while I agree that if you're going to write a book on a topic, maybe do your research, but also there is so much elitism going on around here too).

This book really started off promising, a determined girl put to death who comes back with a vengeance to kill the prince? Sign me up! The writing isn't bad, but it does drag a bit, but oh well, it is a debut.

So what are my problems with this book? Communication. The absolute lack of clear communication between characters in this book made me want to scream. I actually had to put down the book a couple times because so many things could have been avoided if they just talked. There was absolutely no reason for them to lie or keep secrets in some moments aside from I guess creating tension? Filling a page requirement?

Then there's the fact that there are multiple times that characters do seemingly illogical or random things just because they "had a feeling". You are writing the book, if something is important that they should do, give them a reason! You are the one that created this entire story so you aren't even bound by an original.

The relationships in this book also felt hollow, like they were missing an actual connection between characters. I don't want to get too into it to avoid spoiling anything, but the romantic relationships to me just didn't make sense. Between the jealousy (which, honestly, shouldn't have existed since the root of it was part of the plan), and characters being mistreated and saying they love the person, it just felt like the book was hoping to form relationships in order to enable a great emotional impact, but ended up just telling us that they feel things for each other instead, despite all the evidence against it.

Also, just an odd remark, I didn't even realize this book was considered YA until I pulled it up here to write a review. I honestly don't understand why it is YA unless tired tropes qualify books for young adults? Problems aside, this book is very similar to a lot of other non YA Greek retellings content wise so I'm not really sure what qualified this one to be targeted at a younger audience.

There is for sure more I could say about the content of this book, but I think I'll leave it here. I think with more care, research, and editing, this could have been a really good book, but unfortunately this is what we are left with.

I wanted to like this because it was a queer take on the Odyssey. Unfortunately, it's obvious very early on that the author only has basic grasp of Greek mythology and none what so ever in specifics to the the Odyssey; and that's weird. I feel that I would have been able to get into it if the author had created her own lore instead of trying to base it on something they don't understand.

So there is a lot of drama about this book and the fact that the author, who calls it an "Odyssey retelling", did not ever read the Odyssey. Neither have I! I. can't really comment on the drama because I'm not familiar enough with the source material to have a dog in this fight, and moreover the action in this novel takes place years after the Odyssey would have happened regardless, so it's more of a... "inspired by" than a retelling anyway.

The writing, while simple, is lovely, and there's a fun sapphic romance in here. I could see the tone the author was trying to go for, but the pacing of this novel is all over the place, and the plot itself seems to hesitate and refuse to make up its mind every 20% through. Is this a "bonding through adversity" novel? Revenge novel? Sad novel? A little of all those things. It's a solid YA debut nonetheless, but it does lack that pull, that drive, that never quite sucked me in. It doesn't deserve the one star reviews from those who haven't read it, but the worldbuilding is also vague to my tastes. This one was fine, not much else.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one. I absolutely love retellings, and this books was not that. I also absolutely love The odyssey and it is very clear that the author did not read the odyssey but took inspiration from situations characters in that work. So while ai enjoyed Leto’s story I also struggled with this one because I have recently ready popular greek mythology retellings and what I see happening is people jumping onto that movement without necessarily knowing where there place is. That being said I always appreciate queer representation in YA and this had so many wonderful moments of that. I think that the style and narrative m, while lovely left me looking for a bit more depth.

NetGalley sent me an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I... don't quite know where to begin with this book.

<i>Lies We Sing to the Sea</i> is not a retelling of the Odyssey, but set generations later, focusing on the curse placed on Ithaca when Odysseus had killed the 12 maids of Penelope. The curse makes it so that every year, 12 innocent women are killed in the name of Poseidon. One of Penelope's original maids make a deal with the god: the curse will stop if 12 men who rule Ithaca get killed instead-- or just one, who sacrifices himself. The last part is, of course, unknown. When the curse is finally understood, it is centuries later and the heroine of the novel, the resurrected Leto-- one of the innocent women sacrificed yearly-- is attempting to kill the current ruler of Ithaca.

