Thank you Harper teen and Netgalley for an ARC copy of Lies We Sing to the Sea. I enjoyed reading this book especially, the author's note at the beginning. Underwood explained her love for mythology, and how it originated from Percy Jackson and evolved into other books such as retellings. The idea of wanting to create a story loosely based on the Odyssey, specifically centered around the maids who were forgotten, is an amazing idea. I think it's partly why I really like the book.

The story is centered on three characters: Prince of Ithaca Mathias, an oracle named Leto, and one of the forgotten maids Melantho. The relationship these characters shares is a kind of love triangle as well as something to do with fate. The spin the author puts on the girls (will not spoil), took me by surprise. I think it's a unique approach to this kind of story. With the quality that they share, the ending took me by surprise as well. I was already attached to the characters and it broke my heart to read what became of them. I was hoping that there would be a sequel!

This book is engaging and the characters have clear goals, which I appreciate. However I think the characters lacked development and their feelings for each other weren’t really based on anything and were constantly changing.

I read some reviews talking about people writing about Greek mythology who don't know about Greek mythology which made me hesitate before reading this book, but I did not find that to be an issue. The author specifically covers why she wrote this book even though she's not a Greek expert which I totally appreciated and respected.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book! I loved all three of the main characters and found their stories so beautifully heart-breaking. The ending stayed with me long after I finished the book. The whole story was tragic but triumphant with lots of great dialogue and strong characters.

I would definitely recommend this book to fans of retellings.

I thought this book was lovely. There were some parts that were a bit confusing, though. But I thought the overall story and message was nice, I loved the two strong female characters, I love the gentleman male character, and I love their connection to the sea.
I felt like the ending left us wishing for it to be different, but I get why it ended as it did.

This was a fun read with good characters. This book claims to be an Oddysey retelling, but it’s loosely based at best. Honestly the ties to the Oddysey are so weak that I forgot multiple times that it was supposed to be a retelling. But as a fantasy? It’s a fun book. The writing is really well done, the characters are well written and it’s an interesting story.

However, there are some parts of this story that don’t really make sense. Which is fine, I guess, but it does make the plot a little harder to follow.

The book was a little predictable based on the premise, but the ending was actually a little surprising. Also, some of the characters were a pleasant surprise. The princess deciding to explore the world, the prince being a surprisingly likeable character. There was a lot to like about this book.

Tw: sacrificial death, on page hanging, on page suicide discussion, on screen attacks and fighting

I liked this book well enough. I think my biggest problem with it was that the author doesn't seem to have read the source material and this is marketed as a "retelling". If you are writing a retelling of a story, it's pretty critical that you understand the original. In this case, the Odyssey is a classic that is pretty widely known. I do think the writing style and overall "voice" of the book were good and if I wasn't such a massive Greek mythology nerd that have read both of Homer's original works, I would have enjoyed this book. Unfortunately, very loose retellings are just not for me.

I have loved the recent trend of making ancient stories, like Greek mythology and the Odyssey more interesting and exciting for new readers. It keeps the stories alive for a new generation of readers without losing the roots of the original stories. This book tells of the twelve girls from Ithaca who are sacrificed to Poseidon every year. The year this story takes place, one maiden, Leto doesn't die and wakes up on a mysterious island where she meets Melantho, a girl who has been on the island for a long time. Together, they must work together to break the curse, but in order to do that, they must kill Mathias, the prince of Ithaca. This book is told in three distinct voices, is beautifully written, and Sarah Underwood did a fantastic job with the worldbuilding, conflict, tension, and character building. I know a lot of teens that love Greek mythology that will eat this book up, and I think it's also great for readers who love adventure stories, friendship stories, and alternating viewpoints. I'm excited to get our copy at the library!

I loved Circe, so I thought this Odyssey-inspired world would have the same spark--unfortunately, this one fell flat in many ways. I had difficulty connecting with several of the characters, which made it hard to care about what happened to them--meaning that reading all the way to the end began to feel a bit like a chore. This is one of those where the idea is there, but the execution just doesn't match up to the promise of the story.

4.5 waves of magicalness out of 5

I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING 😭😭

I am an absolute sucker for Greek mythology and am still hungover from Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles. So when I received this ARC, I was more than ready to be thrown back into a romantic retelling of age old Gods and treachery painted on a seaside backdrop. Lies we Sing to the Sea did not disappoint!

Leto is among the next twelve girls to be sacrificed by hanging at the annual ritual in Ithaca, Greece. Poseidon demands it, and has been for three centuries. But after dying, Leto wakes up. She's welcomed by Melantho, an ancient human gifted with the powers of the ocean by the water dwelling god himself. It's up to Leto and Melantho to bring an end to this curse, and save any other girl of Ithica from being needlessly sentenced to death.

Don't let the YA tag fool you; this book covers some adult topics and does not shy away from any of it.

