Favorite book of the year so far! Academia novels are my jam and this one doesn't disappoint. I liked pretty much everything in Antonia Angress' debut about two young women from different socioeconomic backgrounds and the way in which their creativity and sexuality collide in sophomore year art school (and beyond).

When I first read the synopsis for Sirens and Muses, I couldn''t wait to read it....although I feared it might be one of those books that feels overly researched and trying to dazzle with too many art references. Thankfully this never comes across as overbearingly pretentious - Angress smartly weaves slices of theory and history and technique into the story in ways that feels casual and informative and user friendly.

Both female protagonists are vividly imagined and likable/unlikable in their own ways, while the other two main male characters (a teacher who gets trolled by a hoaxy internet bro) have their own little subplots that are satisfying and work well with the A plot, which by the way is totally hot and queer sometimes. Loved all the art world tea, too - the story highlights all the toxicity that the predators in the gallery/collectors scene pump into the waters.

Great debut - will gladly recommend to friends and fam

I don’t think I am Antonia Angress’s intended reader. That’s okay! I thought Sirens & Muses would be more literary than it is, given the references to Lily King and Donna Tartt in the description. This hampered my enjoyment of the book since that’s where my focus lies. Overall, though, there are threads that keep the plot going and the pages turning, the characters are well-voiced; importantly, the conclusion is satisfying. I think a lot of readers who aren’t looking for something literary will find this enjoyable (as evidenced by the current abundance of high reviews on several websites!)—so kudos to Angress for writing a book that seems to be doing quite well, in the area of advance reviews.

I felt the quality of the writing was inconsistent, but Angress shows promise; there are moments of lovely imagery. One of my favorite passages in the book comes from the first page: “[...] it startled her to see hills and sullen, huddled townhouses, the New England sky close and cold, nothing like at home, where the sky overwhelmed the land, a drama of clouds and rain and strange shafts of tawny light.” I am very particular about prose in fiction, and “a drama of clouds and rain and strange shafts of tawny light” is gorgeous.

In general I’m not really a plot person, but I think the big-picture plot points work out pretty well with this book—I just think some of them could be executed better. I think Angress works better with more action (which is not usually my thing) which is why some of the final parts of the book end up being the most compelling to read. There are four perspectives that Angress switches between and this can become somewhat tiresome, because for the majority of the book some characters are more interesting than others. I was pleasantly surprised by Robert’s turnaround in this regard: in the final quarter of the book he becomes much more compelling. On the other hand, Preston becomes less and less likeable as the book goes on. All of the characters receive relatively satisfying conclusions, although I think some readers will be frustrated with Preston, who is largely difficult to empathize with; importantly, some moments exploring his background and trauma make him much more sympathetic, but these moments don’t really counteract the frustrating ones.

I liked Angress’s writing about sex! The first sex scene she writes between Louisa and Karina comes to mind, and includes one of my favorite short lines, something lovely: “She tasted like Diet Coke and chewing gum.” Another strong example comes earlier in the book, when Karina recalls her previous sexual experiences with women: “Both encounters had been one-night stands, but they’d felt strangely, almost overwhelmingly intimate [...] she’d felt tender and raw, like the soft pink skin under a peeling sunburn.” This is good writing, and it doesn’t take up as much space in the book as it should! Other times, Angress shies away from depicting sex in detail. I think she has interesting observations about sex and desire, but my guess is she might be hesitant about diving deeper; there are a lot of writers that wouldn’t go as far as she does. There’s still (bizarrely) a powerful stigma that surrounds writing explicit sex in fiction. I think Angress’s discussion of sex and desire are some of the most interesting parts of the book and I’d be interested to see her pursue those themes further.

I hope in this review I have shown, in brief, how a reader can give an honest review, one that touches on aspects of the book they didn’t like, while structuring this in a way that could actually be helpful to the author instead of something utterly toxic that makes them feel terrible about themselves. Do I owe Antonia Angress helpful criticism? Maybe not. But the alternative is writing a mean book review, and the more I write and read both fiction and critical writing, the less point I see to mean reviews. I want people to make art, and even if the art doesn’t resonate strongly with me, I don’t want to be part of the reason that someone decides it isn’t worth it to continue writing.

