Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

Lost VoicesDescription from Goodreads.com
What happens to the girls nobody sees—the ones who are ignored, mistreated, hidden away? The girls nobody hears when they cry for help?

Fourteen-year-old Luce is one of those lost girls. After her father vanishes in a storm at sea, she is stuck in a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village with her alcoholic uncle. When her uncle crosses an unspeakable line, Luce reaches the depths of despair. Abandoned on the cliffs near her home, she expects to die when she tumbles to the icy, churning waves below. Instead, she undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid.
A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. The mermaids are beautiful, free, and ageless, and Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: they feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks.
Luce’s own talent at singing captures the attention of the tribe’s queen, the fierce and elegant Catarina, and Luce soon finds herself pressured to join in committing mass murder. Luce’s struggle to retain her inner humanity puts her at odds with her friends; even worse, Catarina seems to regard Luce as a potential rival. But the appearance of a devious new mermaid brings a real threat to Catarina’s leadership and endangers the very existence of the tribe. Can Luce find the courage to challenge the newcomer, even at the risk of becoming rejected and alone once again?
Lost Voices is a captivating and wildly original tale about finding a voice, the healing power of friendship, and the strength it takes to forgive    Lost Voices  -Amazon link

This was my very first mermaid adventure. Sure I've seen the disney movie, but have never picked up a novel that so thouroughly described mermaids in such an adventuristic way. First the main charatcer, Luce is a very strong and well spoken lead. She's been having a hard life and eventually an event happens with her Uncle that is really depressing and threw me off a little. But then, this incident of course leads her to falling into the water and turning into a mermaid. Her first encounter with a boat, she sings to it, unfortunately not knowing her powers and sinks the ship. The other mermaids then discover her and it becomes an immediate power trip between her and Catarina who's a little jelous of the newcomer. I loved all the characters, Catarina is a strong headed lead, and Luce and her eventually bump heads. It was like a all girls school drama, power-trip most of the book, but I loved it. It was very well written, very entertaining and a lot of interesting ideas.

I have to say that the whole purpose of the mermaids (sinking ships) was a little shocking for me at first because really the people on the boats did nothing wrong and don't deserve to die. It took me back to the old story of the Siren's in Greek Mythology which may have been her whole basis from building this storyline, and I think the author did a great job!

Overall great read. I would really recommend it if your looking for something a little different.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7656222-lost-voices Add it now to your "to be read stack"