Lies We Sing to the Sea
Sarah Underwood
Electric Monkey, March 2023
Paperback, £14.99
ISBN: 9780008558536
Lies We Sing to the Sea is a thrilling imagining of Penelope’s twelve hanged maids from Homer’s Odyssey getting vengeance on the kingdom that wronged them. It follows the narrative of three characters: Leto, an oracle with a sliver of her mother’s powers, Melantho, imprisoned creature of Poseidon, and Mathias, an unfortunate prince over a cursed land. In unlikely ways, their paths intertwine into a nail-biting story that is impossible to resist. Every turn the novel takes leaves the reader hoping for each of the character’s happy endings, despite how impossible it may appear.
And for each character, it is indeed impossible to reach their own desires without demolishing another’s. Underwood shows this cleverly by changing the first-person narrative. Amazingly, she does this while maintaining an element of mystery in each character’s backstory. The setting is beautiful – from the idyllic encaged island of Pandou to the glamorous impoverished palaces of Ithica and its grief-stricken surrounding villages. The only issue I had was with the pacing at the beginning of Leto and Melantho’s quest. This was quickly redeemed by another layer to uncovering the story. The rest of the book reels you in as each character works toward their different, though similar, goal.
This book is for lovers of Greek mythology and high-stake quests. Filled with thrilling deceit, romance, and unforeseen plot twists, this story will immediately enrapture any reader and pull them into the untruthful songs each character sings.
Rowan Beddows, 17
I recommend reading the 
The book takes you on a journey through all the characters’ points of view, featuring police interviews and news articles. These interviews do become repetitive, but the book pulls you back in with plot twists aplenty. 
I really liked this story. Though the beginning was clichéd and predictable, the story went from strength to strength. There were sprinklings of funny events and conversations throughout the book which had me smiling to myself. You can picture the beautiful settings and mouth-watering food clearly throughout the story. The author was so attentive to describing Indonesia and I feel she did a great job. I learned so much about Indonesian culture while following Sharlot and George’s story . There was such entertaining banter between the characters. Each character had their own distinctive personality and was well written. 
As someone unfamiliar with thriller novels and the author’s previous work, this was a surprisingly emotional read, especially in the last sixty or so pages. It was very interesting how the characters’ dynamics and mindsets changed, strengthened and even became dangerously warped as the story went on. There were some incredible twists that I didn’t see coming at all. This book covers heavy topics like grief and death, and has a pretty nasty shock that sets off the second half.
The supporting characters are just as strongly written as the main characters, and have diverse and distinctive personalities, such as the sweet and caring Honey-Belle and serious and assertive Danielle. The dialogue is witty, and the humour is used as a way of 
Dunn does not shy away from acknowledging those immense Gothic novels that have come before hers. Like her predecessors Wilkie Collins and Ann Radcliffe, Dunn uses the Gothic genre to epically and successfully portray our very human fears: life, death, love, and isolation.
Alexander tells this story through verse. His masterful use of rhythm, pacing and language creates fluidity and lyricism that draws the reader into the world of Upper Kwanta. While this novel deals with difficult themes and dark parts of our world’s history, Alexander also beautifully illustrates moments of hope, the strength of family and the power of storytelling.
