Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Pages: 303

Received: Received from publisher through NetGalley

Release Date: June 12, 2012
Buy From Amazon.ca / Buy From Chapters.ca

Goodreads Synopsis:

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 irresistable 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.

My Review:

Mermaid books are becoming the new thing, as I've said in previous reviews, and I have definitely jumped on the bandwagon. First I have to talk about the cover, I don't completely understand it, to be honest, I mean the man character is a male. So why have a female on the cover? Lies Beneath follows along with all the mermaid stories in a way, but it very quickly takes a dark turn. I was not expecting such a dark, eerie tale from the synopsis. Brown really pulls you in from the first chapter (pun intended ;) ) I found myself continually going back to the story for more answers. Brown keeps throwing out all this information and slowly gives out answers, little by little.

I'm really enjoying that authors are putting male characters in the forefront lately. I at first thought it would be weird to have a male as the MC in a mermaid book, but this one really worked.  I liked how strong of a character Calder was, he works hard to go after what he believes in. He is definitely one of those characters that throws on the charm extra heavy, and it works (at least for me).

Lily was also an interesting character in the beginning (it seemed that about halfway through the book she kind of did a 180 on me, with how she acted...) There was none of that insta-love in the book, she doesn't automatically trust the guy just because he is good-looking (I know, rare eh?). Lily is cautious, she wants answers and works to get them.

There were a lot of things that came out at the end, that completely threw me for a loop. Brown definitely did a great job keeping you on the hook and then changing the whole thing before you know what's happening. Brown also does a great job with the mythology (I enjoyed that part of the book the best). She really takes you into the history of mermaids, and uses some great poetry while doing it!

Even if you're starting to get a little down from the mermaid books, try this one out, the dark tone of this story changes everything.