Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood tells the story of a young oracle named Leto. The novel opens with a reference to the scene from The Odyssey when Penelope’s twelve maids are tragically executed as collateral damage when Odysseus returns home from his journey. Now, generations later, Poseidon casts a ring of scales around the necks of twelve girls from Ithaca every spring. This year, Leto, and eleven other unlucky girls, are to be hanged and deposited into the ocean to keep their land from being destroyed by the god of the sea. Although nothing can save Leto from her fate, she magically survives her ordeal and finds herself transformed on a secret island where she meets a being named Melantho who teaches her to command the power of water and explains that the curse of Ithaca can only be stopped by the death of the prince.

Although this book is marketed in the tradition of Madeline Miller’s Circe, it is very different from retellings of mythology which alter readers’ perceptions by giving voice to characters often unexplored by ancient poets. Underwood is not attempting to retell mythology, but she is asking her readers to consider a key unexplored act of gendered violence from The Odyssey and to contemplate the outcome of it generations later. Beneath the coming of age plot and the sapphic romance aimed at her young adult audience, Underwood explores themes about loss and grief and offers a commentary on how sins against women can reverberate through the ages. Audiences will be drawn in by the characters who are all trying to navigate circumstances thrust upon them by the barbaric actions of Odysseus and the men from The Odyssey.

Underwood does manage to spin an engaging story that casts light on the silenced women of The Odyssey, but her book falls short of transforming the content of her source material. Her characters (Leto, Selene, Hekate) are not the characters readers may know from their own study of Greek mythology, and her plot lacks convincing details about the daily life and customs in Ancient Greece. Nevertheless, Underwood provides an interesting story with a heart-breaking quality that will force readers to think about inter-generational trauma and its lasting effects. Lies We Sing to the Sea is a gripping tale for those who love Young Adult fantasy fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

This book is beautiful and heart wrenching. The plot was compelling and well psced. The characters were unique and likable. The writing was beautiful and had the ease of reading YA without being too young or "tropey."
If you like mythology retellings and books that will rip your heart out, I would absolutely recommend this.

Exquisitely written and achingly beautiful. I loved the different POV and alternating voices. I am surprised to learn this is a debut novel. The maturity of voice is so well wrought that I find it hard to see how this could be Sarah Underwood's first foray. I look forward to many more books by this author.

I loveeed this book!I was so taken by the strong proes and especially the setting. I’ve always been a huge fan of The Odyssey, I found Leto's tail to be so harrowing. Leto was such an awe-inspiring lead, and I savored every visceral moment we got to see her on the page. I will be recommending this book to all of my friends. I am so excited for the movie.

So after I bought this book I saw the author got a lot of heat for admitting she never actually read The Odyssey. The cringe-worthiness of that aside, I thought this was a very emotional and gripping imagining of what becomes of Penelope's twelve maids and how the curse of Ithaca comes to be broken.

Leto is one of the twelve women marked for sacrifice to Poseidon during an annual ritual that is supposed to save Ithaca from being destroyed by the sea god. Instead of dying, she is reborn with water-based powers and a new mission -- to return to Ithaca and kill the price in a sea-death before the next ritual can occur.

Sucks for Leto that the prince actually happens to be a pretty decent guy who feels his own type of way about the sacrifices and has been trying (half-heartedly, but still) on his own to find a way to stop the cycle.

She returns to Ithaca with her guide, Melantho, who has her own ties to the origins of the curse and knows that Leto is the last chance of breaking it. In the midst of their mission, the two develop deep feelings for one another that may change the entire fated course of events.

This book sucked me in and the last one hundred pages packed an emotional punch. Excited to see more from this author (and hope that if she continues to do novels "inspired by" Greek mythology she will pay proper homage to the original texts -- starting by reading them at the bare minimum!)

I got this book after hearing it was a sapphic retelling and wanted very much to love it. However, I couldn’t completely finish when I learned the author had not read the Odyssey and it was clear in the text that she had holes in the story.

