Lies Beneath

Finally! A mermaid tail (sorry, couldn't resist a bit of fin, I mean fun) tale that I can finally, actually say I enjoyed reading; one that I didn't hate the main characters, or their romance, or even the mythology behind the sea creatures. Lies Beneath is a success in a genre that has so fat yet to offer many noteworthy titles; this is thanks in part to presence of, as the great Wendy Darling of GoodReads so aptly put it: eeeeevil mermaids. Not the Disneyfied version most common on film and in YA novels (Between the Sea and Sky, I am looking at you) but the twisted, covetous, murderous sirens of Greek mythology. These sirens mermaids have bite; the three females (dominat matriarch Maris, affectionate Tallulah, flawless Pavati) show more especially typify the kind of mermaid I apparently like to read: vengeful, deliberate and deadly. Lies Beneath also is one of the few all-male POV young-adult novels I've read - unexpected, and very welcome when I realized it.

Calder (have you even seen a caldera? Hmmm....) White is both a creeper and, oxymoronically but believably, a good guy. What's nice about Calder, and reading from his view, is that he's a very self-aware creeper. He doesn't misrepresent his actions (breaking and entering, stalking, etc.) as romance or love, but readily admits his actions are more in line with a "serial killer" than a boyfriend. I liked Calder from the start: his is a strong and distinguished voice from the outset, with just a touch of that self-deprecating humor that I always enjoy. He's obviously and clearly different from his sisters: winter migrations, self-denial disguised as self-control, desire for isolation. The title itself is also doubly clever when viewed in reference to the male lead character: not only does a monster lie beneath the waters of the placid looking lake, but there are lies beneath his motivations that even he is unaware of. Figuring out Calder's personal history is a recurring subplot throughout, that though it doesn't have the high dramatics of the 'kill Jason Hancock' main plot, has more than enough punch at the end.

Lily was sadly a weaker effort than her love interest for much of the novel. She found her footing before the end, but on the whole my love for this book is based on Calder, not Lily. I found her wardrobe choices a bit try-hard and the love for Victorian mermaid-espousing poets was a little bit of a reach but I was won over. I was won over and I know the exact moment - it wasn't when Lily slapped Calder's hand for trying to 'hook her hair behind her ear' though I did love it, it wasn't when she was smart and suspicious of the boy she catches following her everywhere she goes - it was when she used a bad Russian accent. Everyone has a bad Russian accent, everyone I hang out with, at least. That was when she stopped being a character and became real. It was also refreshing to read a family with a strong and loving dynamic, one that actually seemed to love each other (the only other recent read I can recall that did the same was The Alchemy of Forever), though that served its purpose as well. Lily's family represents a lot of what Calder lost in his 54( if I mathed that right) 18 years of life: family, love, security, normalcy.

Back to the sisters three most vengeful: Maris, intimidating if somewhat mystifying by the end, Pavati, whose name I read as 'Parvati' nine times before I realized my mistake, and the only-kind-by-comparison Tallulah. (Thematically-relevant/appropriate names? Nice touch, Greenwood Brown.) Their individual characterization is severely lacking, but as a force they are impressive. Even the number of them (school of them? shoal of them? swarm?), three, is reinforced by the Greek legends they pay clear homage to; the most accepted number in tales is between two and five. The girls are born mermaids, as Calder is not. They prey on humans, though not for flesh or for ships as the ancient version did, but for the victim's emotions. They are, as Calder claims to ignorant ears, monsters, not the typical Disney princesses I've come to read and cringe about. Here, in their motivation and craving for human feeling as well as the creation of 'reinvigorated' (made, not born) mermaids, is where Brown diverges from traditional reasoning and branches out into her own version of motives for the watermonsters.To her creative credit, it is both a logical and elegantly simple answer. But first, in order to show why I thought this so great, allow me to wander a moment. This next paragraph may wax slightly spoilery, so avoid if you don't want minor details before reading.

