ALC Review: The Sirens by Emilia Hart
Release date: 13 February 2025 (UK), 1 April 2025 (US)
Rating: 4.5/5
Narrator: Barrie Kreinik
Book box(es)/Special Editions: Barnes & Noble Exclusive, Waterstones Signed SE, Goldsboro Signed Edition
Synopsis: From Waterstones:
Sisters separated by centuries.
Voices that can't be drowned out.
Lucy is running from what she’s done – and what someone did to her.
There’s only one person who might understand: her sister Jess. But when Lucy arrives at her sister’s desolate cliff-top house, Jess is gone.
Lucy is now alone, in a strange town steeped in rumour. Stories of men disappearing without a trace. A foundling discovered in a sea-swept cave. And women’s voices murmuring on the waves…
As Lucy searches for her sister, those voices get ever louder. They tell of two sisters, two centuries ago, bound and transported across the world. A world where men always get their way. A world that is at once distant, and achingly familiar.
From 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.
Are these voices luring Lucy closer to her sister? Or will the secrets of the past pull them both under?
Review
Hart’s Weyward held a dramatic charm for me I hoped would carry over to The Sirens, which I liked even better, despite it taking place on a ship for part of the book. Dual timeline novels usually don’t interest me much. They tend to aggravate me due to the nature of the style—constant interruptions do not help my brain focus on one story, but Hart’s books somehow break through that for me and seem to hit me like catnip. I can’t put them down when I start them. Perhaps the story lines carry enough mystery with them and divulge clues with each switch, or perhaps the author’s prose style helps this along. Maybe the reason belongs to both; I don’t know. I do know I loved this book, and I bought several UK copies and preordered at least one US copy. Hart may have moved over to my "probably a new favorite author list" with The Sirens.
The Sirens really gives readers a saga from the perspective of two sets of sisters: Mary and Eliza in the 19th Century and Lucy and Jess in the 21st. Despite the gap in time, the issues remain remarkably the same in regard to women, namely the loss of agency at the hands of someone with more power and the strength women have within themselves and through their connection with other women that overcomes and counteracts that loss. Characters and their relationships always make or break a story for me, and I loved them in this one.
Additionally, books that make me want to explore history more always end up being some of my favorites. The Sirens highlights a part of history I’m not overly familiar with, particularly forced emigration and “convict” transportation to places such as Australia (though I know a tiny bit about some of the folks who came to the US that way). I’ve read a few titles about it, such as Avi’s The End of the World and Beyond, though the plot and prose of The Sirens piqued my interest a bit more than the others. Hart also manages in her writing style to keep me from boredom while reading about people stuck in one setting—particularly a confined space on a ship.
Kreinik’s narration only added to the story and bolstered the magic with clear enunciation, melodic tones, and wonderful cadence. Some narrators can heighten drama too much, but Kreinik manages a perfect balance that kept me on the edge of my seat and anxiously awaiting the next word of the story without making me overly anxious with melodrama.
Overall, 4/5 for the book and 5/5 for the narration. Ratings may be a bit all over the place for this one, but I really loved it. I recommend at least picking it up and giving it a try, and make sure to give the audio copy—even just a sample—a spin. I think the audio was a better experience of the book for me.
My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.