The Siren by Kiera Cass

Published: January 26th 2016
Publisher: HarperTeen
Author's Website

Introduction

The Ocean calls them to ships or the sites of disasters to bring a mass of people into their watery graves by singing to them. Kahlen was one of those who heard the sirens' song, and the Ocean decided to keep her, making her siren for 100 years. Along with her siren sisters, she serves Her, the Ocean, through the decades. Kahlen struggles to do what she must, but she obeys because once her sentence is over, she can have a normal life. Fall in love, have a family, go to school, use her voice to communicate. And then a boy stumbles (or perhaps jitterbugs) into her life, and he throws her plans--and the Ocean's--into disorder. 

Genre/Demographic

This book was an interesting mix. It definitely was fantasy (sirens), romance, and it has mass death in it, plus the emotions of being part of that.

While this does fall into the category of  YA on Goodreads, I'd say this is more for an older YA audience, but not quite new adult. There's implied physical relationships, alcohol consumption (but only a bit from the narrator), and most of all, the scenes of shipwrecks. Cass doesn't describe drowning, but you get the horror of a huge ship capsizing with no survivors. The MC, Kahlen, fills in the blanks for the reader by relating the huge amount of guilt she carries, and how she'd rather look away. I think the way the author wrote this so delicately really lets the reader's imagination do its job, and it's so much better than describing it in detail.

It was also a fast read--I was able to read most of it in one day when I was volunteering at a reception desk. I appreciated that the book doesn't dwell on details like the houses they live in, clothes they wear, partying, etc., which I believe are some complaints that Cass gets for her other series, The Selection (the film rights were sold for a film for this in 2015, if you are interested). Each of Kahlen's sisters is unique with their hobbies and mannerisms, and I enjoyed reading about all of them. We get just enough of everything to fill in ourselves and continue on.

Insta-Love

10 days.

That's how long they knew each other for.

10.

Days.

No. 

This is from page 160 of the 2016 paperback (I blacked out the love-interest's name). I got serious Edward Cullen vibes. What's with people thinking this is endearing?

Essay Ideas

An easy idea is to compare this to other mermaid/siren stories, such as the Han's Christian Andersen fable, Amanda Hocking's Watersong Series (which I reviewed some of), Forgive My Fins, and...that's all I can think of. But Goodreads has these two lists: YA Mermaid Novels and Best Mermaid Books.  

Some more ideas can be an exploration of the Enthralling Siren trope and the Femme Fatale trope, as I don't necessarily think they fit the bill for it (reluctant femme fatales?). A paper can probably be written about the subversion of these tropes.   

A bigger topic can be exploring nature personified (the Ocean, which is so motherly She gets unbearable sometimes). 

Upcoming Mermaid Films

Like Mermaid films?

Three "Little Mermaid" Movies are in the Works

2018 film (Wikipedia)

Final Thoughts

It is the most mature book on sirens/mermaids I have read thus far. I recommend it for an older YA audience. I suspect that a younger audience might become bored. Cass is a popular author, so I think including this in the YA section of a library is an easy yes. 

Tidal by Amanda Hocking

The Watersong Tetralogy Reviews

Wake and Lullaby

 

Published: St. Martin's Griffin

Publisher: April 16th 2013

Series: #3 Watersong
Website: Author’s Blog 

Introduction

Gemma can’t cope with being a siren, so she is desperate to find a way out. She discovers that she needs to find the scroll with the siren curse written on it to put an end to it. Unfortunately, if Gemma returns to normal, it means the death of the other sirens. Therefore, the other sirens will not willingly hand over the scroll. On the other hand, Penn wants to replace the whining Gemma, and Penn also has her sights set on Daniel, a man who is immune to the siren’s seductions. Daniel is dating Harper, Gemma’s sister, and there is only so long before Penn will get what she wants.

Story

This installment is more concerned with backstory and…talking. A lot of talking. There is some heart-crunching action at the end, and that is by far my favourite portion. Unfortunately, the characters are more concerned with talking, driving, whining, participating in a play, and doing some awful things to Gemma’s mother.  This series should be a trilogy, and all the useless talking in circles should have been cut from this book.

If you were interested in the backstory of the Sirens, then you’ll enjoy this book, or at least the parts that deliver a segment of their long lives. Although the reason why the tale of Bastian and the sirens was given to the reader was because Penn thinks about a descendent of Bastian may be in Capri. However, this is just dropped and forgotten.

The story is slow, yet there are some interesting concepts that are introduced, and I am sure they will be explored in the final book.

Gemma’s Siren Attributes

                The sirens have silky voices that are (generally) irresistible and they have an allure that gets them what they want. Perhaps Gemma hasn’t been a siren for long enough, but where is her charm? I find her dull. In this book she does seduce men, though the whole glamor isn’t there for her. Men just throw themselves at her, even when she is being the same dull wooden plank that she always is. The book would have been much more interesting if she exuded some sensual witchcraft, willingly or not.  

Harper

                In the other books, I liked Harper. She reminds me a bit of myself: I worry way too much about other people. However, in this book, it’s all Harper does. I get that she has a lot on her plate. At what point do you let you let a character do nothing but fret about other people? This is all she does. She worries about her boyfriend, the other sirens, her sister, her mom, the library, Marcy, and school. I know she has a nurturing complex, but I lost interest in her efforts because I wasn’t invested in her character anymore.

