Expected Publication: July 12th, 2012
Lies Beneath
By: Anne Greenwood Brown
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN-13: 9780385742016
Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistible good looks and charm on ususpecting girls. Only this time Calder screws everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as his sisters are losing patience with him.
Review
Calder White is the only brother to four beautiful and mysterious sisters. On the surface they are no different from most families - except for the fact they happen to be murderous mermaids on the prowl for human energy to steal. But this summer they are after a specific person : Jason Hancock, because his Father reneged on a bargain and killed their Mother in the process. Now the son has finally returned to the family's lake house with his wife and two daughters, giving the perfect opportunity for revenge. They plan to get to him by using one of his daughters. But when Calder starts to have feelings for Hancock's oldest daughter Lily, it begins to cause problems for his family's revenge plot. Also, Lily is smarter than they thought and starts to realize the truth to the stories about monsters in the lake. Calder's sisters are on the verge of taking over and getting revenge for themselves - the one thing that could ruin his rediscovered humanity. Can he save Lily and her Father from the jaws his family's hatred or will they all be destroyed? This seemed like a book that had a different viewpoint than most YA mermaid books - the mermaids were NOT the good guys in this one. They consistently killed humans and stole their energy. It was an interesting twist, but it led to some major disconnect from the main characters. Also, Lily felt a bit 2D in terms of personality. Calder was practically stalking her for most of the book and she still communicated with him and ended up falling for him. Seriously, yet another girl with Bella Swan syndrome. Calder was a decently fleshed out character, but most of the book was spent with him searching for a way to still get revenge and save Lily - not much time left to get to know him very well as an individual. His sisters were stereotypes at best and I especially despised Maris. But that seemed to be the point and is therefore acceptable I suppose. Also the love triangle was annoyingly present in this one. The two guys were both in love with the unremarkable, average in every way girl. I am so sick and tired of the usage of this as a plot device in YA novels. The resolution was totally predictable and while I did manage to read the whole book, I ended up very much unimpressed with it. I would not recommend this to anyone, unless they are highly obsessed with books involving mermaids.
VERDICT: 2.35/5 Stars
*I
received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No
money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is July 12th, 2012.*
This book looks really interesting!
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