Book Review: Lost Voices (ARC)

Lost Voices (ARC)
(Lost Voices #1)
Author: Sarah Porter
Pages: 304 pgs
Reading Level: YA
Release Date: July 4th 2011
Review Source: Net Galley
Available: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Borders

Summary: (from goodreads) 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. 
Luce’s own talent at singing captures the attention of the tribe’s queen, the fierce and elegant Catarina, and Luce soon finds herself pressured to join in committing mass murder. Luce’s struggle to retain her inner humanity puts her at odds with her friends; even worse, Catarina seems to regard Luce as a potential rival. But the appearance of a devious new mermaid brings a real threat to Catarina’s leadership and endangers the very existence of the tribe. Can Luce find the courage to challenge the newcomer, even at the risk of becoming rejected and alone once again? 
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.

Lost Voices is a good start for the series. I am a huge fan of mermaids and was very excited to know this book was all about them. Its refreshing to read about a new mystical creatures than what we normally get in books. Now this is not your typical Happy ever after tale and these Mermaids are not your Little Mermaid kind you see on the Disney movie. Sarah gives me more of the Siren type in this novel, and if you know anything about Sirens. You know you never should run into one while at sea. The book brings to light all the young girls and boys that get abused either psychically or emotionally from their loved ones. Sarah created this world where these girls turn into mermaids once their little hearts break or turn cold. Then once the mermaids turn there goal basically is to sink ships and kill humans using their singing. Its like payback for everything they went through in their human lives. The descriptions that Sarah provides of these Mermaids is just beautiful. She get so in to detail on their colors and how they swim. but really how she describes the singing and how those voices bring down the ships, you can almost hear it while reading the book. 

Luce is the main character in the book, she has been living with her Uncle since her Father never return from his fishing trip out at sea. Luce is different and doesn't really fit in at school. Then one night her Uncle does the unthinkable and it affects Luce so much that it triggers the change. She doesn't understand what is going on but she in the water and a ship is coming towards her and she hears this music. Well it turns out its Luce singing to the boat and she has taken it down. Thats when the other mermaids find her and actually save her as well. She begins to lower to far down in the ocean with one of the ship wreck crew. So Catarina saves her and they explain to her what has happen and who she is now. Catarina is the queen of the group. The Queen is chosen by the skill and talent of the enchanting song voice. They realize that Luce has a extraordinary voice, might be just as good or better than Catarina. Luce though doesn't really feel like she wants to wreck ships or hurt the humans, so this begins several reactions and events to happen. Then new members of the group set off to hurt her and others as well. So Luce is once again feeling all alone and out of place. She also realizes her gift of singing is very powerful and even trains her voice. She begins to control certain things around her that eventually she will use in the end. 

Now why I didn't give this book a higher rating is because it did start off a bit slow. I also felt the bullying was over done. Then there were the larvae, this was just troubling for me to swallow. Larvaes are the abused and neglected infants who became mermaids but they are not fully developed so the older mermaids cast them out and don't protect them from Sharks and Orcas. The ending also left floating on the water, not enough to drown me and missing enough to bring me afloat. Do I recommend the book, Yes. Its definitely different and I believe it a good start to the next one in the series. Will I read the next book in the series, YES! I am very curious to know what happens with Luce and her new life.