Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

What is a Buddy Read?

This is an "Informal Buddy Read"
An “Informal Buddy Read” doesn’t have a discussion leader and participants are asked to consider some generic questions when making comments about the book. An example is here.

Book synopsis
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.

I'm really looking forward to this! Tomorrow, I will start reading. As of right now, I'm planning on reading about 50 pages per day.

I am using the ebook version so my scheduling may not be the right page numbers because I used my calculator to try and see what page the chapters left off from, but the numbers are pretty accurate. Here is my schedule, it is not really for each day but mostly each chapter I will be reporting back on. It seems to leave off on 258 because the other chapters left are about the next book in the series and acknowledgments. I will be starting the book now!

Lost Voices ➜ The Last Kiss | Pg. 1 - 78
The Last Kiss ➜ Voice Training | Pg. 78 - 133
Voice Training ➜ The Mirror | Pg. 133 - 183
The Mirror ➜ A Song for Miriam | Pg. 183 - 235
A Song for Miriam ➜ Violation | Pg. 235 - 258

Lost Voices ➜ The Last Kiss - (view spoiler)[This is an alright book so far. Luce seems a little younger than 14 years old though, I thought she was far younger like maybe 8 or 10. It was really sad when her uncle almost raped her, it seems so terrible and I just wish someone would do something about him!
The mermaids seem really nice but I don't really like Catarina's character. She seems really jealous of Luce. I was a little lost at times because of the way this book jumps from one thing to another. It seems harsh to kill all people, even the good ones. To them they all seem bad but seriously? (hide spoiler)]

I'm just now starting. I shall return in a couple hours with my thoughts! (:

Jennifer wrote: "I'm just now starting. I shall return in a couple hours with my thoughts! (:"

Ok! It's an okay book in my opinion so far. Nothing extraordinary yet.

Okay. I just got to The Last Kiss. I might keep reading just being I really like it so far.

(view spoiler)[ I like Luce a lot. I loved the juxtaposition between her being unable to speak in class, talk to the bartender, or yell at her uncle to stop compared I her singing. I'm looking forward to her finding her voice.
I also thought it was heart warming when she tried to save the baby. I hope to see her continue these efforts in the future. But she can help them find tier voices.
I'm worried about her dad. (view spoiler)[ I'm predicting that some of the mermaids there are responsible for this death. I think it will be really emotionally when that comes out. (hide spoiler)]. Also, I was really impressed with how kind she was to her friend. Again, I am worried though because (view spoiler)[ he said a mermaid which is against the code. (hide spoiler)]
(hide spoiler)]
Overall, I'm happy with it so far!

Jennifer wrote: "Okay. I just got to The Last Kiss. I might keep reading just being I really like it so far.

I like Luce a lot. I loved the juxtaposition between her being unable to speak in class, talk to the b..."

I agree (view spoiler)[I really think that the mermaids had something to do with his disappearance. And I wonder whats to come with the whole Catarina and her breaking the code thing. She keeps being all pissed when somebody else breaks the code but when it comes to her, she can do as she pleases making sure no one is watching?? I don't like Catarina all that much. (hide spoiler)]

I totally agree about Catarina. Yet, I really like that Catarina is in charge. I don't want Luce to take over because I think being in charge means that you have I make some bad and hard choices. I want Luce to just be good. Haha

I get what you mean, I don't want her to be the one in charge either but sometimes it feels like she is supposed to be made for that part.

The Last Kiss ➜ Voice Training - (view spoiler)[Hmm. That was interesting how the girl came. I find it ridiculous though how they did not manage to ever look down at their legs and see there is a tail! Obviously something is wrong if you look down and see scales where you feet should be. But Dana seems like a great character and now I see more of how Luce is much more caring that she risked her own life to save the girl. This is getting interesting but I don't see where it is going.

Hearing that they sold Catarina for cigarettes is just horrible. I feel for her now, I don't even want to think about what horrid things happened to her when she was sold to the man, I feel terribly sick when I hear things like this. I may have misjudged Catarina a little, but it doesn't match up to how cold she acted to the 14 new mermaids, she can be very cold at times. It is obvious that she really cares for Luce and sees her as her younger sister but there is something off about her that I can't put my finger on. Quick question, have they all been naked this entire time? I have been picturing them like Princess Ariel with seashell bras LOL (hide spoiler)]

Voice Training ➜ The Mirror - (view spoiler)[I am not really loving this book all that much. I would have liked it better if Tessa was the one to be turned into a mermaid but that whole issue with Samantha is just driving me nuts. Sometimes I want to reach inside the book and slap so many of these characters. I am glad that Luce is still a great person inside and isn't on for killing humans. I'm glad that she at least tried to save Tessa. Anais is one little brat. Ugh. I hope things unravel more with Catarina and Luce spills the beans of what she did in the beginning, kissing that boy. (hide spoiler)] I am hoping to finish this book soon, I hate that I'm not really liking it. I was expecting a lot from this book but this wasn't it. I think it is going to be a 2 star book from me.

