So this book isn't without controversy; the gist of the outrage was in response to the fact that the young, white, queer, autistic writer admitted in an interview last summer (22) that she had not read the full source material in writing a book inspired by a portion of the Odyssey. As a professor of literature, I do understand why this admission would be upsetting to some, seem lazy and appropriating to others and even wreak of privilege to still more. And while all of this criticism may be valid, my hackles always get a bit raised when such criticisms take such a negative tone while beginning with the caveat "I haven't read this book , but. . . ."

Let me be clear here: when books are called out for racist, sexist or homophobic content, I believe those offended regardless of what the author may have intended. I acknowledge that those voices are better situated to see what is harmful even if I don't "get it" myself, and for many reading and certainly buying such a book is indeed harmful.

However, this is not the case here. The extent to which a the story is faithful or "accurate" to the original is an issue to consider, but it is not the only issue. "Faithfulness" is often compromised in adaptation (for good or for ill) for the sake of reconfiguring the story to audiences beyond those the work was originally intended. What Underwood does here, is to imagine stories that were never written in the backstories of the heartlessly executed maids seen as polluted upon Odysseus's return--women with no voice, no power, and yet blamed for the ills of those with power, She imagines real consequences to such a heinous act that curses Ithaca for centuries to come. And she has the audacity to insert the existence of women (lesbian/bi/ and straight) in a space that was never designed for them, give them agency, and tell a story where she, and others like her, can see themselves.

In that task, Underwood succeeds in spades. As a YA fantasy there are times where the story reads young for my taste, even though the content is quite adult (as all Greek myths are). But my tastes aside, I am glad this story is in the world. And I say this after reading it.

I didn't finish this and I don't see myself trying again. It started off with an interesting beginning. Maybe it was the writing style? This just wasn't for me. I'm sorry. I'll just post the review on here and not on my main reviewing page so it doesn't get too much bad press. If I try it again, I'll go back and give it a better review that's at least more accurate since it'll be based on a full reading.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of LIES WE SING TO THE SEA by Sarah Underwood. It took me a while to really get started with this book, but I enjoyed it once I did. I thought it was a really interesting take on the Penelope/Odysseus story, and also included kind of a twist on your typical love triangle situation, mostly because of how it ultimately ended. I did find the ending to be earned and in tone with the rest of the book, and in general enjoyed myself throughout.

I took one for the team and read this eARC so you don't have to.

This is not a retelling of The Odyssey. Events that occurred at the end of The Odyssey are mentioned repeatedly, but that is all the two have in common. What it *did* feel like was direct response to Margaret Atwood's The Penleopiad to an uncanny degree. Calling this a sapphic story is disingenuous as well. The main character is romantically and sexually involved with male and female characters. Bi erasure makes me angry and sad.

On to the writing. There was nothing inherently Greek feeling in this story except for the proper nouns. I thought to myself many times that if you changed this names of people, places, things to typical fantasy genre names no one would notice. The book might have felt stronger from one narrative point of view vs three point of view characters. Individually the characters were not written with enough characterization and depth to support their own chapters.

The world building and lore were done at the shallowest levels. What was suppose to be the big twists towards the end of the book fell flat because the world and lore weren't there for the twists to have any impact. After 50,% I found myself skipping pages to get past filler plot and to the end already.


For reference https://bit.ly/3XNEcIF

***Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Books/HarperTeen Books for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. ***

Special thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for an Advanced Reader's Copy of this book. I love a good mythology retelling, especially a sapphic one, but this one just didn't land right for me.

When I requested this book on Netgalley, I didn’t know that there was any sort of controversy about the author. I just thought the synopsis sounded interesting, and, well, I love a mythology retelling. Then I went looking on Goodreads for other reviews — I usually do this before diving into an ARC. I don’t really read any of the reviews in detail, but I do check out the star ratings. It’s been a good factor for seeing what I’m getting into — if most people rate it around 3 stars, well, then it’s probably a mediocre book. You see what I mean? Well, when I went to look up Lies We Sing to the Sea, I saw that it had been rated many, many times as 1 star. That’s when I started reading some of the reviews a little more in depth.

Apparently, Sarah Underwood — the author — has never read The Odyssey, yet here she is writing a ‘retelling’ of the same myth. Now — color me confused. How can anyone write a retelling without reading the original myth? That makes absolutely zero sense. She cites such sources as Percy Jackson and other modern retellings as how she’s gotten the story. But uh…I’m going to be truthful with you here — I don’t think I would have requested Lies We Sing to the Sea if I had known this about the author. All of this is really a moot point, because when you get right down to it — Lies We Sing to the Sea is not a retelling of The Odyssey. It takes minor characters from the original myth and weaves a whole story out of them. Odysseus himself is maybe mentioned once or twice but that’s it.