I read a lot of vampire novels; they're heavily published and a lot of my friends, both online and off, read them as well. They seem to be dropping off in favor of dystopias/post-apocalyptic (or have just adapted, like Darwin predicted) but for a few years there, they were ubiquitous. So either in solidarity (Morganville series) or out of masochistic curiosity (Twilight series), I've more than read my fair share of the genre full of bloodsuckers. Some of those books went out their way to fashion a coherent/unique reason for why the vampires needed blood; others...did not. I enjoyed one type of these books more than the other. For example, one novel postulated that vampires need the oxygen present in living humans blood to keep their bodies/cells alive 'after death'. (I don't remember what book this was, but even if it was Twilight, love the concept, hate the execution. But I doubt it was). It was original, it was clever, and it has stuck with long after the book itself was lost. (Someone remind me? Or someone with more powerful Google Fu than I can figure it out?) Anne Greenwood Brown has done something similar with her mermaids: they cannot manufacture their own positive emotions, so they covet and murder and plot to absorb ours/our aura in water. Emotions like joy, hope, excitement, love are more than just sustenance; they're what keep the mermaid/man from falling into an endless depression, and eventually, insanity and death. Clever, right? Without delving into consumption of humans themselves. Random side-note: These Lake Superior merpeople are also apparently somewhat part eel - all four in Calder's 'family' have some electrical abilities both in and out of water that are referred to as 'eel-like' or similar. Major personal kudos for the author and her clever adaptions to the mythic creatures - these are definitely her own version.

Lies Beneath is good, just too short. This is convoluted. This is original and fun and easy to read. It's a fast-paced novel where events happen quickly so this far from a boring read, ever. The conflicts in Calder's life - family versus freedom, nature versus nurture, choice versus requirement, revenge or forgiveness - are all executed so well. His emotional pull between personal happiness and a desire to set something right is never melodramatic. There is a sequel, Water Lily, set for a 2013 release and from Lily's view. All I know is my next mermaid read, Of Poseidon, has a lot to live up to. Also, lastly, superficially: how AWESOME and creepy is that cover with the touch of bloodred? So appropriate and foreboding. Dun dun duuuun. Read this one, guys. show less

Lies Beneath is not the Disney mermaid tale that you might have been expecting. Calder and his mermaid sisters are vicious killing machines intent on taking revenge out on Jason Hancock. I loved that Greenwood Brown did not soften this aspect of Calder's character and that is where the strength of this story is. Calder begins as an unapologetic killer. He believes that his way of life is just a that, a way of life. Yet, there is a part of him that realizes that his life could have been entirely different, and that he could have been normal. It's this part of him that makes him a character the reader can like. As the story progresses, Calder becomes less sure of the brutal life he and his sisters lead, and this builds a new dimension to show more his character, making him into one that the reader can actually cheer for.

Lily was a frustrating character for me. She started off really strong, distrustful of Calder, suspicious of who he was and what his intentions were. I really liked that she wasn't falling all over him just because of his looks. But midway through she became Twilight's Bella, convinced that despite what Calder had done in the past, what he was, and what he told her his intentions were, that he would never hurt her. It was just too much for me, and I was glad that I didn't need to read things from her perspective.

Despite Lily's about face in character, I really enjoyed the story and am finally being forced to realize that I do like reading from a male's point of view. I am definitely looking forward to reading more of this series. show less

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy:
http://allthingsuf.com/2012/06/lies-beneath-by-anne-greenwood-brown.html

My feelings for this book are a surprise and a delight. Despite a male protagonist, despite his murderous family and ill-intent, LIES BENEATH won me over as deeply and as surely as Calder seduced his way into Lily Hancock’s life. Brown’s world building is utterly magical, I never expected that she could intertwine mermaids with the modern world. She does just that, without sacrificing one iota of their cold, inhuman mythology.

To remain true to that pedigree, however, Brown had to add something new to the mix. Though Calder and his sisters start out bent on revenge, but book’s end many assumptions have been turned on show more their head. Some of these last minute twists were a bit bumpy (the absolute truth behind Jason Hancock’s sin being one of them), but these momentary hitches didn’t derail the evocative image of Calder and his sister, slick and disingenuous, preying upon the vacationers of the coast. From sand under the seats of a stolen car to their disdain for clothes, this school of teenage mermaids was sick and fascinating. This air of danger made Calder’s allure all the more seductive, and I was on the edge of my seat as Lily alternately distrusted and fell for him.

In the end, Brown brought love to the murderous mermaids… or as much as she could without betraying the nature of her characters. Calder is a beautifully seductive anti-hero, and as much as I fell for him I don’t know that he was redeemed so much as forgiven. The image of him pouring his heart out to a shipwreck frozen in time will haunt me, as well as the painful truth of his ever after. Calder’s origins added a unique twist to his character but I am eager to see if any of his bloodthirsty sisters have similar growth potential inside.