The Mirror ➜ A Song for Miriam - (view spoiler)[Damn. Things took a cold hard turn. Like seriously, damn. I wanted to punch Anais so much. I cannot stand her at all! And Catarina my god. Why can't-ugh! I don't even know how to express myself right now. Things are just going horribly. I have no idea where this is going to go from where this just left off. Anais and Samantha are the two that getting on my nerves the most. Then there's Jenna and Catarina. Goodness, what is up with these mermaids! I feel like things are only going to get worse or hopefully better and everyone stops listening to freaking annoying Anais. She is so transparent, how can no one see that? (hide spoiler)]

A Song for Miriam ➜ Violation - (view spoiler)[Um. Wow. I am still going to leave this book at 2 stars because that's what I feel like it deserves in my opinion, I didn't really like the book. But I have to admit there were some good scenes, a whole crap load of betrayals and things took a whole sharp turn. I was utterly surprised with the ending and how they found out about Catarina's secret. I really loathe Anais, I simply can't stand the witch. And seriously? Everyone PUNCHING her? My god. It was nice to see Luce's voice unfold and how it worked with the waves. I thought she was going to turn the human boy into a merman. Like for some miracle it would work if she did it. I was not so impressed by this book, I was not expecting this whole thing coming with Anais and the 14 mermaids that came. There were just so many characters that annoyed me I was about to stop halfway through the middle of the book. (hide spoiler)]

Last Kiss to Voice Training.

Again, I like the book so far. In general I like the concept. (view spoiler)[ Having a fairy tale type (ish with all the orca threats and killing. Haha) life for girls who have lived through trauma is really interesting to me. One thing I have been thinking about is that this book is called Lost Voices. I'm wondering if this is supposed to symbolize girl who would have died. I mean, all of their stories so far could have easily resulted in death. I think the author could be making some kind of commentary on child abuse and such. Also, I'm hoping we meet a merman or something. I would like to think there is some fate for the boys too. (hide spoiler)]

The addition of new people is interesting but (view spoiler)[ I don't know how to feel about 14 of them. It seemed a little excessive and hard to keep tack of. They were all orphans but I amuse some had better or worse circumstances. I would have rather seen just a couple show up and then maybe a few more after time. I also didn't think I needed to have the explanation of them coomb through a blob in the drain. I think there are a lot of other things that could be explained in this world (like where do boys go? Are they naked? Ect.) (hide spoiler)]

I said it once and I will say it again. I really like Luce. (view spoiler)[ I love that she is selfless and curious. I liked how she wanted to retrieve the body at the start. When she got on land to save a fellow mermaid, I was impressed. (hide spoiler)]

Voice Training to The Mirror

I still like Luce. It makes me happy that she I such a good singer. However, (view spoiler)[ I'm getting a little sick of her breaking the laws and not getting any kind of punishment. I know that she always had good intentions. Yet, a lot of the rules seem to be there with really good reason. They would be found and hurt if the world knew what happened to them. (hide spoiler)]

Jennifer wrote: "Last Kiss to Voice Training.

Again, I like the book so far. In general I like the concept. [spoilers removed]

The addition of new people is interesting but [spoilers removed]

I said it once an..."

(view spoiler)[I want mermans too! We need some boy action in there lol. I don't understand why it is called Lost Voices either, maybe because mostly all of them (except Anais) Were all like in a bad place and when they turned into mermaids, they found their voice? I don't know haha (hide spoiler)]

Jennifer wrote: "Voice Training to The Mirror

I still like Luce. It makes me happy that she I such a good singer. However, [spoilers removed]"

I get what you mean (view spoiler)[I was getting annoyed at that, she got lucky that no one saw her though. Thinking that there was a loop hole between all the rules (hide spoiler)]

Okay, so I finished the book. Again, I liked it. I will probably read the rest of the series in the near future. I gave it 3 stars because I thought it was interesting, but I was dispointed with a few things that I thought weren't ever finished.

For example (view spoiler)[ I really liked the larva. Yet, I felt like they weren't as developed as they could have been. I wanted to see Luce help them out more. When Anais was "training" them and teasing with the clam or whatever, I really wanted Luce to offer food to them. I couldn't help but think about how she could have been bring them into the cave to prevent them from being eaten, rather than sitting alone in a cave all day singing to herself. Also, I was expecting her to miss her friend more than she did. (hide spoiler)]