The Sirens

By Emilia Hart

Book Overview

#1 LibraryReads Pick - April Indie Next Pick

A spellbinding novel about sisters separated by centuries, but bound together by the sea, from the author of the runaway New York Times bestseller Weyward

2019: Lucy awakens from a dream to find her hands around her ex-lover's throat. Horrified, she flees to her older sister's house on the Australian coast, hoping she can help explain the strangely vivid nightmare that preceded the attack--but Jess is nowhere to be found.

As Lucy awaits her return, the rumors surrounding Jess's strange small town start to emerge. Numerous men have gone missing at sea, spread over decades. A tiny baby was found hidden in a cave. And sailors tell of hearing women's voices on the waves. Desperate for answers, Lucy finds and begins to read her sister's adolescent diary.

1999: Jess is a lonely sixteen-year-old in a rural town in the middle of the continent. Diagnosed with a rare allergy to water, she has always felt different, until her young, charming art teacher takes an interest in her drawings, seeing a power and maturity in them--and in her--that no one else has.

1800: Twin sisters Mary and Eliza have been torn from their loving father in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship bound for Australia. For their entire lives, they've feared the ocean, as their mother tragically drowned when they were just girls. Yet as the boat bears them further and further from all they know, they begin to notice changes in their bodies that they can't explain, and they feel the sea beginning to call to them...

A breathtaking tale of female resilience and the bonds of sisterhood across time and space, The Sirens captures the power of dreams, and the mystery and magic of the sea.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250280826
• ISBN13: 9781250280824
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Meandering

Well, this was a meandering tale that seemed all over the place, trying to weave in the story of Eliza and Mary long ago, sisters with a special secret that they come to realize as they are shipped to Australia for a crime they committed and the story of Lucy and Jess in modern times with their own secret history that they must come to terms with in order find their places. There is just too much with things like sleepwalking, and dreams that seem like ancestral memories and that all gets pushed to the side for a neat little ending that was a bit disappointing. So, it did have promise and I did enjoy part of it but it seemed too long with Lucy's introspective thoughts. I think if I had read this, I would have not finished it but the audiobook was well done and the narrator did a good job with the material she had. She had a soothing voice and did the different accents very well and she is the reason why I stuck with this book to the end. So, the narrator did a 5 star job and the book was 3 1/2 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to listen to this audiobook.