Book type: novel Author: Sarah Porter Pages: 291 Summary(goodreads.com): Fourteen-year-old Luce has had a tough life, but she reaches the depths of despair when she is assaulted and left on the cliffs outside of a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village. She expects to die when she tumbles into the icy waves below, but instead undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid. A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: the mermaids feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks. Luce possesses an extraordinary singing talent, which makes her important to the tribe—she may even have a shot at becoming their queen. However her struggle to retain her humanity puts her at odds with her new friends. Will Luce be pressured into committing mass murder? The first book in a trilogy, Lost Voices is a captivating and wildly original tale about finding a voice, the healing power of friendship, and the strength it takes to forgive. My Review: Even though I finished this book to see what happened at the end, I really did not like this book at all. It's kind of sad. The mermaids in this book are created by extremely terrible abuse they endure, and the "larvae" in this book are supposed to be abused babies that are not even cared or loved for, even as baby mermaids, which actually depressed me when I read it. Another element I did not enjoy was the juvenile language and actions of the characters. This book kind of reminded me of Lord Of The Flies in that it is about a tribe of girls who eventually start turning on each other and even try to kill each other at one point. The only thing I enjoyed about this book is that the author was able to describe the scenes and characters very well, but I don't really recommend reading this. It was very sad the whole way through. I give this book (*) 1 star, which is something I rarely do. -Sirenita The Selkie
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