There has been a rise on instagram lately of the mood reader - someone who reads based on how they're feeling. In the case of the Sirens, I think it is important for readers to be in a place where they can be vulnerable and deal with such painful feelings. Trauma from gender based violence is tricky because it is just so common - which makes writing literature about it tricky, because it is dealing with such a common experience, but one which was whispered for so long.

Hart walks the line well of providing a great sense of atmosphere for the story. Set in the small Australian town of Combers Bay, protagonist Lucy flees to the home of her sister, Jess, after attacking a classmate who had betrayed her intimate trust. In Combers Bay, Lucy starts to uncover mysteries of the past, both of her own family, and of a convict ship which had sunk coming from Ireland, the Naiad. Hart conveys well the sense of superstition and open secrets which can exist in a small town - where tragedies are hinted at, never said outright, and as William Faulkner so memorably said, "the past is never dead, it's not even past."

The book covers a lot - there are three different timelines covered, with a variety of flashbacks. This does mean that the book doesn't get to explore the details of a lot of really fascinating rabbit holes. There is a mention of Lucy's interest in being an investigative journalist, but we don't get more than surface level of her investigation into the crash of the Naiad. The book also introduces us to a bunch of side characters: Jess's childhood best friend Max, local fisherman Ryan, who we only got a glimpse of, and I would have loved to see more. I know I joked about the Raven Scholar being 700 pages, but this book had enough content and plot that I think it probably could have supported that length and allowed Hart to expand on a lot of the interesting things in her book.

I loved that Hart was interested in a feminist retelling of the myth of Sirens in an Australian setting, and the book was beautifully moody and thoughtful. I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves Jodi Picoult or Anita Shreve.

The Sirens by Emilia Hart is a captivating blend of historical fiction and magical realism, intertwining the lives of four women across different centuries, all connected by the enigmatic force of the sea. The narrative unfolds through dual timelines:

Hart's prose is lauded for its lyrical beauty, effectively immersing readers in the atmospheric settings of both timelines. The exploration of themes such as sisterhood, female resilience, and the haunting allure of the sea adds depth to the narrative. The novel's structure, alternating between perspectives and time periods, enriches the story.

In summary, The Sirens offers a unique and enchanting take on the siren myth, combining historical depth with magical elements. It's a recommended read for those who appreciate stories of female empowerment and are drawn to atmospheric, multi-layered narratives.

I really enjoyed both the writing and the story in this book. This is my first book by the author, though Weyward has been on my TBR since it came out.

If you enjoy historical fiction, modern day themes and challenges, family mysteries, and magical realism, you will enjoy this novel by Emilia Hart.

The Sirens immediately drew me into a world of strong central female characters separated by generations with beautiful imagery.

Emilia Hart never misses on delivering a fantastical tale sprinkled with magical realism.

Each chapter posed a new question, thought provoking element, and twist.
Just like Weyward, this was truly difficult to put down!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read and review The Sirens.

Review will be posted on 4/11/25

The Sirens follows two major timelines: one from the 1800s and one from current times. In the 1800s, two sisters are sent to a penal colony in Australia. As readers can suspect, these two Irish women were treated horribly. In modern times, sisters Lucy and Jess face similar situations. Lucy escapes college and some upsetting events that occurred and she hopes to connect with her sister who lives on the coast. Once there, she realizes that Jess is missing. Both of these women have an interesting relationship with the ocean and an allergy to water, which only adds to the role that the ocean plays in the story. Fans of Weyward will appreciate The Sirens by Emilia Hart; it's a historical tale filled with romance, mystery, and family drama.

Readers can always count on Hart to showcase sisterhood and include a feminist undertone throughout the novel, just as she did in Weyward. She highlights the power of women better than any other author I've read recently. Also, I appreciated Hart's beautiful writing style which felt poetic at times. Her ability to bring the magic of the ocean to life and the mysticism was fantastic. While I may have enjoyed Weyward a tad bit more, The Sirens is still an outstanding novel that showcases the magic of sisterhood and the sea.

"The sea gives, but it also takes."

"The easiest way to lie to someone, she learned, is to lie to yourself."

"...sometimes, there is no choice. There is only love."

“What I’m trying to say...is that we don’t need to worry about your sister. There’s something about this place , something different. It keeps its women safe.”