Cover

                I hope I’m not the only one who hates this cover. Showing a depiction of Daniel and Penn is bad enough, but look at Penn’s face! Now look at Daniel’s. He looks like a photo that has been imposed in some water and it looks fine. Now we all get to hear my theory about what happened to Penn’s face: Penn was like Daniel; a photograph. But to get the lighting correct from the lighthouse in the distance, they had to add some shadows onto her face, and the artist overdid it. Severely. Her eyes and eyebrows are unrealistic, and the shadow along her jawline kills me.

            The lighthouse in the distance also bothers me. Where is this lighthouse mentioned? I suppose it is just a standard nautical image, but it should have something to do with the story if it is on the cover.

The feathers in the splash behind Penn are a nice addition, though.

Final Verdict

                Because this is an installment in the Watersong series that is four books long, I have to say that if you enjoyed the first two, you should read this one. My hopes are that the fourth one will end with an amazing sense of satisfaction for the reader. This book, by itself, was a tad boring and simply too long for it to warrant its own installment. All this book did was eliminate characters and introduce new characters and concepts for the final book. I have high hopes for the finale of the Watersong trilogy, and if your library already has the first book, you kind of have to get this one too.

Silent Echo by Elisa Freilich

*ARC from NetGalley-much thanks!

Published: September 10th 2013

Publisher: Diversion Books
Website: Author’s Website

Introduction

For 16 years, Portia Griffin has been mute. Her best friend is Felix, a deaf boy, and together they overcome communication obstacles to lead normal lives. On the first day of school she meets the new boy, Max Hunter, a genius musician. Then she discovers that her voice has returned, only it comes with the terrible power to entrance and seduce. Before she is poisoned by the evil of her heritage, the Greek gods step in to help before Portia ruins her reputation and her love life.  

Mythology

I’ve read Bullfinch's Mythology by choice in high school because, obviously, I am enamoured by mythology. There are some extra bits thrown in, some new names, some new sons of Gods. To make this a work of fiction, new history will have to be written. However, the author also messes with established lore. When the author made sirens Goddesses my heart felt a little bit like it was stabbed with a butter knife. Additionally, it killed me how useless all the other gods are.

I did like how the author made sirens not like mermaids, but a classical siren with wings. This is refreshing, as popular YA fiction tends to make this formula: mermaid=siren, and some try to make them both fish tailed and winged, and it doesn’t always work.

Also, I thoroughly enjoyed how the gods are portrayed in the real world. It focused too much on technology and how old they were, but nonetheless, the reader gets to see how gods live among humans, or not.

Main Character

Portia Griffin is mute, and likes music and birds. Yet she doesn’t have much of a personality, other than “nice”. She has some rapid personality changes. Though these changes are cringe-worthy, and you’ll hate her as a character, they are integral to the story. Unfortunately, once she gets her voice, I wanted her to shut up because the dialogue was terrible. Yes, she is a teenage girl. No, not every teenager is vapid and unable to speak. Her introduction with the gods is so forced. Like, hey, I’m totally a normal girl, and it’s not like I’ve been taking an entire class on Greek mythology, so I’m totally going to mess this up all over the place. Don’t take me seriously, please, k? I’m just going to make a joke of myself because god-oh, sorry, gosh!-I totally don’t know what’s going on.  

  

Love Story

It’s another one of those stock stories where everyone is in love with the heroine. In this case, she is a siren, and it is in her nature to seduce with her voice. Alright. But before this a love triangle forms with the best friend and the new love interest. (This happens so early on that it isn’t even a spoiler.) Like with Bella Swan, everyone loves her because. They just do and the reader has to get over it. Sure she’s “nice”, but so is everyone else in her school. At one point the reader hears that another girl is “nice” but it isn’t enough. Oh, it isn’t enough in this other girl’s case? How fair.   

The love interest is an unexpected explosion of fireworks in the middle of a mall. Everyone around is thinking, Yeah, this is nice, I guess…but why is it happening? They love-love each other within days. Sure, this happens in real life, and it is dumb. Sorry, but it is. It’s difficult to expect a reader to care about their relationship.   

Lyrics, Poetry, Music

A lot of the rhyming is simplistic. I understand that the author had to write a small selection of original poetry for this book, and all poetry is subjective. I just can’t get over how terrible some of the rhymes are. This book focuses on lyrical poetry and music heavily, and I feel that more effort should have been put into it.

I detest Portia’s rapping. Max sings songs that are modern and are not raps…though that hardly makes them tolerable. Here are some versus:

“I’m Mario Andretti,

I’m stuck on the course,

And you, baby, are the Grand Prix.” (This doesn’t even rhyme…not even half rhymes)

“And what about Krispy Kreme-

Why can’t it just be

That iced, glazed, and sprinkled

Has one calorie?” (And this…isn’t grammatically correct)

Writing

Aside from the horrendous lyrics, the writing is alright. The deepest pits of my soul are glowing because this book is in the third-person, not the first-person. Why is everyone so fixated on reading first-person narratives? Is it because first-person narratives are easier to write, so authors are producing them, making readers accustomed to this type of narrative? /Rant.  

This book is too long, and yet crucial moments, like when Portia regains her voice, are skimmed over. Why, book, why?!

The book uses the word “Forasmuch” meaning: “in view of the fact that”.  This book might win the new award I just made up for weird words that are words but no one uses for a reason. 

Verdict

It is an alright book: it has some mythology and some originality. It is too long and the lyrics are painful. The premise was compelling and I find muteness interesting and a topic that I have not explored much. I recommend it to teens who are into mythology, but not fanatics about it because the changes might drive them away.