Siren (Siren, #1)

by Tricia Rayburn

Something deadly waits beneath the waves off Winter Harbour, and this summer, no one's safe.

Seventeen-year-old Vanessa Sands is afraid of the dark. And heights. And the ocean. And pretty much everything else. Fortunately, Vanessa's fearless older sister, Justine, has always been there to comfort her. That is until Justine jumps off a cliff near their family's holiday home in Winter Harbour, her lifeless body washing ashore the next day.

Everyone assumes that the tragedy is an accidental result of Justine's adventurous ways. Everyone, that is, except Vanessa. Vanessa returns to Winter Harbour alone, looking for answers from Caleb Carmichael, Justine's summer love who was with her when she jumped. But when Vanessa learns that Caleb has been missing since Justine's death, she joins forces with Caleb's older brother, Simon, to try to find him.

Soon, it's not just Vanessa who is afraid. Panic sweeps through Winter Harbour as more bodies wash ashore, all male, each victim found grinning from ear to ear. And as the death toll mounts, Vanessa realises that to save Caleb and solve the mystery of her sister's death, she has to confront a secret she's kept for years - one that could end her summer romance with Simon and even life as she knows it.

An utterly gripping paranormal romance for Twilight fans sick of copy-cat vampire novels but in love with paranormal romance.

• ISBN10: 0571260063
• ISBN13: 9780571260065
• Publish Date: 20 January 2011 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 July 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Faber & Faber
• Edition: Main
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Interesting twist on the sea siren/mermaid tale.

[Angie]

Siren was more interesting and darker than other mermaid books I've read, but it was still boring. Vanessa and her family are at their Summer home, when her sister jumps off a cliff during a storm and washes up onto the beach the next day. But she's just the first of many bodies that are pulled from the water that Summer, and Vanessa is determined to figure out what's happening with the help of her sister's disembodied voice and her science loving crush.

I was really bored with Siren in the beginning. It's really slow and none of the paranormal stuff appears until about half way through. It's mostly just Vanessa whining about everything she's afraid of, meeting Paige, working at a restaurant, and arguing with her mom. Then Simon's brother, Caleb, goes missing so she helps to find him, which takes them on a wild goose chase all over the place. It turns out that he's been lured by a siren, and she's mad that she can't totally have him, because he was in love with Vanessa's sister. And of course, if she can't have him, no one can.

I did like that the sirens were these dark, evil creatures rather than just misunderstood and looking for love in all the wrong places. They are killing lots of men. But what I really couldn't believe was that Paige didn't find it odd that her family drinks salt water and bathes in it. She doesn't know about sirens, but still, that is odd. Doesn't she know that ocean water makes people sick? And that it dries out the skin? But she never ever questions why her family is constantly consuming and being submerged in it? That makes absolutely zero sense, but I suppose Paige was meant to be the sweet, naive one.

Siren wasn't really my thing. The first half is really dragged out and boring, and then the second half is just kind of all over the place. We learn about sirens, but they don't get much page time at all. Then they come up with a plan to get stop the sirens, and I had to roll my eyes. It involves science, which is great, but I do not believe for a single second that a scientist would let some teenagers take this machine and drop it into the ocean under mysterious (or any) circumstances. No way.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[elysium]

I finished this only barely and thought about giving up. I didn't like any of the characters and I thought it was just ridiculous.

[Jo]

Something deadly waits beneath the waves off Winter Harvour, and this summer, no one's safe.
Timid seventeen-year-old Vanessa Sands has always had her siser Justine to protect her. Until Justine is found dead near their holiday home and her boyfriend aleb goes missing.
Looking for answers, Vanessa finds solace in Simon, Caleb's handsome brother. But time is running out as more men disappear, their bodies washed ashore grinning from ear-to-ear.
As Vanessa delves deeper int Winter Harbour's murky past she discoers that nothing is what it seems. Not even her. And only she may have the power to stop this.
Will she find the courage to fave up to wha she really is - before Simon becomes the next victim? From blurb.

When I first picked up this novel, I was excited to read it. I hadn't read any mermaid/siren novels before but had always wanted to, and I was intrigued by the plot. Now, although I enjoyed it, I'm feeling slightly underwhelmed.

Everyone knows the basic myth of sirens; beautiful femme fatales that sing, attracting men to them in the sea and causing their death. Knowing that was going to be what the story was about at it's very basic, I was, initially, more interested in Vanessa and Justine's relationship, and why she died. The characters are very well rounded with individual personalities, which you find with any novel, but there was something more to them in this book which I can't quite put my finger on, but made them seem more real. The characterisation definitely made all of them jump right out of the page.

The plot was really intriguing as Vanessa found out more; the strange weather, the people who died, the links between them. There's so much I would like to say, but I really don't want to spoil it for you - there is nothing small about this book, it all leads to the bigger picture, and I don't want to give anything away. It really keeps you turning the pages though, wondering what's going to happen next, and how it's all happening.

That's one thing I had issues with, the "how". It wasn't really explained, and I found it a little hard to understand. This could be because there is a sequel, and some things probably need to be discovered by Vanessa herself later on, but not understand what was going on jolted me a bit. I also had some issues with the ease with which most characters, and then Vanessa, eventually, seemed to accept that Sirens were the cause. It just seemed like everything up to the third part of the novel was carefully planned, and everything flowed, directing you to the end, but then the last third was rushed. Everyone accepts, a plan is quickly worked out and put into action. And the action scene... I didn't really see what was going on. Some writers are able to perfectly give you enough detail so that you can actually see everything that's happening, even though it's happening so fast and so much is going on. With Siren, I just got a bit lost; things didn't seem clear in regards to who was doing what, and then something else was happening, and I didn't understand why. All of a sudden the action was over, but I didn't really know what had actually happened. Perhaps this was just me, though.

Despite all this, I did really enjoy Siren. The mythology, what I know of it, was really quite interesting, and the cliff hanger with the unanswered questions will lead to a very exciting sequel, which I'm really looking forward too. A pretty good book.

From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog.

Average addition to the YA paranormal scene. It was very dense and somewhat hard to finish. I didn't love Vanessa all that much. The plot was predictable and kind of bland. The secondary characters were meh. 2 stars.