Deep Betrayal

February 15, 2013
Diving back into the stagnant, tepid waters of Lies Beneath (2012), Lily Anne Hancock and Calder White return to Lake Superior, where Lily first discovered Calder was a merman and that his adoptive sisters were bent on the destruction of the Hancock family. With one of the sisters dead, Lily and Calder tell Lily's father he is the true sibling of the merpeople and gradually introduce him to life underwater--just as bodies start washing up on the lakeshore. Lily knows that mercreatures hunt, but her father knows what being human is and doesn't need to feed on human emotions, does he? Switching the narration from fishy Calder to a love-struck, half-fish teen girl doesn't enliven the emotional dullness that marked the first work. Brown does attempt to link back to the Native American legends halfheartedly explored earlier, with little success. There's very little by way of plot, despite piles of bodies and many red herrings. Lily and Calder's romance continues to be defined by his controlling and obsessive behavior, while Lily experiments with her mutant abilities to fit into Calder's watery world. This is the same bait as the last novel, but it's been left in the sun even longer. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)

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May 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-In this sequel to Lies Beneath (Delacorte, 2012), Lily is reeling from the recent events in her life. She has been dragged away from her friends and school after a brush with death. The boy she might love is a merman, and her family has a dark and troubled past with these creatures of the deep that live in the waters of the Great Lakes. Her father is about to find out that he, too, can transform, and once he does, their lives will never be the same. But deep within Lake Superior lies a deadly force, and when swimmers report attacks and turn up dead, family friend Jack is quick to campaign against the merfolk. Publicity, bad or good, is something they can't afford. Fast paced and filled with twisty turns, this story will appeal to readers who enjoyed this new take on a paranormal romance in the first book. Others will find it too difficult to catch up with the extensive mythology of these aquatic creatures.-Genevieve Gallagher, Charlottesville High School, VA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2013
About to graduate from high school, Lily has a big secret: her dad and boyfriend are mermen. These aren't the creatures of fairy tales but mer-people on the brink of war, a war Lily herself must learn to fight. This installment doesn't stand alone and Lily's narration can be unfocused at times, but fans of Lies Beneath will be pulled right into this sequel.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)