I absolutely adored this book and can’t wait to share it in recommendation videos! It is such a great sapphic Greek mythology retelling! Can’t WAIT for more movie news! I definitely regret finishing it on the train because it was very hard to hold back tears. 🙌🏻

1/5 Stars (DNF @ 43%)

TL;DR - Why read a book about Ancient Greece when you could just emulate the author and make shit up as you go? This book has no redeeming qualities, the characters are boring, the plot is nonsensical, and there are so many factual and historical inaccuracies that make it abundantly clear the author read a Greek mythology retelling and thought, “I, who know nothing about Ancient Greece and never read the Illiad or Odyssey, can definitely do this, too”. No ma’am, no you cannot, and the world is poorer for it.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children’s Books/HarperTeen and NetGalley for providing an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

‘Lies We Sing To The Sea’ by Sarah Underwood is a tale “inspired by” Greek mythology. I say inspired, because I believe there was no research done beyond a few skimmed Wikipedia articles and “Greek god aesthetic” typed into Pinterest, and I will not be convinced otherwise. This book follows Leto, a 17 year old girl from Ithaca who is sentenced to die to appease Poseidon for the murders of Queen Penelope’s maids centuries before. She washes up on an island and meets Melantho, and the two hatch a plan to make sure no more girls have to die.

Sweet gods, where to even begin.

This book feels like it was written as a medieval fantasy and then a few bits were shuffled around to make it “Ancient Greece” right before seeking publication. Listen, I’m not a scholar on Ancient Greece, but I’ve read my fair share of real-life and semi-mythical accounts (Herodotus, Homer, etc), and I had to stop so many times while reading this book to Google “did the ancient Greeks do XYZ” or “history of XYZ in ancient Greece”, and I got more and more bitter as each answer came back as, no, no they did not do this or have that. There are just so many blatant historical inaccuracies that I could barely go 2 pages, if that, without having to look something up because I was damn sure it was just plain wrong - and 95% of the time, I was correct. It got to the point where I was just constantly setting down my Kindle to look up answers. Now, this might not bother most people like it does me, but if the book is about a real life culture, I want things to be historically accurate - this book, in way too many respects, is not. At 8% in, I was already tired of the countless diversions, so I just had to browbeat myself into not caring so that I could just read. Not a strong start.

A lot of this book feels downright derivative. There’s a dude named Alexios and I just…did the author play Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and decide to write a book? Maybe it’s a common ancient Greek name, but sheesh, makes me wonder. There are several other names that happen to also be prominent in AC:O and I am side-eyeing the author HARD. And then there’s the hidden island with a barrier that makes it invisible to the outside world, where not even storms can get through the protective barrier - uh, Wonder Woman, anyone?

In that vein, the character naming is laughably uninspired. Leto, Selene, Hekate. From what I can gather from my limited Google searching, the ancient Greeks wouldn’t have named their children the *exact* names of gods/goddesses, but instead modified them to pay homage, as directly naming them would be disrespectful and hubristic and potentially incur the wrath of the gods themselves - and even if I missed the evidence in my search, it would still be egregiously uncreative.

The characters are boring and shallow at best, downright moronic at worst. I have no reason to care about Leto. She angrily stares the prince in the face as he wrongly condemns her to die, and that’s the last we really see of a personality except that she’s really mad and impatient at some points and made of wood every other time. Melantho is…sad? And that’s it. Mathias is weirdly passive and honestly pathetic, with no reason for me to even consider caring about him.

The plot is paper-thin and, more often than not, straight up contrived nonsense. I was yelling at my Kindle over and over because that’s not how that works or that’s completely unrealistic. The plot is shallow (and that’s being generous) when its there, or it’s told to us after the fact because the author skips over most things. So many important moments happen off-page. Why show important scenes and develop the plot and characters when you could just end the chapter for the sake of a stupid, trite opener to the next chapter? Why show Leto learning about her new powers when you could just give us a two paragraph training montage and have her master them? Why develop the relationship between Leto and Melantho when you could just timeskip over several months and have them go from strangers to friends to wanting to bang in the span of...a page?