So really, I guess I’m saying is that the fact that Sarah Underwood hasn’t read The Odyssey really isn’t that big of a deal. The story she creates here is a heartbreaking one, but one that was told really well. It doesn’t stand up to other stories that it will be compared to, namely Song of Achilles, but it definitely is inspired by such books. Like without a doubt Sarah wanted to tell a similar story. So yes, for those of you that want to know, Lies We Sing to the Sea has a tragic ending. It is a sapphic love story that does not end well. Is that spoiling things? I don’t think so, because this is written in the manner of Greek Tragedies so anyone expecting a happy ending should really know better. Either way, the story was told well, but I did miss the atmospheric, poetic descriptions of Madeline Miller. Lies We Sing to the Sea is told much more simply — possibly because this is, in fact, a YA novel?

Who knows.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book, but I can’t see myself picking it up again. I’m not really one for tragic endings, despite loving Greek myths. What it really boils down to is that if you like Greek myths, and know what to expect from them, then well, you’ll probably enjoy this.

This Greek Retelling was absolutely beautifully done. The writing was almost lyrical and it weaved a tale that I couldn't put down. I adored this.
I just reviewed Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood. #LiesWeSingtotheSea #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

When I added this book to my "currently reading" shelf on Goodreads, I noticed that it had a pretty low rating. So, I did the smallest amount of digging (aka reading critical reviews) and I found that the author committed the clearly capital crime of daring to write about the Odyssey without reading it. ThE hOrROr. I thought maybe she had written something racist/sexist/bigoted, but nope, she wrote a pretty good book using a character, setting and plot point from the Odyssey without having read the source material. And while, yeah, I think she probably should've read at least that part of the Odyssey (the Penelope parts), it's not like I'm the gatekeeper of Greek mythology and neither is anyone else (insert Cerberus joke here). So like, chill. If you judge this book without reading it (as many folks on Goodreads have), the hypocrisy of that act is pretty stunning. As someone who has read this book (and the Odyssey, natch), I'm here to report that it's a perfectly fine book!

So ANYWAY the book follows two sirens as they try to break a curse that results in the death of 12 women by hanging every year. In order to break the curse, they must kill the prince of Ithaca. The book more or less follows them as they try to do that thing. Our main characters get a lot of development, the book is fairly quickly paced (minus a few sections that dragged), it's delightfully queer, and yeah, the Greek mythology inspirations are a lot of fun to read if you are into that sort of thing, as I am. Hand it to teens who love mythologically inspired reads and are in-between Percy Jackson and Madeline Miller in terms of maturity (it is quite dark). 3 stars - I liked it.

A bit of a frustrating look at Greek mythos. From an author who, I feel, after reading prior interviews with, fundamentally does not understand Greek culture or history well, this seems like a flashy, mediocre--at best--written YA novel that does not bring anything new to what is already out there. Being Greek myself, I am inherently wary of how my culture is depicted--being ill-researched at best, offensive at worse. This book somehow manages to achieve both those things, from the distortion of the original myth itself to bend to the author's personal wants, to the lack of well thought out Grecian worldbuilding to inspire a setting that felt authentic. There is a clear lack of research--and because of that, respect for my culture--in this work.

I strongly advise the publisher to take a good look at who they're signing to write about Greek myths.

If the plot, prose, or character development had been stellar, or even good, then I would let it slide. But it was passable at best, with prose that tried too hard to be memorable and came across as frustratingly juvenile and like it was trying too hard to be lyrical. This is not CIRCE for a YA audience, or even in the same wheelhouse.

I am glad for the queer representation, but that does not--even slightly--off-set the fundamental flaws of this work.

This book was amazing. Although it was a Greek mythology book, and had the ancient setting and everything, it was still very much a new story, and felt fresh. The writing was absolutely beautiful, and the characters were incredibly dynamic, so I could empathize with pretty much every single character.

A bittersweet, moving story that never went where I expected. Please note that this is not a retelling of the Odyssey or any other known story, but very loosely takes a minor character and spins out her story several centuries in the future and is otherwise completely unrelated. As someone who's read the Odyssey and also modern takes like Circe, I enjoyed this book more than I honestly expected to, and don't think it suffers from the author not having read the Odyssey. The characters and mythology of the book are fresh and intriguing, and readers also don't need to have read the Odyssey to appreciate it.

One curse, two girls, one prince.

Lies We Sing to the Sea takes place on the ancient island of Ithaca, where a horrible curse beset by Poseidon requires that the island sacrifice 12 maidens to him every year.

Leto is touched with Poseidon's curse, and sentenced to death while the prince of Ithaca looks on. After her death, she finds herself on an unknown island--is she dead? Transformed? A monster?

There she meets Melantho, her guide, friend, and lover. Together, Leto learns what needs to be done to free Ithaca from the curse so no more maidens have to die.