In short: while I might not be the right fit for Sirens & Muses, I think there are many appreciative readers for this book waiting to find it.

If you are interested in art this is a wonderful book. If you're not, this will draw you in. Louisa, Karina, Preston, and Robert have four different artistic styles. They come from different backgrounds. Each is eager to succeed.
Karina's story was most interesting. She came from money and her parents collected art. Preston lost his mother and didn't care for his father. Robert was trying to gain back his artistic following. Louisa wanted to keep her southern roots.
Thanks to NetGalley for this selection.

I wish I could find the words to properly describe how I feel after reading this. A fascinating, scintillating novel centered around the lives of four artists. It's vaguely reminiscent of Donna Tartt's novels (The Secret History and The Goldfinch in particular), but maintains its own original voice throughout. Brilliantly and beautifully written.

Even the characters I didn't find compelling at the beginning were chapters I looked forward to. The growth each of these characters underwent over the course of the novel was subtle yet present; everyone just felt so human.

I loved how interconnected everyone and everything was, and my favorite instance of this had to be when Louisa watched Ines's cat without even knowing of the significance Ines held for Karina, and how Ines was eventually the one to pull them back together.

This is easily one of my favorite books that I've read so far, and one of the books I was looking forward to the most. I can proudly say that it did not disappoint.

I selected this mainly for the art world setting. I was surprised by the strength of the writing, and I was happy that I liked the characters. I found this to be engaging and expect that this will find a happy niche audience.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

This book in itself was a complete work of art. Everything about it was beautifully written, from the artfully written characters to the beautiful pieces of art that were described so that your mind could see them clearly, to the author's wonderful story that played out along the pages.

Sirens and Muses was an excellent debut novel and I am looking forward to whatever Antonia Angress gives us next.

Sirens & Muses has the exact atmosphere I want from a sapphic dark academia novel - it's brooding, tender, and sharp. the story follows four different points of view: Louisa, Karina, and Preston, all art students at a school called Wrynn, and Robert, a disgruntled professor. We follow the students throughout their tumultuous relationships and dedicated art practices as everything slowly begins to decay around them.

I found the story itself to be all-encompassing, and I loved both Louisa and Karina in all their flaws. The first half of the novel explores their time in art school as painters while the second half dives into their lives as struggling artists in New York City. while I'm glad this switch occurred and it made complete sense, the switch itself felt a bit abrupt and almost lost my interest - but the turmoil that followed was able to quickly pull me back in. I found the characters and the setting completely relatable, and I adored Louisa for all her love of her homeland. As someone from the South who also moved away to attend art school for painting and ended up moving to NYC, I felt like Angress had taken a snapshot of my life and put it down on paper.

I found myself skimming some portions of Preston and Robert's POVs, but by the end I had been fully pulled back into Robert's story. Preston seemed doomed from the start, but I appreciate the parts he played in Karina's growth. By the last page, I wanted even more from Louisa and Karina. I wanted to see them take risks instead of considering the possibility of them. But I can appreciate a vague ending, and I'll have to settle for my imagination!

Overall a great addition to the dark academia genre, and one that I'll be thinking about for years to come.

Sirens & Muses is a literary narrative on four artists in the NY art world with commentary on classism in the industry. We follow four different characters of varying art backgrounds and privilege as they endeavor for success in the art scene.

I loved the dynamics between the women. They had a complex relationship with attempts at understanding and an eventual beautiful connection. The art intertwines with the character journeys and narratives and the scenes between Louisa and Karina felt like the heart of this narrative. It felt like a very real love between them and I loved the open-ended nature and peace all these characters seem to find by the end even if their stories are far from over.

My only struggle was with the other two point of views, I see how the characters could be essential to a few story beats but I could not stand following Preston or his character, and Robert's storyline was a bit dull until about the last 20% of the book.