Sexual Content: Kissing, references to sex. show less

Calder White was perfectly happy in a nice warm climate when his sisters called him back to the icy waters of Lake Superior. Being a merman, ignoring this call is impossible. He is bound to his sisters and reluctantly returns to them as slow as possible. When he gets there, he is offered the opportunity to be released from his bond if he helps them murder the son of the man responsible for their mother's death named Jason Hancock. Calder agrees and plans to use his good looks and hypnotic merman suggestion power to manipulate one of his daughter, but things don't go as planned. He didn't think he would fall in love. Torn between being free from his family and wanting to be with his new human love, Calder doesn't know what to do.

I had show more high hopes for Lies Beneath even though I wasn't crazy about the cover. Mermaids are one of my favorite mythical creatures, but these aren't really mermaids. They are basically aquatic vampires, which takes away everything that makes these creatures interesting. Vampires have overflooded the YA book market and I was looking for something different. These mermaids prey on people and feed on their positive energy and emotion because they can't produce them themselves. They can also communicate with each other telepathically, manipulate humans with their beauty and hypnotic powers, and produce electricity similar to eels. This would have been interesting if it didn't make the relationship between Calder and Lily into a carbon copy of Twilight. He wants to eat her but he's in love with her and it's going against his nature...blah blah blah. I have seen this so many times before that it's ridiculous. Plus his stalker status rivals Edward's in Twilight and he kills people regularly to survive. It got really creepy. The murder aspect seemed to be justified by the fact the he doesn't kill anyone during the course of the book, but that doesn't make his past murders disappear. The romance did not wow me because it was the typical instalove with no development at all.

The characters are fairly flat and uninteresting. Lily is a rebellious girl who wears weird clothes and doesn't mind that her boyfriend has killed people in the past. His sisters are the most interesting characters in the novel, but we don't get to see much of them. All the characters could have done with richer backgrounds and dimensions. The two things that did work for me are the writing and the poetry in the novel. Despite not being very invested in the characters or the plot, I kept reading because the writing really moved and kept me interested. I am a huge sucker for classic literature cited in books. I get to discover new things I didn't know about or nerd out over things I like. I had no idea about some of these poems and it was nice to discover them.

Lies Beneath is a mediocre teen novel that had a lot of promise with the dark mermaids, but it turned into a Twilight rip off. The ending is definitely open for a sequel and I'm frankly not interested in reading it. Hopefully some of the other mermaid books will be less disappointing. show less

I knew there was a reason I don’t like swimming in the Great Lakes. It has nothing to do with the temperature. It’s all about the murderous mermaids who live there!

I haven’t read any other books about mermaids. I know there are a whole bunch of novels out right now where mermaids play a large part, but I can’t say how this compares to them. What I can say is that this was both fresh and new to me, and I LIKED it. I will both be exploring more books about mermaids, and more books by this author. (Which is a good thing, seeing as this is the first in a trilogy.)

Calder, I fear, borders a little on the side of dangerous. I mean, obviously his character is dangerous. Murdering mermaid, eep. But… there’s also the whole show more he-doesn’t-want-his-girl-to-talk-to-anyone-else thing, the fact that he’s bad news for her (whether he wants to be or not), and he could murder this girl if ever he lusted over her emotions too much… I know there are a lot of women who go for that sort of man in their fiction (hello, Edward Cullen), but I have been over that for a while, so he really didn’t do anything for me.

That said, there was plenty of other enjoyable things about this novel. For example, I really enjoyed how the author has played with the family dynamics between Calder and his three sisters. At times you wonder if it’s love between them, but at other times it just seems so much darker than love. The manipulation and obsession between them is one of the best things that we are able to explore in this book… to see how far one would go to deprive the other of what they want most. It was rather fascinating.

Even though Calder didn’t do much for me, it was a nice change to read a book where the protagonist is a male. I do love me my kick-ass female leads, but every once in a while you need a change, and this was the perfect choice for that.

The Bottom Line
Highly enjoyed. I’m definitely looking forward to reading the rest of this trilogy. show less

A spellbinding new novel that will leave you breathless!
The setting for this book was unique and perfect for the mystery behind these siblings. This story was very well written and had some of the most beautiful imagery I have read yet. It was very descriptive and gave off the somewhat ominous feel that went so well with this book.
“Lies Beneath” is told from the point of view of Calder which is an interesting change since most books from this genre are told from the female point of view. I really enjoyed hearing from Calder’s point of view and seeing how he lived. Even though he started out as the villain it was easy to identify with him. He has problems of his own and tries to deal with them the best that he can and I believe show more that he is inherently good and his struggle to stay true to himself even in the face of his sisters was one of the things that intrigued me and made me fall in love with this character. Lily was sweet and a perfect match for Calder, these two really made the story for me.
You’ll never look at a lake the same way again. show less

This was another Netgalley book which I half expected to start and then decline. I fully expected to hate the main character-narrator, Calder White, being as he makes it clear from the beginning that as a mer he is a killer, a devourer of soul or spirit, leaving empty flesh husks hidden when he's finished.

