Lindsay L's Reviews > The Sirens

3 stars.

A mysterious and atmospheric tale of sisterhood and seaside folklore.

A woman who was publicly shamed by a boy at her university flees to the small seaside town her sister recently moved to. Longing to build a stronger relationship with her sister, she hopes that some time spent there will be the escape and therapy she needs.

The atmosphere was my favourite part of this novel. The author knows how to pull the reader right into the setting of the story. I loved the remote seaside town and crumbling home in need of every repair. The setting was dark, haunting and mysterious and immensely added to my enjoyment.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t click with the storyline or the main character from the start, so I never had a true connection to the plot. A large issue for me was that I didn’t buy into the incident in the beginning of the book that sparked the main characters decision to flee and how she handled the whole situation. Since I didn’t connect with that, I had little investment in what happened afterward. I had a hard time sympathizing or even liking the main character.

There was a sleep element to the story that should have been mysterious and powerful, but didn’t quite work for me. There is also a unique medical condition that is a main part of the storyline that I felt could have used further explanation in how the character manages day to day life. It felt like a random piece of the plot that was never fully fleshed out.

Diary entries are a large part of this novel which are always a hit or miss for me. Sadly, they were a miss for me with this one. The diary entries did not ring true in how a teenage girl would actually write and they felt like a forced piece of the plot to push the story forward and fill the gaps.

This authors debut novel, Weyward, is on my All Time Favourite list. This book, her second release, was one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2025. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my hopes and perhaps my high expectations were part of what ruined the reading experience for me.

Regardless, I look forward to whatever this author writes next. Thank you to the publisher for my review copy!