Antonia Angress' writing was a marvel to behold. Every sentence captivated me and pulled me further into the story that was unfolding. I had been excited to delve into Sirens & Muses since the first time I saw the stunning cover. The novel was beautiful, thrilling, and devastating all at once. As soon as I got into the thick of things, I couldn't put this book down—it's the type of novel that makes you hungry for more the more you read.

As someone who's been a fan of academic narratives for the better part of a decade, I loved being able to get lost in the world that Angress created. A delight to read and a sorrow to finish because I didn't want to part ways with the characters or the tale being told.

Sirens & Muses is a stunning debut about artistry, identity, desire, politics, and its effects on our relationships. It follows four artists in different stages of their careers; Karina, Louisa, Preston, and Robert. The setting and the tone of the novel reminded me of a mixture between The Secret History and The Goldfinch, as Dark Academia is quite a prominent theme.

The book focuses deeply on the characters thoughts, as we see them make decisions that aren’t always admirable. We watch as they succumb to the temptation of fame and money, even though they risk loosing their identity in the process. We see a rather innocent girl wrapped up in a situation she might not have imagined for herself, and a teacher in the middle of a fall from grace. It’s full of lies and unfaithfulness, which is what ultimately gives the book its depth and genuine emotion.

This book was inventive, pretentious, full of intrigue and suspense. Perfect if you enjoy complex, morally grey characters, references to art, and books set in academia.

SIRENS & MUSES is a multi-POV novel that follows four artists in the early 2010s, first at an upstate art school and then in NYC. I loved the chapters from Karina and Louisa, roommates who are trying to find their artistic voices and balancing the desire to create what they want and the desire to create art that will sell (+ desire in general ❤️‍🔥). If the entire book was these two, this probably would've been a five star read for me.

The other two POVs are where we get some timely cultural themes. The author explores art vs. commerce, the Occupy movement, and the early stages of toxic online communities. The themes were interesting but the men were not. I wish the author had woven these topics more into the women's stories, and also had gone a little deeper into them; I finished the book not sure how I was supposed to feel about any of it.

I had high expectations because S&M sounded so much like OTHER PEOPLES CLOTHES. But where OPC went slightly off the rails in a way I loved, SIRENS & MUSES stayed firmly in place as a character and cultural study. Which isn’t a bad thing at all! Just not what’s working for me right now.

I like academic settings in books, I like art. I expected to love this book and it was just okay. I found Preston's parts boring and they dragged the book down; I kept wanting to skim and get past them. I don't know why the male characters got so much time, they didn't add anything to the story and felt flat.

A really wonderful debut novel about elite institutions (love a good campus novel!) and artists trying to find their place in the world.

RIYL: campus novels, the art world, the haves and have nots, bisexual love triangles, Occupy Wall Street, adjectives

Casting: ironically, Phoebe Bridgers as Karina and Daisy Edgar Jones as Louisa

a beautifully written debut novel that hits that coming-of-college-age sweet spot that I typically enjoy. echoes of Sally Rooney are definitely present here, and we follow characters in the academic art world, which is something I found fascinating to read about. it was a bit slow at first but once I got a grasp on the characters I couldn’t put this one down.

I really liked this story! It gave me the secret history by donna tart vibes and I was engaged completely. I loved the two strong, but incredibly different female leads. I like that this story did not revolve around their romantic lives and rather the author created conversation about classism and privilege in the art world. I just wish I could have gotten more of their reconciliation in the end. I would have loved to see a snippet of the two girls living in the south together, making love and making art

This is a gripping novel about young artists, what it means to make it in the art world, and whether one can attain commercial success and maintain authenticity. It's clear from the first pages that Antonia Angress writes with authority and confidence. The story follows three students at prestigious art school loosely modeled on Rhode Island School of Design and their involvements with each other and with a professor who is struggling to reclaim his earlier success in the commercial art world. I'm not usually a fan of campus novels, which are often pretentious and predictable, but this one was wise and compelling. Antonia Angress is young but on the brink of what will surely be a brilliant career.

First off, the cover is absolutely stunning and is what initially drew my interest to the book. Then I read over the premise and was very intrigued. Before reading, I guessed that I would find it similar to The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It has the same pretentious academic feel, but add more emotion and a twist of art. You follow four POV's from a third person perspective. While I believe I may have enjoyed this more if I had an artistic background, I still liked it.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

Siren & Muses by Antonia Angress is as a dull academia novel about various pseudo-intellectuals lounging around debating art theory. There isn't much of a plot and the story lacks overall focus, tension, and a source of conflict.

This is a debut novel and it very much falls into amateur pitfalls. The organizational flow of the writing is choppy and awkward at times. Also, character introductions are often accompanied by a several-page-long info dump about their past history that left me asking, is this necessary? Couldn't this have been integrated more seamlessly into the story?

All and all, this book pulled me in with its gorgeous cover and but its failed potential and vapid characters ultimately left me feeling disappointed.

What is art? Who gets to decide what it is? And what does it mean to 'sell out' just to pay the bills as an artist? Sirens & Muses was a near perfect novel that unravels difficult relationships between artists as they attempt to 'make it' and simply survive to make ends meet. So many complicated emotions are unraveled throughout and I felt such deep sympathy for each of the characters as they examine their motives, their muses, and how willing they are to stray from their morals to become artists in their own right.

