In which Ems reviews books...: Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

21 July 2012

Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

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Source: eARC via NetGalley
Published: June 2012
Delacorte Books for Young Readers

From Goodreads: 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.

I've been looking for a fantastic mermaid book for awhile now. I was really hoping that this one was it, but alas, it didn't quite do it for me. There were a couple of things that I did like however, and I'll focus on those first.
I liked the setting. It felt very realistic to me, which was cool, because I've never been to that part of the country before. Reading this felt to me like being on location. I always appreciate when an author puts time and effort into making the setting as real as possible.
I really liked that this tale was told from a male POV. It's kind of rare to find a male narrator in YA these days and I like it when we get one who is a strong character. I liked Calder and I liked his growth through the book. He didn't feel at all one-dimensional to me. He was someone I could work on understanding and really kind of get a feel for. I thought he was very well-written.
The rest of the characters, though, felt slightly flat to me. I think that's more just a taste thing, because I know several people who've thought just the opposite. (that's great, btw! I love being able to read different reviews of the same book and see how we all see things differently) They just didn't ever really connect for me. Tallulah may be an exception, but I didn't realize that until the end. By the time I figured her out, it was kind of a wasted epiphany.
The story was okay. I originally thought the idea was really great and I honestly wish that I'd liked it more. I wanted to, really I did! In some cases, I could lay the blame on what I would consider poor writing, but that is SO not the case here. Ms. Brown is a very talented writer and her style is very easy to read. I just didn't connect with the story itself. A matter of some things working better for others than for me and vice versa. I will definitely read more of Ms. Brown's books (though probably not in this series), because I want to see what else she has up her sleeve.
Overall, 2.5 Eiffel Towers for Lies Beneath.