Book Review – The Sirens

The Sirens by Emilia Hart
Narrator: Barrie Kreinik
on February 13, 2025
Length: 10 hours 56 minutes
Pages: 337
Format: Audiobook
Goodreads

A story of sisters separated by hundreds of years but bound together in more ways than they can imagine
2019: Lucy awakens in her ex-lover’s room in the middle of the night with her hands around his throat. Horrified, she flees to her sister’s house on the coast of New South Wales hoping Jess can help explain the vivid dreams that preceded the attack—but her sister is missing. As Lucy waits for her return, she starts to unearth strange rumours about Jess’s town—tales of numerous missing men, spread over decades. A baby abandoned in a sea-swept cave. Whispers of women’s voices on the waves. All the while, her dreams start to feel closer than ever.
1800: Mary and Eliza are torn from their loving home in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship heading for Australia. As the boat takes them farther and farther away from all they know, they begin to notice unexplainable changes in their bodies.
A breathtaking tale of female resilience, The Sirens is an extraordinary novel that captures the sheer power of sisterhood and the indefinable magic of the sea.

 

Julie’s Review:

I’m struggling to write this review for The Sirens because I loved the author’s previous book, Weyward (read my review here), so much! And this book did not quite measure up to that experience.

Let’s start with what I liked. I enjoy this author’s way of bringing us to the past and then to the present and intertwining stories from different people connected somehow across time. The story is told in a lovely way, describing very vividly what is happening. Such as the scaly flaky skin our main narrator describes, and the women on the convict ship – you could certainly feel what they are going through.

I like the alternating POVs and even the diary entries. Switching up who is telling the story keeps it fresh. The audio narration was well done – each narrator with a different accent and all.

I liked that the book kept secrets from us and dropped hints throughout until the big reveals. The biggest reveal happening in the epilogue, though I had my suspicions. I also loved the way the girls were drawn to the sea, even though their “condition” made it a problem. The way they all finally realized what they were and

What I didn’t enjoy so much was the book was just sad, and full of lies. Family lying to each other over and over. The overall feel of the book wasn’t of redemption so much it was acceptance of the truth.

I also am not a fan of the trope of someone completely ditching their life and not looking back kind of thing. The main narrator runs away from university as she’s dealing with a life issue, and then what? That’s not real life and this is more a magical realism than fantasy type of book.

Overall I enjoyed it, but I had high expectations because of how much I enjoyed Weyward. Something was missing for me with Sirens.

 

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Lynn’s Review:

Ugh. I should not have waited a week between finishing this book and writing this review. Like Julie, I’m struggling to figure out what I want to say. So let’s go with list view! 

GOOD:

• The switches in POV between the modern story of Jessica & Lucy and the historical story of Mary and Eliza really works here. 
• I also liked the journal reading plotline. That gave us insight into Jessica’s life before we meet her. There’s also a great nod to podcasts, which I also enjoyed.
• Narration was good, but not really memorable. It was better with all the female characters than the male characters. 

NOT AS GOOD:

• I found the modern plot rather predictable. Like no shocks whatsoever. Because of this, I preferred the historic story and wish there was more of that.
• I agree with Julie on the lies and the running away from your problems trope. Even more so when all the adults around are not making the situation any better.
• The epilogue does answer some questions, but there were still some questions left after finishing that I didn’t receive answers to. C’est la vie, I suppose. 

Overall, I’d say this was an ok, but not amazing, read.

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