Overall, this was a very atmospheric read, tuned into the post-grad struggles of particularly competitive and creative careers. Books about art like this always make me want to study it and there are a few themes I can't stop thinking about, particularly how much of art is about taking. I do wish some of the characters got a bit more time, but Angress does an amazing job of fleshing out each character and giving them growth in and outside of relationships.

Intricately woven, beautifully written debut that is campus novel, New York novel, sapphic novel, art novel and coming of age novel all in one gorgeous book that I could not put down. Featuring multiple POVs (I was most drawn to Louisa and Karina's, fwiw) from nuanced and compelling characters and lush, evocative prose, Sirens and Muses deserves to be on all of the 2022 anticipated book lists.

Wow, I loved this book and am so excited for more people to read it. The author wrote these four main characters so beautifully and so realized. While it was certainly a coming of age story, it was also a story about first loves, mental health, art, culture and so much more.

This book was about power, art and attraction. Each characters story unfolded to show how these three things intersect with each other throughout the story. The descriptions were visually striking making me feel like I was with the artists as they were painting or exploring their city. Just really beautiful and lovely!

This is a well written, well told story. Fairly far into the book I struggled to continue as I disliked every character, perhaps accept one, fairly intensely. By the end of the book some of the characters had developed into almost like-able people, almost but not quite!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Art is subjective. You either like what someone is doing or you don't. This book is about 3 young artists and one older. The three art student are in school wondering what their future holds. One has famous parents, one is from a small town and one is an internet artist. The fourth person is an artist in residence who had his moment when he was younger and is now searching for his place.

This is an interesting book. The three young artists are friends but also competition. Can they make a career out of art? Will they have to step on each other in order to make it? I found the book insightful and honest about the art world. I wish their had been an epilogue so we knew what the future holds for each artist.

Thank you to #netgalley, @AntoniaAngress and @BallantineBooks for a copy of this book.

this book made me feel like it was okay to be pretentious. i loved the characters dearly and will be thinking about this book for a while.

I requested this book from NetGalley because it was compared to Lily King's "Writers and Lovers," which I really loved. While I enjoyed the peek into the art school world (a world that is totally unfamiliar to me), I felt that the book was a bit meandering, and for me it lost direction towards the end. I thought the writing was wonderful, and the characters really had the potential to be interesting, but the way in which they were written was too detached for me - I could never quite connect. This book may be better appreciated by those more familiar with the art school scene.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I read this on the heels of another campus novel, Tara Isabella Burton's THE WORLD CANNOT GIVE, which was a truly unique reading experience. Unfortunately, reading SIRENS & MUSES afterwards left me a bit underwhelmed. I cared little for the characters and there was not much in terms of story. But Angress can certainly craft a sentence -- I look forward to what she does next!

Thanks for the e-galley!

Meh. This novel is about three art school students and a professor at an elite NYC art school in 2011. Nothing much happens plot-wise, is really just about these four characters in this pretentious, privileged setting. Maybe someone with knowledge of the art world would find this more interesting that I did.

DNF @ 20%

I think the fact that I’ve been putting off writing this review says enough about how much I hated it, considering I love writing reviews.

This is another book that’s just all vibes and aesthetic, no substance. The characters were painfully underdeveloped vignettes of what I assume the author thought dark academia litfic characters ought to be. Typically I enjoy books that are all vibes no plot, I’m a huge character-driven reader, but Oh My God.

I can’t even write a coherent review that’s actually helpful to people who want to read this when it comes out, I’m sorry.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

dnf @ 20%
i was so excited when i got this arc because all of the marketing and the way reviewers talked about it on tiktok made it seem like it would be the sapphic artist dark academia book of my dreams, but i had to force myself to read through it. i always feel bad dnf’ing arcs but i couldn’t do it anymore.

the writing was beautiful and simplistic, and i love the way the author wrote about art and the paintings that her characters created, but really it was the only good thing about this book. the plot was garbled and non-existent, the characters were ghostly vignettes with no real personalities — i can’t recommend it because i can’t even find any redeeming qualities aside from the writing.