This book caused a lot of controversy with the woke Gen Zs who believe that in order to write a fake story about fake people and fake events, you need to have read every piece of material also based on similar fake stories in a similar universe. I don't give two shits what a fiction author's read and hasn't read in their free time, and neither should anyone else.

But enough keyboard warrioring. This was very well written, easy to get into, and tugged at my heartstrings more than I'd like to admit. And honestly I'd let it destroy me all over again. 🩷🫠

Thank you so much to Harper Teen and Netgalley for letting me read an eARC of Lies We Sing to the Sea. This book seemed so interesting based on the summary, and I love the Odyssey, so I was excited to read it.
Lies We Sing to the Sea 3/5 Stars
Summary from Goodreads: Each spring, Ithaca condemns twelve maidens to the noose. This is the price vengeful Poseidon demands for the lives of Queen Penelope’s twelve maids, hanged and cast into the depths centuries ago.
But when that fate comes for Leto, death is not what she thought it would be. Instead, she wakes on a mysterious island and meets a girl with green eyes and the power to command the sea. A girl named Melantho, who says one more death can stop a thousand.
The prince of Ithaca must die—or the tides of fate will drown them all.
Sarah Underwood weaves an epic tapestry of lies, love, and tragedy, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller, Alexandra Bracken, and Renée Ahdieh.
This book could have had so much promise, but I really did not enjoy the writing style. The premise behind Lies We Sing to the Sea was a really interesting one and I think I might have really enjoyed it had the writing been stronger. I felt as though the plot was weak and the pacing was painful. I didn’t like Melantho or Leto as characters at all. Mathias was also very meh. I really liked so many of the secondary/side characters and I would have loved to get more details on what happened to the princess of Athens after Leto and Melantho took her ship, but of course we never see her again. The ending was probably my favorite part of the book. Overall, I really did not enjoy Lies We Sing to the Sea, but I wouldn’t tell you not to read it- you might really like the author’s writing style and that will definitely make all the difference!

Lies We Sing to the Sea is supposed to be a sort of retelling of the Odyssey, but as I read it the impression that I got was that it was loosely inspired by it. It also states that if you love Circe, then you'll enjoy this book which truly made me feel excited and hopeful to read this book. Unfortunately, it just wasn't doing it for me. The characters were lackluster and as the story unfolded it just left me wanting more. It was hard to stay focused on this until the end.

Lies We Sing to the Sea is a story loosely inspired by the Odyssey, although several hundred years after Odysseus's time. 12 girls are sacrificed every year to appease Poseidon after the 12 original maids that Odysseus executed. One year, an executed girl is given her life back and she seeks to kill the prince to break the curse and stop future sacrifices. I really enjoy stories based on Greek myth and was drawn in by the cover, so I was excited to read this one!

I didn't know any of the discourse about this book going into it. It's billed as a retelling of the Odyssey with a sapphic love story, which it is definitely not. As the story takes place a long time after the events of the Odyssey, so while it is set on Ithaca and some characters are very distantly related to the characters from the Odyssey, it doesn't affect the plot too much. The characters are all original and act very YA-y. If you are expecting a Circe or a Song of Achilles, this is not it.

I was having a fine time reading this book but thought it was a little boring and wondered what everyone else thought of it. And... oof. The author proclaiming that she hasn't read the whole Odyssey because it's too "prose-y" is not a good look for your "Odyssey retelling" (also, the Odyssey is an epic poem, so it's not even prose???) However, I initially thought the scathing reviews were a little harsh, even if the author comments were unfortunate.

Then I started really noticing all of the historical inconsistencies. I'm by no means an expert, but things like the names, court etiquette, sculptures, and even horse equipment did not appear to be historically accurate. And honestly, in a YA book that doesn't pretend to be super historically accurate, this wouldn't bother me much. However, if you're going to market this book on the same level as books written by actually classicists like Madeline Miller and have the author talk about all of the research that she did to make this historically accurate and then have a supposed ancient Greek character named "Mathias" and have characters curtsey, you're going to have a problem. And this book definitely did. It's almost like a modern British person wrote this after having only read Percy Jackson! Oh wait... that is exactly what happened! And no, I'm unfortunately not joking!

I thought the story and characters were fine. However, for a book that is marketed as a sapphic retelling for female queer representation in classical Greek stories, this book really focused on the straight relationship. I even think that relationship had a better arc and ending than the supposed main sapphic couple. For the author to say that she wrote this book to add queer female stories to Greek myth and then focus so heavily on the straight couple, this felt like a big misstep. Also, is the author not aware where the word lesbian and sapphic came from? Ancient Greece is not exactly known for ignoring WLW romance. HOWEVER, modern publishing definitely does, so I understand wanting to add representation to these kind of stories. BUT THEN maybe you should focus on that instead of the himbo Mathias??

