Book Review: Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

Title: Lost Voices
Series: Lost Voices, book 1
Author: Sarah Porter
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's
Publication Date: 4th July 2011
Pages: 291
Special Features:
ISBN:9780547482507

'Lost Voices is a story which could almost be compared to Peter Pan in some context. Luce the protagonist of the story who after her father death whilst out at sea, has been forced to live with her abusive Uncle for the past year. As thing began to get too bad Luce transformed into a mermaid and was welcomed into a tribe of other mermaids which is ruled by Catarina the best and most marvalous singer. But after Luce discovers that her fellow mermaids take joy out of sinking boats and drowning humans she discovers it to be her life ambition to change that.'

I had never read a mermaid book before, so was quite excited for Lost Voices. The synopsis instantly drew me in, and I can guarantee it really lived up to what I expected.

Lost Voice's is Sarah Porter's debut novel and the only word I can use to describe this is... WOW!!! Sarah Porter created such an amazing imaginative novel. She manages to turn a once innocent creature such as mermaids into quite dark and dangerous creatures of the sea.

The book created such an effect over me that I actually felt myself going into this other world, almost turning into a mermaid, something I have never experienced before.
Sarah Porter also has an amazing skill at creating depressive and heart-wrenching scenes, thanks mainly to her large selection of different vocab.
She also has an amazing ability to describe scenes, in her own unique way, where I can imagine every little bit, from the rock a few feet away to a simple bird flying overhead.
But I couldn't seem to fully get into the book until the end, it was a great book with an awesome and unique storyline, but there's something about the book that made me not want to read it.
What I loved most about this book had to be that despite it's quite dark moments it still managed to have some factor's of a teenage book directed towards the female audience, by the use of the tension between the female mermaids.

The characters were utterly fantastic.
Though honestly the main character Luce was a slight let down, to me it seemed as though she has two sides: one a lovable caring side and other an emotionless (sorry for my language) bitch, luckily the side i hate is one which is rarely present. Throughout the book Luce does change into a much stronger character, but the change unfortunately isn't over an amount of time, but suddenly happens.
One character I did love the personality of was Anais. Anais is the typical spoilt brat, but she was perfect for her part in the novel, a bit extreme at times but perfect still.

Recommendations
The book was amazing and I believe would be enjoyed by most, but as most of the characters are females this could potentially put off some of the male readers.
I give this book...