The author tries to sprinkle in little bits of exposition here and there (when she’s not beating us over the head with it blatantly), mostly character backstory, but it’s only ever the tiniest bit - a few words at the end of a paragraph, and then we don’t hear about it again. There’s not enough context given, so it sometimes comes off as nonsensical statements that only confuse instead of heighten mystery and anticipation of finding out more. It feels like the author is just popping in and shouting “INTRIGUE!” before disappearing, or that she’s that one annoying kid in class who tells you “I know something you don’t know!” just to make you feel like they’re smarter than you, when they don’t and they’re not.

And just to top this all off, the dialog is way too modern and littered with anachronisms: “dear me”, “darling”, “sweetheart”, “spoiled brat”, calling royalty “your grace”. Again, this makes me think the author reads a lot of medieval fantasy (or watches too much GoT) and doesn’t know that all that stuff doesn’t actually translate into Ancient Greece. Or doesn't, and doesn't realize people didn't talk this way in the past. 50/50 chance.

I started skimming at 40%, and then finally DNF’d at 43% because I knew it wasn’t going to get better. So much nothing and yet so many blatant inaccuracies. It’s abundantly clear that the author didn’t read a lick of Homer and just vomited up this sorry excuse for a book in a week and called it good. No ma’am.

Final Thoughts:

I struggle to even call this “inspired by” Greek mythology. You can’t just take people who are actually mentioned in the Odyssey and then proceed to completely disregard that source material for “vibes” or whatever. You can’t take an integral part of Greek history and culture and divorce it from its roots to tell a shallow, anachronistic “love story” because you read some Madeline Miller and thought it sounded cool. No, no, no.

I would give this book 0 stars if I could because it’s poorly written, poorly conceptualized, and it’s an insult to Greek culture and mythology. It’s an insult to my intelligence as a reader, it’s a big fat middle finger to the concept of a story as a whole, and it was genuinely painful to read.

This was marketed as a retelling of the Odyssey which is at the root of many of its problems. It is not. It is more in line as having received inspiration from the Odyssey and general Greek mythology. Mythology is a fickle thing because there are so many versions of a story, but it is important to see how they are in conversation with each other. That does require reading the material.

Moving beyond how this book was marketed and certain facts about what the author has and has not read, this book had good bones. It was fun. I appreciated the sapphic centering. I enjoyed learning more about Underwood's imagined lore. I wanted Leto and Melantho to succeed.

I'm hopeful that if Underwood were to publish another mythology inspired tale, they would do their due diligence.

thank you to netgalley and harpercollins children’s books for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review :)

ok yall the prose in this book was stunning!! there were so many lines that just took my breath away. sarah underwood has a real talent and this is only her debut. i’m so so excited to see what comes next!!

this was quite a ride when reading and though not every moment was a hit for me the overarching plot kept me going. all three pov characters were great and i enjoyed their journeys from start to finish. the fantasy/world building elements were very good imo, so each time i picked it up i was in the world instantly. overall, this was an amazing ya fantasy debut!!

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, and HarperTeen for allowing me to read this book!!!

Lies We Sing to the Sea was originally marketed to me as a sapphic retelling of The Odyssey, which it is not a retelling. In my opinion I think calling it a retelling does the book quite a disservice. Maybe reimagining? But even then book's content is original and diverts from a lot of understandings on greek mythology and culture. I think if you go in expecting a strong connection to mythology you are setting yourself up for disappointment. With that being said Lies We Sing to the Sea is wonderful on its own accord. I did think some parts of the book were slow and wish it had consistent pacing. I loved the realationship dynamics between the characaters. Overall, I do think it is worth checking out.

* ARC courtesy of NetGalley - thank you for the opportunity to give my honest opinion! *

As a lover of mythology, I was hesitant to read this book after seeing the author admit she didn’t finish the original myth. There is a lot of discourse over the “cherry-picking” she did and how it negatively affects an entire culture of people. Equating historic tales to the Percy Jackson series felt hollow, and I was concerned about this “retelling”.

All that aside, I actually did enjoy this book for what it was. There were times where the characters felt as though they could have been fleshed out more to add much-needed weight to the story, but it was an easy read that didn’t feel like a chore to decipher. I definitely would not consider it a retelling, as many creative liberties were taken, it’s set far after the Odyssey, and it feels more historical than “mythos” - there’s aspects of the gods, but no actual, physical representation of them.