So. These things are problems, but I don't think that I would have noticed this as much as I did if I hadn't read the author interviews and online discourse. As a stand alone YA book, I thought it was fine. But then.... THIS BOOK got a six figure debut publishing deal AND a movie deal??? In a time of plentiful feminist retellings of ancient Greek myth we're going with THIS ONE??? The one with adolescent angst, dumb names, just okay plot and characters, love triangle, and a total bummer ending? WHY?? I would MUCH, MUCH RATHER see a movie adaptation of pretty much any of the other retellings that I have read in the last few years. And again! If this book was just billed as a fun YA story I wouldn't really mind. But it is not! It's marketed along the lines of the Song of Achilles and as a mainly sapphic story. And that's where I think you get the disconnect from the readers. The marketing should have been different for this book and I don't think there would be *as* much discourse.

So with all of this nonsense, I can't really say that I enjoyed this book or that I recommend it. If you are a teenager looking for a good story or you are able to compartmentalize the story independent of the marketing, I would give it a try. Otherwise, read literally any other ancient Greek inspired book. 2.55 stars from me rounded up to 3. Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Pretty solid retelling and it’s really nice to actually sea sapphic representation in this genre because you rarely ever see wlw in retelling. There’s plenty of gay males in this genre but it was an awesome change of pace and very good and engaging representation. The plot can be slow at time but it makes up for that with denationalized characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. Lies We Sing to the Sea was marketed as being perfect for fans of Achilles and Circe, two of my favorite reads. Unfortunately, I found that this book, with its references to the more well known myths such as the Odyssey, fell short in a lot of ways. It was really difficult to care about the characters and I lost the plot a few times along the way. Not my favorite of the genre.

I love female-focused retellings of myths and other famous stories. Leto is a likeable girl with sprit and purpose, and I love the shifting relationships between her, Melantho, and Mathias.

Read if you like: Greek mythology retellings.
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The story focuses on the curse on Ithica that condemns twelve maidens to die each year. Leto is one of those maidens, but when she wakes up and isn't dead, she learns that she was brought back to sacrifice the Prince of Ithica in order to stop the curse. But Mathias isn't what she expected, and neither is Melantho, another maiden brought back.
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This was a great sapphic fantasy. I didn't love it as much as A Song of Achilles, but this is a good book if you like Greek mythology.

In Ithaca during the spring season, twelve maidens are condemned to the noose all because of freaking Poseidon and his vengeful demands for the lives of twelve maids that belonged to Queen Penelope. All of this of course started centuries ago. In Lies We Sing to the Sea, we meet our main character Leto and this fate is staring her in the face. She did not expect the death she was given because instead of thinking what it means to be dead, she finds herself waking up on an island and meets a girl that claims that one more death can stop thousand more. The only way is for the Prince of Ithaca to die.

The cover is really beautiful and reading this synopsis when I first learned about this book made me really want to read this. I became very excited when I saw I was approved for this arc.

I do not know much about The Odyssey and I think that impacts why I felt the way I did about this book because I could not connect with the characters and the world. I was pretty bored for the whole read. This does not harm my rating when I learned about this, but it has come to my attention that the author has not read The Odyssey and says that they got enough pieces about the original story based off books such as Percy Jackson and she even admitted that she found The Odyssey to be too prosy for her to finish. So, with all that said, I find it really odd that this author chose to write a retelling without reading the original story or doing a ton of research that does not include reading books that are woven with this story/mythology.

Okay, now moving forward to more of this review: I do feel like Sarah Underwood does well with her writing (we are not talking about how she writes her world and the retelling plot points) and I think if this was not marketed as a retelling without these elements of Greek Influence/Mythology, then this story would have worked well.

This book does not accurately represent the mythology that it was based on. Even if this is a retelling, it should still have had some sense of loyalty to the original material source. If this book had been written as an original work, maybe I would have liked it, but recycling characters from Greek mythology and disrespecting their origin is not okay.

Lies We Sing to the Sea is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story that takes place several centuries after the events of the Odyssey. Penelope's twelves maids were wrongfully hung for their so-called crimes of indecency and now a curse has lain on Ithaca for hundreds of years. Every spring, Poseidon marks twelves girls as sacrifices to appease his wrath. Leto is one such girl. But her death is not her end. Resurrected by Poseidon, she must be the one to end this awful curse. Underwood's writing is lush and atmospheric, yet sharp when it needs to be. None of the characters deserve their fates, but they are all brave in facing them. Expect your heart to be twisted in knots!

Full review to come. I wanted to love this book but there were a lot of things that personally, didn't work. I appreciate that Underwood chose this story to retell instead of going for the ubiquitous ones. The lore and background were intriguing but the characters and story seemed underdeveloped. I like how it ended but I didn't quite enjoy how we got there.