The book touches on the theme of self-sacrifice for the greater good, which ties fairly well into ancient Greek values and customs. When the second part of the deal becomes clear, it is clear what is going to happen. And yet, Underwood's writing does still make it hurt. It is decently well-written, but it is pretty clear that it is her first novel, as a lot of debut novels, like this one, don't have great pacing.

In terms of romance, it involves a fairly likeable bisexual love triangle, but the pacing of the romance did throw me off. This is not quite a mythology retelling. This is a romance novel with a mythological setting.

The description might say that it "will captivate fans of Circe and The Song of Achilles" but it honestly shouldn't be considered on the same level. That being said, it was a decent read and deserving of 3 stars.

I understand why this book is so highly anticipated. Underwood's writing is impeccable. Her storytelling is vivid and gripping and her character development is incredibly strong. I love a good female empowerment, queer, greek mythology inspired book as much as anyone and Underwood knocks this one out of the park. I cannot wait for this to come out to recommend it to all of my customers.

I really enjoy Greek myth retellings, but I didn't enjoy this book very much. First of all, it's not so much a retelling as a continuation: what happened after the conclusion of The Odyssey, which I'm not very familiar with. In fact, I'm not sure if it's a well-known myth at all.
In addition, this novel couldn't seem to make up its mind as to what it wanted to be. At first, it seemed to be a tale of two women finding and healing each other, then it became a revenge tale, then it became,,,I don't know what. Overall, the pacing was very lopsided and I'm still not sure where these prophecies came from, why it took so long to introduce them, or what the ultimate message of it all was meant to be.

First of all, this is NOT a retelling of the Odyssey. There's a lot of hate on Underwood because she did not read The Odyssey, but this story is focused on the curse of Ithaca that was caused by Odysseus's honor killings of Penelope's twelve maids. It's set several hundred years after The Odyssey with a couple of flashbacks thrown in to give the maids backstory and context. This book explores the idea of self-sacrifice for the greater good, which is in fact a pretty hefty component of the idea of a true republic, which was something ancient Greece thought was pretty important. Modern American readers can not relate to this concept because the idea that a politician can actually truly represent and understand their constituents and be willing to make personal sacrifices in order to meet those needs is laughable.

I'm a sucker for a good origin story, but this book does not do that. Instead what it does is create a scenario where one of the original maids, Melantho, tries desperately to reverse the curse. She makes a deal with Poseidon that if 12 of Odysseus's line get merced, the curse is broken, so instead of 12 innocent women being killed EVERY YEAR, 12 TOTAL men who would rule Ithaca go instead. Or one man from the family willingly allowing himself to die.

But nobody knew that last part. When they finally figure it out it's centuries later and our heroine, the resurrected Leto is trying to assassinate the crown prince of Ithaca.

We have a legitimate bisexual love triangle at the heart (see what I did there?) of the story as well that complicates matters especially when we come to learn that Mathias wants to find out a way to reverse the curse as well. When we get to our climax, it's kind of hard not to see it coming but it still hurts.

While the romance seems super heavy-handed at times and I found myself scratching my head with the timing, I had to think about the characters' ages and realized to myself that most horny teenagers put off doing important, life-altering things in order to fool around.

Take this novel for what it is, a romance with mythology overtones. It's not phenomenal and probably shouldn't be put in the same sentence as Circe, but it does deserve a chance that bad publicity and cranky reviewers yearning for authenticity won't give.

