Reviewed by Jo on
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.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 25 February, 2011: Finished reading
- 25 February, 2011: Reviewed