Together with Melantho they infiltrate the palace. However, the fates have a different journey than what they both expected, and the secrets that are revealed have a price.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but I gave it three stars because it really lagged for me in the middle. I had a hard time pushing through to get to the end, which was good.

I also loved the LGBTQIA+ representation in this book and think readers will enjoy that aspect. The characters are flawed but relatable, and the storyline is compelling.

2.5/5 stars. To be released March 2023.

There’s a lot going on here. First, there is the controversy of the author/publisher saying they hadn’t read The Odyssey. I tried to ignore that bit and read it unbiased, but in truth The Odyssey plays a pretty big role in establishing the entire plot of the book.

Moving past that, my interest in the storyline and characters went back and forth. Sometimes it was super interesting and other times it felt drawn out and monotonous. I felt like a good 20% could have been cut out and it would have been more enjoyable. Some of the writing had the witty vibes of Little Thieves, which was fun, but it wasn’t consistent throughout the book.

Overall, this book fell short for me. Certain scenes were super cool and had potential for the makings of a good book, but when put all together the characters and drawn out plot didn’t mesh for me.

Apparently this book is controversial? I guess, I don't know, nobody tells me these things. I think we have established now that this is not an Odyssey retelling, which seems to be where the issues take root. I wouldn't say that Greek mythology is one of my niche interests or something that I am particularly knowledgeable about so my review is based on the book itself and not any social influences or opinions on the author.

SO, solid 3.5 stars - if you really love Greek inspired stories I think the book is objectively enjoyable. It had it's lyrical moments, its tragic moments, and it did indeed have lesbians which I feel like was one of its main selling points. The stakes are rather high as we casually plot a murder to prevent the sacrifice of 12 innocent girls, yet this not a book where you're on the edge of your seat with a sense of urgency or excitement. Maybe this is on par with Greek inspired stories as I held the same opinion on The Song of Achilles (to a lesser degree). I think this has more to do with genre/ style preference than any fault with the book itself, so I think a lot of people would have no problem with this at all. But for me, it was missing that "books that live in your head and you can't think about anything else" factor. I think the author could have thrown in some more interesting subplots to take up the middle of the book where we were just kinda waiting for someone to kill the guy. As it was, most of the plot and revelations were very predictable so I think there may have been room for something thrown in there. The dialogue also read really modern to me which is probably for the benefit of younger readers (you won't need to have a dictionary on hand or need to re-read a sentence to grasp meaning). I enjoyed the characters as individuals but I wasn't enraptured by the dynamic or the romance sadly:(

"Was it love or were they just lonely and trapped together on a deserted island for an extended period of time?"~ vibes... And apparently I have a pet-peeve about bisexual love triangles which has just recently come to my attention, because for some reason it feels even more disrespectful. Melantho deserved better <3

When I finished it I was intending to give it 4 stars as the writing is pretty and the plot was interesting enough and unique even though the pacing didn't really grip me. But upon getting ready to write the review I had a really hard time finding things that really stuck out to me to talk about. The ending was tragically beautiful, and I think there were some really gorgeous moments throughout the story, so if this is your type of story then I would say it's worth a read.

** Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc***

A legendary YA debut. This dazzling sapphic fantasy inspired by Greek mythology will captivate fans of Circe and The Song of Achilles.

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.

I hate to see this but I was so disappointed in it ! It was super slow and I didn’t enjoy my time reading it as I wanted

I can't say enough about how much I love this cover and I will admit that I picked this book for its cover. This LGBT young adult retelling was hard to put down from the start with the book dragging the reader in with in the first few chapters. The characters were well written and interesting. The atmosphere was a bit off but is really the only issue I had with this book.

I requested ‘Lies We Sing to the Sea’ by Sarah Underwood from ‘NetGalley’ & ‘HarperCollins Children's Books, HarperTeen’ as a digital ARC. I grew up hearing of the Gods and the heroes that once roamed Earth, and being taught the origins of the stars, and our world, so I am always excited for, and devour any new book about the Gods, and heroes. The premise sounded intriguing, and like most Greek stories there is always a price to pay for dishonoring the Gods, and and in ‘Lies We Sing to the Sea’ this price was the death of twelve maidens each year… and this sounded absolutely fascinating - reading about the wrath and punishment from the Gods is always an ingredient for an engaging read.

Unfortunately for ‘Lies’ the ‘Dear Reader’ blurb at the beginning really skewed how I read this. All of the sources cited as inspiration are all retellings that already had liberties taken, and even ‘Lies’ is supposedly a retelling "with a large number of creative liberties" that have caused ‘The Odyssey’ to be almost completely lost to me. I took issue with the original stories of the Gods being described as “sanitized” and “child friendly” - these are the very ways I learned about respect for others as a child, and had the concept of ‘consent’ vs. ‘no-consent’ explained to me.

