Siren (Siren, #1)

by Tricia Rayburn

[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.