The Twice Lost (Lost Voices #3) by Sarah Porter

The Twice Lost (Lost Voices #3)

by Sarah Porter  
Mermaids have been sinking ships and drowning humans for centuries, and now the government is determined to put an end to the mermaid problem—by slaughtering all of them. Luce, a mermaid with exceptionally threatening abilities, becomes their number-one target, hunted as she flees down the coast toward San Francisco.

There she finds hundreds of mermaids living in exile under the docks of the bay. These are the Twice Lost: once-human girls lost first when a trauma turned them into mermaids, and lost a second time when they broke mermaid law and were rejected by their tribes. Luce is stunned when they elect her as their leader. But she won’t be their queen. She’ll be their general. And they will become the Twice Lost Army—because this is war

Characters: This story jumps around from several characters perspectives. Our main focus is still on Luce, as the general who is taking a stance to help prevent any further mermaid deaths. We get the side of the American Government. A secret weapon the government is holding hostage. And the humans that have had connections with the mermaids and are on their side.

Plot: As Luce travels south after witnessing the loss of her old Tribe, she has found other mermaids and humans along the way. Breaking the code of the Timahk more than once, she is now focusing on finding her long lost friend Nausicaa and warning the mermaids of the government killings. When she reaches San Francisco however, she comes across hundreds of misplaced mermaids and decides this is the spot where she will stop and fight.

Originality: This trilogy includes all female mermaids. There is very little thought given to any mythological ties to the current day groups. They do age slower than humans and have the ability to sing to the water to cause magical effects. Some dangerous enough to sink ships. The ranking of the mermaids (Queen's) are chosen by how powerful they can sing (manipulate the water). 
 
Writing: The pacing of the story is pretty slow. The building up and causes of war in the third book in particular involves a lot of different characters. Each characters story having to evolve, and grow until the point that the war must come to a head and get resolved. As the mermaids are aiming for a peaceful ending there is a lot of restraint on their parts and the humans show to be the more evil of the two sides. The villain of this story is truly horrible, abusive and manipulative person overstepping his boundaries. 
 
As this is the final book in the trilogy. I was expecting everything to come to a very fast paced ending. The writing is a bit slower paced that I anticipated with the building up of several characters/groups and their growth throughout the story going for or against the mermaids in their struggles. But even with a lot of down time, this is a series that got me thinking, long after I finished the books the story still sticks with me.