3.75 stars
Sirens & Muses switches between the 4 charters povs each chapter. We see Preston, a cocky and arrogant 20 year old, in all his anti-capitalism persona deeply critique & sabotage art shows & the university. He doesn’t seem to care that his “pranks” for his website hurt the people he’s fighting for. He was born with money but then no longer has any causing him to spiral. This leads him to become a hypocrite. Robert gets into a public argument with one of the students resulting into him having to rethink his prospects. Louisa struggles with money throughout the book. She is trying to reinvent her art style so that she isn’t just a “Cajun painter.” She is insecure in her abilities and especially around her dorm mate, Karina. Karina is wealthy art parents and is wifey praised for all her paintings. She deals with her mental health throughout the book, causing rumors to spread about her on campus and online. Karina and Louisa have this magnetic pull toward one another that makes them shy near one another. They develop an infatuation with one another that grows and separates and grows again. Although all the characters (briefly) know one another, their stories don’t revolve don’t contain one another. Some characters don’t interact with each other either. Feeling lost is what these characters all share. The male povs were so boring. I dread moving onto their chapters. The women had more interesting thoughts about success and artistry then both men combined. I enjoyed how there wasn’t a love triangle between Preston, Karina and Louisa. Louisa’s and Karina’s relationship goes a lot unspoken. They feel deeply for one another but are afraid to say it out loud for what that could mean. The ending is not conclusive. The characters are no longer angry or very sad. There seems to be an overall understanding that they have come to. It shows that the possibility of their success is unknown and if so, how many years or decades it could take.

I found this to be a very timely novel for those who remember the occupy Wall Street movement and the shift toward social media as a platform for art, for better or worse. The academic setting of the first half of the novel in contrast with each character being set free into the art world was a really interesting narrative choice and I think it served well to illustrate how different the lives of artists can look based on their individual class standing, connections, finances, and ethical goals.

I would have loved to see an entire novel based on Louisa and Karina and I felt that Robert’s sections could have been an entirely different story, but I do understand why the author included them. I feel like this novel could have been 100+ pages longer to really wrap up a few loose ends more satisfyingly, but overall I feel like this will be a well-received debut novel especially considering how popular academic novels are currently.

I liked this book way more than I ever expected to love a book about 19- and 20-year-old artists. Liked it very much, in fact.
Quite appropriately, it played out across the screen of my mind like a visually striking, thought-provoking, cleverly curated exhibition of fine art.
To be fair, one of the principal characters in middle-aged, but the rest are very young. The book starts off with all of them at a prestigious art school – the older character as a visiting professor, the younger ones as a self-designated agent provocateur/enfant terrible, Preston, a small Louisiana town’s fish-out-or-water barely able to afford it Louisa, and the stunning/gifted/wealthy New Yorker, Karina. And then the book follows each of the four protagonists as they leave the university, each departure unplanned and premature for various reasons and try to…follow their artistic bliss and try to find their place in the world.
Their lives are intertwined, tangentially or otherwise, interconnected in many ways, but each of their paths is unique – partially predetermined, like some many things in life, by their socioeconomic status, and partially by their individual and very different personalities.
That divergent yet interwoven structure allows the author to explore the many layers of not just the art world but the world at large. The novel is set a decade back from the time of this review’s publication and thus right in the middle of the Occupy Wall Street and other well-meant failed social movements.
The social consciousness was on a very high setting back then, but the art world’s mores and morals were always very much its own thing. The novel does a great job of juxtaposing the two and drawing parallels, especially for male characters who both get involved with the movements, albeit from different ends and for different reasons.
There’s a love story too, just so you don’t think it’s all sociopolitical commentary. A proper novel offers many things to its readers, and this is very much a proper novel, a proper work of literature. The language sings. The characters come alive. So much so, you don’t even have to like them, and they’ll still manage to engage you.
For how contrived and artificial the art scene is, at large and in New York specifically, the novel is strikingly emotionally sincere and poignant. Great read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.