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A review by lykkes_laeserier
Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood
5.0
For fans of reimaginings of Greek mythology, “Lies We Sing to the Sea” (2023) by Sarah Underwood continues the story of “The Odyssé” but 300 years after those events.
At the end of “The Odyssé”, Penelope’s twelve young maids are hanged as punishment for their ‘impurity’ upon the return of Odysseus. Now a curse hangs over Ithaca and every year without fail, twelve daughters of the island are marked by Poseidon and must be hanged upon the order of the current male ruler before being given to the sea in sacrifice.
One such maid – Leto, orphan daughter of the last royal oracle of Ithaca – tries in vain to escape her fate. However, when months later the twelve young sacrifices wash up on the shores of magical island Pandou, Leto reawakens, changed and with a new purpose: To put an end to the curse on Ithaca.
Pandou is home to Melantho, one of the original twelve maids, who for centuries has had the sad duty of receiving and burying the curiously preserved corpses of each year’s new crop of sacrifices. Leto is not the first maid to reawaken but she will be the last. Meanwhile on Ithaca, Prince Mathias for his own reasons is also looking for a way to break the curse on his kingdom.
Told from all three perspectives of Leto, Melantho and Mathias, “Lies We Sing to the Sea” is a wonderful novel of myth, fate and love. My only criticism would be that the language at times reads a little too current, but that is easily overlooked because the story is mesmerising. I would recommend this novel to fans of Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint and Natalie Haynes. I certainly enjoyed it very much. Just be aware that it is not a retelling as such but more of a continuation.
At the end of “The Odyssé”, Penelope’s twelve young maids are hanged as punishment for their ‘impurity’ upon the return of Odysseus. Now a curse hangs over Ithaca and every year without fail, twelve daughters of the island are marked by Poseidon and must be hanged upon the order of the current male ruler before being given to the sea in sacrifice.
One such maid – Leto, orphan daughter of the last royal oracle of Ithaca – tries in vain to escape her fate. However, when months later the twelve young sacrifices wash up on the shores of magical island Pandou, Leto reawakens, changed and with a new purpose: To put an end to the curse on Ithaca.
Pandou is home to Melantho, one of the original twelve maids, who for centuries has had the sad duty of receiving and burying the curiously preserved corpses of each year’s new crop of sacrifices. Leto is not the first maid to reawaken but she will be the last. Meanwhile on Ithaca, Prince Mathias for his own reasons is also looking for a way to break the curse on his kingdom.
Told from all three perspectives of Leto, Melantho and Mathias, “Lies We Sing to the Sea” is a wonderful novel of myth, fate and love. My only criticism would be that the language at times reads a little too current, but that is easily overlooked because the story is mesmerising. I would recommend this novel to fans of Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint and Natalie Haynes. I certainly enjoyed it very much. Just be aware that it is not a retelling as such but more of a continuation.