Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

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 irresistible good looks and charm on unsuspecting 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.

My Rating: 2.5 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: With all the mermaid books popping up this summer, Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown is the third one I’ve managed to read … and so far, I still haven’t been captivated by any of them. While the writing of Lies Beneath wasn’t bad, I did think it took far too long for the action to pick up. I also found it hard to care about the characters or the romance.

First off, I thought I’d be reading a story about some murderous mermaids. However, Calder seems to have tremendous control over his urge to kill, and his sisters each only kill one person – strangers, at that – the entire summer. Sadly, they just didn't seem all that terrifying. More deaths – especially of some important characters – would have made me a much happier person!

Besides the lack of grisly deaths, Calder (and the rest of the characters) felt very flat to me. Calder’s sole focus on using Lily to get revenge and gain freedom from his sisters also made it hard for me to believe that he had actually fallen for Lily. Brown does try (unsuccessfully) to make the romance appear as if it’s not instant love by having Calder and Lily interact with each other on a regular basis, but it seemed more creepy than romantic because it was through a lot of spying and stalking on Calder’s part. 

Lies Beneath was released on June 12, 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers.

Comments About the Cover: The main character, Calder, is a merman. So, I’m not sure why there’s a mermaid on the cover. 

In exchange for an honest review, this ARC was received from the publisher (Random House) for free via NetGalley.