With a haunting atmosphere, The Sirens, by fantastical author Emilia Hart, tells a tale of sisters, almost two hundred years apart, who brave generational trauma with the power of sisterhood and the strength that comes from being female in a man's world.

In 2019 Lucy wakes up choking her boyfriend in the middle of the night. She runs to her sister, living in New South Wales, hoping she can help her sort out her violent sleep walking. But Jess is nowhere to be found. Waiting for Jess to come back she finds her diaries that tell of the suffering Jess endured at the hands of a career manipulator and what it cost her.

In 1800 Ireland, sisters Mary and Eliza were forced onto a convict ship heading to Australia. As they fight the inhumane treatment from the crew, the sea calls to them to flee the ship.

These 4 women share pain but also physical attributes like their scaly skin, the soothing healing power of the sea and an understanding that they are not alone.

Voice actress Barrie Kreinik gives a phenomenal performance not just with all the accents and distinctions of the sisters but with a lilting voice that adds to the writer's evocative prose.

Family secrets and startling twists, along with echoing caves and not so silent seas, is the call of The Sirens you must hear or read to feel the resilience of women who share the fight to be free.

I received a free copy of this book/audiobook from the publishers via #NetGalley for a fair & honest review. Opinions are my own.

Judging from the many wonderful reviews I have read, I believe my reaction to The Sirens by Emilia Hart is definitely a minority reaction. I had trouble right from the beginning and as I read on, I liked it even less. I am not generally fond of books jumping from the present to the past and back again. Ms. Hart's writing was at times lyrical and beautifully descriptive, yet it was an extremely slow read for me. From the first chapter I was impatient with Mary; that impatience eventually grew to indifference. While I didn't enjoy The Sirens personally, I would recommend it to friends that I am confident would like the genre and narrative very much. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read an ARC of the novel; my review reflects my honest opinion. 3 stars.

The year is 1800: Twin sisters Mary and Eliza have been wrenched from their father's care in Ireland and sent on a voyage to Australia across the ocean they've come to fear more than anything after their mother's tragic death.

The year is 1999: Jess is an isolated teenager with a bafflingly-rare allergy to water. She finds little connection in the world around her until a most unexpected encounter with an art teacher opens her world to the possibility of more.

The year is 2019: Lucy has just awoken from a sleepwalking spell that nearly drove her to kill someone. She flees in terror to her sister Jess's small town only to find that she's vanished. And with Jess's disappearances, stories that resemble folklore more than anything begin to emerge about the sea and its sirens.

"Sirens" bears a lovely likeness to Hart's novel "Weyward" in its multi-layered timeline and strong theme of sisterhood. On description alone, I thought I would love "Sirens" even more than its predecessor and held high hopes for its atmosphere and plot; unfortunately, something about this book felt detached and never fully pulled me in. Whereas "Weyward" marches forward with a suspenseful storyline that wove its separate timelines together beautifully, "Sirens" felt as though it had no real, substantial plot for about 75% of the book, and I found myself slugging through the end out of obligation more than anything.

Undoubtedly a beautiful premise and a promising foundation, "Sirens" fell short due to its meandering non-story line that simply took up far too many of its pages.

I enjoy Emilia Hart’s writing. She’s thorough in her research and blends it fluidly into stories that dip a toe into the fantastical. I especially love how her books play with multiple timelines and POVs, and how everything weaves together.
That being said, The Sirens was a slow read for me. It took a couple of tries to get through the early chapters, and even then, I wasn’t racing back to it—at least not until I finished Part One. After that, I was hooked. Something shifted, and I was now more than curious enough to want to know how it would all come together. As if the sirens themselves were luring me back to the pages.
The characters are likable, and I enjoyed the moody, small seaside town of Combers’ Bay—it gave the story an eerie, salt-tinged charm.
I’d recommend this book in a heartbeat. It’s not a lightning-paced read, but it is worth the journey. If you’re in the mood for something that’s part myth, part mystery, and full of quiet, powerful women—The Sirens might just be calling for you.

I loved this book. The multiple timelines and all the women's perspectives really added to all the magic and mystery. I loved how all the women's stories came together and all the sisterhood. This was such a lovely book. Will definitely read this author again.

Mermaid lore, history, and strange disappearances, I was intrigued.

The Sirens by Amelia Hart
3.75⭐️
Out April 1st

I’m going to preface this one by saying if you have read Weyward you may want to temper your expectations with this one. I’m seeing a lot of people who read Weyward that were disappointed in this. I haven’t read that one and I found this quite interesting.