Quite surprised that this is a debut novel. It was beautiful, compelling and smart. I loved the premise of this novel (it was very the secret history-ish) and the characters felt very real and well-developed. I will recommend this to people who are hopeless romantics and art majors. I cannot wait to red more of this author's work and beautiful prose!

You all have heard me say many times that campus novels aren't my thing. I hated The Secret History and many readalikes. These characters though! I could not get enough of them nor the setting. This is the PERFECT back to school read for all fiction lovers.

4.5 Sirens & Muses is told from 4 POVs: Robert and Preston, a rival professor and student, and Louisa and Karina, roommates and eventual lovers. The book's first half takes place at their college campus and the second half in the New York art scene. I was much more interested in Louisa and Karina's story and relationship until the last quarter of the book, when I was finally interested in all 4 of them. The ending was satisfying in that it was realistic, and left me feeling hopeful but a little sad. Overall a great literary sapphic New York novel that taught me a lot about the art scene! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I’m a sucker for any Coming of Age/New York novel hybrid, with a bonus if some of the book has a campus setting. This book meets all of that criteria and the tone and style is reminiscent of early Anna Pitoniak with a dash of Lucy Ives.

This one doesn’t have the personal impact that Pitoniak got from me in, for example, The Futures, or the wickedly sharp, pedantic humor of Ives’ Impossible Views of the World, but it does live in the same general orbit, and I was pleased with the blend of art world insider content, crisp writing, and intriguing character development.

Angress did particularly well with the art-related content of the book, from the creative fictional artwork made by the characters to the sly and at times sneering portrait of the art world.

The characters were less relatable for me than in a lot of coming of age novels, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t feel invested in their fates. In all, it’s a good story with high enough stakes to keep one’s attention but not too much emotional demand from the reader.

In 2011, students at the elite Wrynn College of Arts are in a bubble separate from the tumultuous outside world of New York City. Louisa is a transfer student and is soon enamored with her roommate Karina. The two become entwined sensually and artistically, but Karina can't let go of her fascination with Preston. The anti-capitalist Preston is publicly feuding with political painter Robert Berger, a visiting professor. Preston develops an elaborate hoax, and all four are sucked deeply into it. Now they must determine what is genuine or lose themselves.

Louisa is depicted from the start as relatively innocent of the world, homesick for the Acadian countryside of Louisiana where she grew up. Karina is her opposite, the worldly and sophisticated art student looking for grand meaning in everything; I find her to be pretentious, the nearly twenty-year-old so certain she knows everything and school can't really teach her. She's grown up in the art world, after all, and the rest of the people around her have similar attitudes. These generally aren't the kind of people that I enjoy being around in real life, and I don't like them much better in fiction form.

We see New York City and its art world in 2011, as well as the changing landscape of what it takes to maintain popularity in that scene. Not to mention how small it actually is, in that even leaving Wynne after Preston's hoax they continue to see each other or mention each other. The hoax itself was NOT funny, and trying to say it was a political statement was still a bad move; it definitely solidified the hypocrisy of Preston's position, and how thin the veneer of art and politics can be.

This is a well-written book, but we're spending time with some deeply flawed, unpleasant people. It's when all of them step out from the shield of academia and relying on others for a sense of self that they start to grow up. Once that happens, they start feeling real, and I connected with them better. I never like Preston, and Louisa very much is reactionary rather than planning for the future. My perception of Karina changed over the course of the story, and she wasn't the same person she was at the start. In a way, I feel sad for Karina and Robert (not Preston) because once they got over the inflated importance of who they thought they were supposed to be, they had the potential to actually be likable. Louisa didn't have much of a presence as a person, as she was more reactive than proactive. Like most people affected by the high cost of living in New York City, the race for money and stability leads to very different choices than they'd make elsewhere. I do wish them luck for the future.

Well. Seems like I’m an outlier here again. I only requested this because I loved the title and cover but had no idea otherwise what it was about. If I read that this was compared to Writers & Lovers I would have not requested this and/or cancelled that real quick. Especially since this is about pretentious art students that all blur into one for the most part.

I’m sure this is not a bad book if you’re into literary fiction about art students. I had to force myself to finish this one and it was never worth it unfortunately. I feel bad for giving this such a negative review but I had to be honest that it didn’t work for me and I wouldn’t recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine for an advanced copy of this book.

I really, really adored this novel. What a smart, special, and utterly beautiful book. This writer is clearly talented and the prose absolutely shines and sings. I found myself totally compelled by these artists and their claustrophobic, insular little art worlds. I was so happy to read about queer people and queer sex and queer relationships. I was really drawn in by the book's discussion of class and privilege, too, and the particular hardships for low-income writers and folks without family connections. I adored this book and would recommend it to anyone. I can't wait to see what this author writes next.

This book has FANTASTIC vibes. It's queer, it's here, it's set in 2011, it's about artists at an elite college and it's mostly about the inner thoughts and lives of those artists. Very light on plot and I wouldn't necessarily call what any of the characters go through "development", but I LOVED the vibes. I also really enjoy the cover. Five stars.