Review for Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

"Lost Voices"

Author: Sarah Porter
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's
Source: ARC ebook from netGalley
Release Date: July 4th, 2011
304 pages


 

What happens to the girls nobody sees—the ones who are ignored, mistreated, hidden away? The girls nobody hears when they cry for help?
Fourteen-year-old Luce is one of those lost girls. After her father vanishes in a storm at sea, she is stuck in a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village with her alcoholic uncle. When her uncle crosses an unspeakable line, Luce reaches the depths of despair. Abandoned on the cliffs near her home, she expects to die when she tumbles to the icy, churning waves below. Instead, she 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. The mermaids are beautiful, free, and ageless, and Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: they feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks. - Summary from Goodreads

     Wow what a read! I gave this book 5 stars! And I didn't just do that because it was my first ARC. If you pick up this book thinking along the lines of Arial the mermaid... lets just say there is no singing crabs or talking fish. It is not a happy upbeat book. It uses a disturbing issue-girls being mistreated-to make a story. Sarah Porter did a really amazing job with this book, well written.  Luce is quite the character, and I found it nice to see her go from shy to being able to speak her mind-she grew along with the story. This book is about friendship, abuse, and forgiveness.There were a few things that bothered me, pretty small things though which didn't affect my rating. Like, the other mermaids are really rude, some of them really nasty at times. And since the mermaids hair doesn't grow, those with short hair are stuck with it, like Luce, and are naked on the top. That bothered me a bit. Finally, the ending. It just stopped at a time that I really wanted to keep reading. Lots of questions left unanswered at the end. Good thing that its a sequel but it is a big cliffhanger...and I hate waiting! A great read, and I really can't wait to get my hands on the second one. I need to know some answers, especially about this one part (can't say it--spoiler)! I am going to be buying it as soon as its released....and I highly recommend it if you don't mind a darker book!

Excerpt:

    Gently she sang back, letting her voice glide into complex harmonies with all the inhuman voices humming around her. A crystalline sphere of water floated up between her hands, raised itself nearer. Luce almost wondered if it could see her, then stroked against her lips. It felt like a kiss.