Another issue was Melantho who is in the author’s words “vilified” - which isn't entirely true... was she painted in a positive light - 'no'. Towards the end of ‘The Odyssey’ Melantho called Odysseus (when he was disguised) a “wretched stranger” and “crack-brained fellow” and ended with a threat that someone would “rise up against thee to beat thee about the head with heavy hands, and befoul thee with streams of blood, and send thee forth from the house” (Murray, A.T, 1919) The maid isn't being singled out due to her sex, since we've already seen the consequences/curse of too much hubris with Odysseus, and the outcome of the suitors (many of which were named) for their destruction of Odysseus' home, and as Odysseus says the suitors "raped my maids" and "wooed my wife on the sly though I was alive" (Rieu, E.V, 1946). Melantho is not being targeted by storytellers, but rather we're seeing a much bigger picture of the consequences of disrespect here.

The only thing I felt was solidly concrete and true to 'The Odyssey' was the few mentions of the journey Odysseus was on, the hint at the suitors of Penelope, and the death of Penelope's maid at the end.. This would have done well as being its own new myth, or even turned into a modern retelling.

I believe students that enjoy ‘Percy Jackson’ and YA retellings of Greek myths would appreciate this - but as someone who went into this expecting more - I was severely disappointed. Was it beautifully written - ‘yes’, but please don’t market this as a retelling of something that hasn’t even been read fully, and just selectively picked over (source: article of interview by Zanna Buckland).

2/5

As a fan of The Odyssey and mythological retellings, I was excited to read this book, and there were a few things I liked. The writing is lyrical and includes some really lovely prose, and the premise is intriguing. I also like that the story focuses on some of the lesser-known characters in The Odyssey. It’s always intriguing to get a fresh perspective on a classic story. However, you shouldn’t go into the book expecting a retelling of The Odyssey like I did. It is definitely not that, though it is inspired by the epic piece. (Also, how are you “inspired” by The Odyssey if you’ve never read it? I don’t understand this.)

As much as I wanted to love the characters, they fell flat for me. I felt most were underdeveloped, and I never really became invested in their journeys. Some of Leto’s actions were so immature, and her conflicting emotions irritated me. The story also included tropes that I don’t enjoy, especially the love triangle, and the pacing was very slow at many points of the story. The book might appeal to some readers, but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.

When I first read that this was a vengeance story based around the maids of the Odyssey I was stoked. Take into account all the options of Greek Mythology for all that could be played with, the possibilities seem limitless.

I really enjoyed the first couple chapters of the book. It was atmospheric and well written. You get a good feel for the characters (made up cast included) and what you expect the overall tone to take.
There was a lot of promise for this story when you first read the synopsis. While you do get some of that, I think this needs a bit of redirection. The more of the story you read the more the writing seems to fall apart or feel more juvenile in tone. Something about it just seemed off. After some digging about the creative process of the story, I discovered an article where the author stated they had not actually read the inspiring story but took bits and pieces that interested them of it and worked in into the narrative. Unfortunately, it shows. If you look it as a (very) loosely inspired by as opposed to a retelling you may find more appreciation for the book.

Discussing characters:
Melantho is clearly set up to be a broken character given her story line. She’s probably the most consistent character in the whole book.
Leto changes the most. She starts off quite spunky and by the time we hit the final act her behavior rather swings all over the place. It makes it hard to take her vengeance seriously. I get why she does what she does, but there are other thing (relationships) going on at the same time that make the inconsistencies that much more in your face.
Mathias I actually didn't mind for the most part. He had a lot of growth throughout the book even if he did come across a bit “woe-is-me” at times.

This had so much promise to be a striking story set in this time frame. With some tweaking the author could have pulled the Odyssey aspect of the story completely out and made their own swing at an original mythological style story. While the writing did kind of fall apart at the end there are some lyrical bits to be found.
For a debut brought about from pandemic boredom there is some promise there. I reiterate, it needs some tweaking.


***spoilers***

The love triangle/square arc between Melantho and Leto, Leto-Mathias, Mathias-Olympia was an absolute mess. Olympia is obsessed with a rather clueless Mathias. Melantho and Leto kindle a romance right before the ploy to seduce Mathias comes along. Only Mathias and Leto start to get cozy while Leto and Melantho are still fooling around together. It’s sloppy. There’s nothing else to say for it.

There are many convenient devices that move the plot along. The visions, the burning boat, the raft that magically allows Melantho to escape the island that she’s been trapped on for three centuries, interactions with other characters where someone is suddenly able to perform an action (or forget they fought more then once, chased down and hung a character that just happens to be waltzing through the palace halls again a short time later).

There are other issues brought about from the previously mentioned interview but they have little bearing on the present story. The author clearly has an appreciation for the subject matter but perhaps not the depth of scope into the culture of the time itself.
EARC kindly provided by NetGalley and HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.