Which is actually a little odd, because from the quick research I've done mermaids (sorry, Calder, merfolk) aren't known for eating people, per se. They are known for luring ships onto rocks to sink them, but the legends usually show them taking floundering sailors down to underwater kingdoms; I don't know if it's always been an assumption or not, but I always understood their role to be in the sating of … other appetites. I didn't show more see anything out there showing mermaids to be predatory toward humans – rather to the contrary.

Regardless, Brown's merfolk are predators in the grand tradition of vampires, using seduction and guile to lure those unsuspecting citizens off to their deaths, and Calder is not all that happy about it. Whether due to the circumstances of his childhood or because he has a more powerful imagination than many, he doesn't like being responsible for the deaths of vacationers out enjoying themselves on the water. Emotions are visible in a cloud around every human, and the ones glowing bright orange, the happy ones, are the ones who provide the most sustenance. He resists as long as possible, as much as possible … but it's like being a starving vegetarian at a Southern barbecue. There's not much choice.

Calder is called home (literally – by cell phone) by his sisters, who are determined to finally have the revenge they have sought for years, against the man they blame for the death of their mother. For years Jason Hancock has avoided Lake Superior, where it all began so long ago – but now he's back, bringing his family: a wife, usually wheelchair-bound with multiple sclerosis, and two daughters. The younger daughter is considered into the siblings' plans as bait – put her in danger, and the father will follow, and pay his debt; but Calder prefers to approach the older daughter, teenaged Lily. She's an ideal target for his seduction: she's different, that's clear from the beginning. She dresses differently, and loves poetry, and is filled with the vulnerability of a dreamer. She's perfect – as bait, as prey … and also for Calder to fall in love with. Which he does. Which rather complicates the plan: it's harder to be objective about someone who loves his disabled wife and whose daughter is someone whose hero you suddenly want to be. As he's already found, it's harder to kill someone you see as a person rather than "prey" or "target". His more bloodthirsty sisters will never forgive him if he ruins their revenge … and when they choose to be unforgiving it's a little harder to live with than in ordinary families.

I thought I'd hate Calder; I thought I'd hate the romance – I'm the one who said the romance in Twilight was a little like me falling for a gingerbread man. I was wrong: I liked both a lot. It's all very prettily done. It's a male point of view, unusual in books that fit into this pigeonhole, and it works. It's also a point of view with just enough matter-of-fact alienness to work; when he avoids sitting by the fire at a picnic, it isn't explicitly stated why – but it isn't because he's too warm. The moments in the book where he is in his natural element, and the glimpses of what it's like – flying through the water, weightless and cold, the odd comradeship with the shoals of fish, the wrecks at the bottom of Lake Superior – are wonderful; I wish there had been more of that, more of what it's like to function as a merman.

He's a good character, is Calder, torn between his duty and his newfound rebellious spirit. In some ways he's a thin read, still adolescent in spite of decades of life – but his strength shows itself in his ability to go without taking advantage of the appetizing orange-glowing humans all around him all summer long. His sisters can't figure that one out – even his favorite, generally nicer than the other two, doesn't understand it. Hungry? Eat. That's that. Those three are nicely differentiated from each other – maybe a little too different, physically; I don't believe there's ever an explanation of why the three have very different coloring and, apparently, original ethnicity. And Lily … Her character does not go tremendously deep, but under the circumstances it works: it is Calder's POV, after all, and whatever he feels for her, he doesn't know her very well. But, like him, she has several chances to prove herself, and does. She was not perfect, even in Calder's eyes, but she is well-written. Her relationship with her little sister is perfect – love-hate-aggravation-affection; the sister herself is well portrayed, which is a hallmark of good writing in my, er, book: badly written children irritate me no end.

I think that, in addition to being the first book of a series, Lies Beneath (which is a great title, by the way) is the first book I've read featuring mermaids. I'm impressed. I look forward to the rest of the series. show less