About a month ago I received Lost Voices from Netgalleys. It's a book about mermaids and I've always really liked mermaids in all of their forms--from Harry Potter creepy mermaids to Disney Princess versions. (In high school I tried to write a mermaid story--so goes my deep love of the creature)
But this version, vindictive and shallow, just didn't work for me. And I know the mermaids in Harry Potter were pretty evil but that was different. The Mermaids in Lost Voices started out as humans. Maybe that's why the characters were so unbelievable. They lacked all humanity and kindness.
Lost Voices starts out excellent. The first chapter is very cinematic, slowly building tension (and my curiosity). Then horrible horrible things happen to Luce. And rather than just die she becomes a mermaid. Apparently this happens to a lot of girls who are mistreated and abused.
Rather than deal with human issues related to recovering from abuse and discovering self worth this is where the story stops. There is no real plot. They play around being mermaids for while and sinking ships for kicks and giggles. (Yes really, that's what they do for fun. Killing innocent people).
Any attempt at a plot is shallow. To me it reads like Sarah Porter had an excellent idea for a world, a new concept of mermaids but no real story. The characters are undeveloped and any attempt at development is a sad caricature. None of the characters are very likable or believable and it's hard to follow any story without a relatable character.
The saddest part about this book is that I fully believe Sarah Porter can write. Her opening was excellent. But either she didn't take the time to develop the story or didn't have anywhere to go.
And I really hate giving books bad reviews and I feel like I've done a lot of that lately. Please believe there are books that I really like. I'll try to find something excellent to review next.
PS I'm going to add as an attempt to be more positive: I think the cover is very pretty. I like the colors, design and font choice.
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