This is out of my norm but I enjoyed the audio on this one. It does tell the story from different timelines and I did find the present timeline much more interesting than the one in the past. There was one plot point that was very obvious so I was a little grumpy in the beginning thinking I had the whole book figured out but there were still surprises to keep my interest

Thanks to @macmillan.audio for this #gifted ALC. All opinions are my own.

This author is so good at weaving stories of feminine power. I loved seeing the themes of reclamation throughout all of the POVs!

Sisterhood. Motherhood. Womanhood. So many of my favorite books explore all the facets of these things and this one did not disappoint. Atmospheric and moody and filled with a slow burn tension, The Sirens follows several women separated by time and distance but deeply and irrevocably connected in ways unbroken by mere circumstance. While slow and lulling at times, I loved the journey this story took me on, especially as aspects of the mystery I could tell was brewing started to unfold. Emilia Hart writes in a way that never leaves me disappointed and if this and Weyward are any indication, I believe she will have several more phenomenal stories to share.

Multiple timelines that tie up in the end with a nice bow. It took me a while to get into this one but once I was hooked (like a fish? 👀) I couldn’t stop. While there were a couple of parts that fell flat for me, overall this was a solid 3.5.

Thank you, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Emilia Hart does it again!
As a huge fan of Weyward, I was hoping for a similar reading experience with The Sirens—and I was not disappointed. I loved the shifting time periods, the strong thread of feminism, and the magical elements woven throughout the story. Sisterhood was a major theme, and it was powerful to see those bonds echoed across generations.

The pacing lagged a bit in a few places, and the twist was somewhat predictable, but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment. I loved this book nonetheless.

i enjoyed weyward sooo much and was anticipating this release, and it definitely didn’t let me down.
it took me a little to get into the story and feel connected to the characters but once it happened, it was so easy to follow along and root for our fmc’s. i loved the timelines, as it allowed for us to get to know the characters in a different way. the setting was sooo atmospheric and i felt like i was at comber bay too, it is one of my favorite parts. i enjoyed the exploration of sisterhood, motherhood and overall womanhood. i would recommend this to anyone who loves magical elements, who loves reading about women, and who wants a unique read.

This is a beautifully written and moody story of generations of women who are connected to the sea in unusual ways. If you have read Hart's other novel Weyward , you will find the same general story line, women who have an unusual ability that allows them to take revenge on men who have wronged them. If you haven't read Weyward, I would just read that one instead of this one. But really, it just depends on whether you like mermaids or witches.

Hart does such a wonderful job of writing scene and emotion that you almost don't realize that the characters aren't very approachable and the story is kind of shallow.

Our main character, Lucy, awakens in the middle of sleep walking and finding herself strangling the man who shared her intimate pictures online. She runs away to the house where her sister lives on the coast. When she gets there, her sister has disappeared and no one really seems to know or care where she has gone. Then a whole lot of confusing things happen while Lucy just waits for her sister to return. We also learn that there is something weird about Lucy's skin that has to do with water, but its pretty convoluted.

Overall, it just kind of leaves you feeling confused and sad for all of the characters.

This was the second Emilia hart book I have read. She is phenomenal at painting a picture and making the reader feel like they are THERE. I have been to many of the locations in this book and felt like I was transported right back there with every page. I loved the dual intertwined timelines and the connections between past and present. There were some parts that I felt like were a little slow and I had to push to get through, but overall, I was riveted.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I really enjoyed Weyward so was excited to dive into The Sirens. This story follows the bonds of sisterhood over time and the magic and mystery of the sea. As an ocean-lover myself, I loved the exploration of this wonderful world. The book itself wasn't for me. A bit drawn out and didn't really grip me the way I thought it would.

Thank you to Emilia Hart, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for this advanced readers copy. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I tried diving into this book, but it just didn't click for me. I ended up putting it down around the 30% mark. The story concept was intriguing, and I genuinely enjoyed the author's writing style—so descriptive without being overly complicated! I ended up giving it 3 stars based on what I read.
What I struggled with was the pacing and really connecting with the characters and the story itself. I think the slower pace might have been the reason for that disconnect; it felt like it dragged a bit more than I prefer.

While this wasn't for me, I do believe others would enjoy this.

** As I DNF this and feel it may be due to readers preference, I will not be rating this anywhere as I don't feel its fair to the book itself.