The writing style and narrative voice alone has me enthralled, and I thought it an accomplished debut. As I've said before, they felt a bit expected, sometimes making me groan and roll my eye, other facepalming myself.

I absolutely loved Melantho’s story and how she fell in love with Leto, who was one of the twelve maidens sacrificed to Poseidon by Prince Mathias of Ithaca. please, don't be put off by the comments here from people who haven't read the book and clearly know nothing of what it's about. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. I always love a Greek retelling, and I liked that this was something a bit different - it was less a retelling, more a loosely linked sequel, taking a small feature from the very end of the Odyssey and turning it into a story of its own.

It takes the story of the murder of Penelope’s 12 maids and creates a captivating and unique story-. LIES WE SING TO THE SEA is a furiously stunning story of staring down the consequences of love that is chosen, and daring to leap in anyways. The book seems to go nowhere for most part of it, picking itself up only at the very end, but, for me, it's not enough to like it. just, in general, I don’t think the solution to “this ancient myth doesn’t have enough good portrayals of women” is “change the myth to be WOKE and GOOD,” I think it’s “focus more on myths centred around women,” which.

My last edits probably weren’t that good, but I got to the deadline and thought ‘well, these are done’ and handed them in. It takes ideas from Greek mythology, concepts that are common all over the place, and plays with them. 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 in this century, can see themselves.It is never explained exactly how the marked girls are found and located and it explicitly states they can come from all across the Island. They’re not necessarily the best books I’ve ever read, but I read them when they were pivotal to me. She’s also often portrayed as blameless when it comes to the maids, and I think, ‘if she’s really that clever and manipulative, could she not have found a way out?

Underwood expertly weaves a tale about the inevitability of fate—and the love that makes us rail against it anyway. Wasn't expecting, it was truly refreshing to see something other than a and they lived happily ever after. It's a sequel slash spinoff that could honestly be set in an entirely different universe and it would make no difference, which is why I won't touch the "she didn't read the Odyssey" thing.My interest has recently been piqued by Greek mythology and my eye was drawn to the beautiful cover of Lies We Sing to the Sea, which is inspired by Penelope’s 12 maids as told in The Odyssey. At the end she said she loves both of them and I didn't know what to think of it, was it a love triangle of some kind? Or, Melantho is trapped on an island for three centuries and just as Leto built a raft she's able to escape from Poseidon's eye.

And it wasn't even bending history for story purposes- the coffee appears in a comparison for dark brown, which was wholly unneeded. We had a historical inaccuracy counter going on, and it included insanely obvious things like coffee, ouzo, and photo realistic portraits. Underwood expertly weaves a tale about the inevitability of fate--and the love that makes us rail against it anyway.Would it have killed the author to make sure Melantho is aware of what is happening between Mathias and Leto? A reclamation of a story from thousands of years ago, Lies We Sing to the Sea is about love and fate, grief and sacrifice, and, ultimately, the power we must find within. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. the audacity of this British bitch to get a six-figure advance for a “retelling” of a book she HASN’T EVEN READ.