Matthias was one of my favorite characters. I enjoyed the sapphic/bisexual representation, and there were several beautifully articulated moments alongside heartbreaking angst (my personal favorite flavor of pain).

Lies We Sing to the Sea shimmers and slowly pulls you into its tides until you forget to resurface.

I actually really enjoyed this tragically beautiful story. This is based on a partial fragment of the Odyssey, with Penelope’s hanged maids, but generations later. I personally really enjoyed the way Underwood wove in elements of the Odyssey, but ensured that this is a fresh and new tale. It asks heavy questions about fate, agency and the cost of survival. The central question is one that sat with me for a long time, bolstered by Underwood’s incredible exploration of grief and vengeance. Rage here is an all-consuming force if you will let it. When you are utterly backed into a corner, what would you do?

Having read and studied the Odyssey intensely, the story of Penelope’s maids always sickened me. These are women in desperate situations without power or privilege to protect them, yet they are punished for the actions of men. Underwood gives them their voices back in a creative and imaginative way that I adored. It felt like a wonderful companion to The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, which explores similar themes and ways of reconstructing the tale. Ultimately though, I fell in love with this book through the character work. These are fierce, fragile and fundamentally flawed characters. They are so three-dimensional and complex, making me love and hate them in equal measure. Through their narrative voices, you really get to dig into their individual motivations and get a sense of the trauma that has shaped them into the people you see now. For me, the characters sparkled and made me fall in love with them, only to cleave my heart in two. Underwood does not play around with the intensity and high stakes, ensuring all actions have consequences.

Lies We Sing to the Sea demonstrates an exciting new voice in YA who will snap your soul in two.

This book was ultimately not for me. Although there were many references to Greek myths and Rick Riordan’s writing, this book was not written in the style of either of those things. The pacing was much slower, the action was sprinkled in rather than a main focus, and there were no big plot twists. The story was very slow paced and character driven, in a way that reminded me of Six of Crows based on how much time was spent getting to know the characters.

Ultimately, I would recommend this to people who are looking to read a very slow, atmospheric, wet, dark, and character driven YA Greek tragedy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc!

Thank you Harper Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for this book!

While I do agree with the consensus that more care should have been taken with this retelling I did really enjoy it! I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting a tragedy going in but as the story unfolded it became very clear the direction in which it was headed. I loved Leto, Melantho, and Matthias! Each of them were complex and had a very clear voice which is super important to me when it comes to stories told from multiple POVs. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of YA fantasy and mythology.

Lies We Sing To The Sea
⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was my first YA book I’ve read in a while! Lies We Sing To The Sea is a YA sapphic Greek mythology retelling. Our main character, Leto, is set to stop the curse of Ithaca that is set by Poseidon where 12 girls must be hung each year. This story was filled with adventure from start to finish!

🌊the one thing I love about Greek mythology retellings is reading different perspectives on characters that I’ve read in other retellings
🌊this book continuously had me wondering “how is this all going to end up?” It was satisfying when all the puzzle pieces started to fit together
🌊although YA brought more of a closed door romance, you could still feel the chemistry between the characters. Along with that, I loved the banter between the characters.
🌊this book represented heartbreak, and the battles people will face for their loved ones.

If you’re eager to hear this author’s story of Poseidon’s curse on Ithaca, this book is released and ready to read!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollin’s Children’s books for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow. What a stunning debut! This is a title I have been excited for forever! I knew when I saw that gorgeous cover that I had to have this book. It truly did not disappoint. The read was smooth, though long in parts, I didn't mind as I was incredibly taken with Leto's story. So excited to see what happens in the future of the series!

A wonderful twist on classic Greek mythological tales. With exciting twists and turns, this is perfect for the Greek mythology fans in your life.

A lush, gripping feminist retelling of The Odyssey—original, vivid, and a fresh take on ancient mythology.

Thank you net galley for the advanced reading copy of lies we sing to the sea by Sarah underwood. I love Greek mythology retelling so I was very hopeful for this one. I felt that it really didn’t draw me in as much as I’d hoped. It wasn’t bad but I didn’t love it. Although the cover is beautiful.