Sarah Underwood, Lies We Sing to the Sea, HarperCollins Publishers, April 2023, 496 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780008518080
On the small island of Ithaca, each year spring heralds replenishment, hope, and the hanging of twelve young women. Sacrifices to the unforgiving Poseidon. For seventeen years Leto has escaped the curse’s mark. Until now.
Mathias is heir to a dying kingdom. Year after year he vows to find a way to break the ancient curse that is slowly drowning his kingdom. Year after year Mathias averts his gaze as he condemns twelve of Ithaca’s daughters to a watery grave. But this year one girl glares back at him with fierce rage burning in her eyes as she is adorned with a necklace of rope. A look he will be hard-pressed to forget.
But Leto doesn’t die. Instead, she awakens washed up on the mysterious island of Pandou, whose sole inhabitant is the beautiful immortal Melantho. But Leto isn’t the same girl she once was. Like Melantho, she’s Poseidon’s creature now, with the power to control the sea should she learn to harness it. Melantho explains that Leto has a final opportunity to break the curse and save thousands of innocent lives. All she must do is kill the Prince of Ithaca.
A love story steeped in mythology, Leto faces a terrible decision between those she loves and the many she must save. Melantho is haunted by her history, no longer able to hide from her past trauma and guilt. Mathias is torn between duty, his mother’s unreachable expectations, and what he believes is right. Exploring the concepts of love, choice, fate, trauma and power, each character must learn to forgive themselves if they ever hope to be at peace.
A seductive story of empowerment and injustice in a world played upon by meddling gods and flawed mortals. If you think you’d enjoy a fiery, yet fun Greek Mythology inspired sapphic YA fantasy romance, Lies We Sing to the Sea may be just the book for you.
Reviewed by Libby Boas