I wanted to like this book. The cover is lovely and there are multiple book subscription boxes that are suspected to be covering it in 2023. However, the writing was simple and it sounded like limited research into mythology and the original story was performed. Because of this, I did some google research of my own and was very disappointed with what I found. The author had admitted to not even reading the story her book is based on. Unfortunately, this shows in the product. If this is your first foray into mythology, you might enjoy the book and I'll admit there were some emotional moments in the storyline. But if you read a lot of mythology, I do think this would be your cup of tea.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

When I tell you I bawled, I BAWLED. This book put me through every emotion possible and I am left amazed. Lies We Sing to the Sea is beautiful. I fell in love with every character and was invested from the very beginning until the very end. Everything about this book is beautiful, putting aside the fact that the author didn’t read the Odyssey before writing this. Underwood’s writing is beautiful and this book gave me everything I wanted. My only qualm is that I did not feel connected to the romance at first, there was no build up. The characters found each other attractive and then a dozen chapters later they were in love. But I eventually grew to enjoy their romance. Regardless, this is a must read and is one of my favorites of the year.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Publisher for this advanced copy.

Lies We Sing to the Sea...
Beautiful title? Indeed. But, the writing style wasn't quiet beautiful like the title.

I really love the concept and the story of this book, but the writing style wasn't that good to support the concept. It was also nice to see sapphic + greek myth.

EDIT: So after some online digging I have discovered this author has not actually read the Odyssey before trying to tell a retelling of it :/ y i k e s

--
Original Review:
(3 stars)


I traditionally really enjoy retellings, and Greek mythology retellings are at the top of the list. This book is incredibly engaging and hard to put down; however, the characters get reallyyyy annoying/archetypal at times and I definitely wish there were more greek mythology weaved in. Lies We Sing to the Sea shows a lot of potential for a debut novel, and I'm excited to see how Underwood will grow.

For a book who's preface espouses how much the author enjoys Greek mythology and was inspired by Our King Rick Riordan, this novel felt quite lacking in the mythos. The premise is built on an 'avenging' of sorts for the (mostly) nameless 12 maids in the Odyssey who were largely blamed and thus killed for their transgressions whilst Odysseus was gone. Underwood promises to explore the intentions of these women and the lack of agency or choice they had in such situations. So obviously this is an incredibly fascinating premise promising a lot of potential; but in execution, I feel like a lot of the mythology gets lost. Set in an alternative universe where these women get their 'vengeance'--not much other mythology/history makes it through. You see elements of other overlaps--such as the exiled sister Hecate and their belief system, but this seems very much a story on it's own, isolated from the greater universe of lore.

Additionally, the characters do get reallyyyyy annoying to read. While you do have to take this with a grain of salt--they're mainly pretty young teenagers so I get why they're all immature and angsty, but sometimes they really do get on your nerves. The characters act incredibly impulsively and myopically and have extreme bouts of jealousy--which seems out of character at times (specifically for Melantho who has lived centuries and has a self professed good sense of patience). Additionally many of the characters are extremely 2-dimensional and lack any character depth.....The traditional Evil Queen, Golden Retriever Prince, Beautiful yet Vengeful FMC who has No Idea the effect she has on others, etc. The prince had absolutely no personality, and I think he definitely could've been much better developed.

Pacing wise, I felt parts were quite off. While I get they don't want another 12 girls to die needlessly, when Leto and Melantho are essentially ageless creatures, I don't understand why they rush into their plot in a few months without making sure Leto is fully prepared for what she has to do. Additionally, the first part of the book takes place over these few months of training, but most of the action occurs in the span of 2 weeks before the Solstice. The shift in pacing is deffo a bit jarring, and it doesn't make sense to me how MUCH happens in these 2 weeks vs the other few months. This two week section thus feels a bit rushed, and I also don't really get how the prince falls in love over the span of a few days, although I guess this is a fantasy YA so not particularly atypical(?????)

While I do have a lot of complaints about the book, these were mainly small, nitpicky things and overall I still enjoyed the narrative. Underwood is definitely able to tell a compelling story and I felt quite hooked and invested in the plot line and the individual characters. It's definitely a great Sapphic YA Fantasy, and for a debut novel, hits a lot of good points.

In-depth review to be added closer to publication date

Overall - 4 stars, I enjoyed this and would recommend to people who like books written by Madeline Miller and Natalie Haynes