This beautifully written book starts as a thriller with a historical component, and gradually blends into the fantasy genre as well. Readers will be mesmerized, utterly absorbed in the worlds Hart conjures.

In 2019 Lucy is running. She’s done something bad, in reaction to something bad someone did to her. She flees to her sister Jess, but when she reaches Jess’ isolated home, Jess is missing. Lucy is left floundering.

In 1800 Mary and Eliza are enduring transportation to Australia, convicted and exiled for the crime of defending themselves against a man. It’s a brutal journey, softened only by the companionship of a shipload of other female convicts.

Lucy dreams of Mary and Eliza, and their troubles seem to bleed into those Lucy herself is facing. Although fearful, she feels herself drawing closer to the sisters.

I loved this novel. It relies more on undercurrents than on explicit statements. The atmosphere of doubt, violence, abuse, and secrets swirls around the characters to leave the reader as off balance and lost as the central characters are. The atmosphere is a major player in this novel, and it’s evoked brilliantly and subtly.

There’s ultimately adequate resolution to leave readers satisfied, although you’ll have to do some of the mental work yourself. By then we’ve crossed into a world of myth and fantasy, while still feeling grounded in the present. Not everything is explicitly explained, although I felt it clear enough.

There are multiple layers here; a mystery story, a mythological story, stories of men’s abuse of women, a historical story, stories of family. You can unpack only a few of these, or all if you’re so inclined. I loved that there was so much to think about in the novel.

I just found this a really powerful novel. It’s well written, blending several genres seamlessly. The characters are strong and vivid, and you start caring about their welfare very quickly. The atmospheric prose draws you in and keeps you reading.

Strongly recommended for readers willing to be challenged just a little, and who are interested in a riveting story well told.

This is exactly what I would expect from the author of Weyward.
The way she tells these stories of women who were wronged makes you believe that you are right there with them. I love the way magical realism was weaved into the story too. Who doesn't love merrows/sirens/mermaids. Especially when they are luring bad men to their death.

Emilia Hart is quickly becoming a favourite author

This is a great read!!

I found it atmospheric and I loved the two timelines. I loved the drama with all the family secrets. I also loved the combination of magical realism and historical fiction, it made the novel really special and unique. I found the characters really compelling and well written; I loved the drama and relationships between the characters, The plot was very engrossing! It flowed and developed well throughout the novel. I also loved the feminist aspect of the novel, it really kept me engaged. I don't have a favourite character, I thought they were all individually captivating. I thought that these characters really drove the plot well. I really enjoyed the story of the Irish sisters in Australia, Mary and Eliza. As an Australian, I would have to say this novel has been one of the better stories about convicts I have read and I really enjoyed the female focus.

Overall, I loved this book and I was enthralled by it.

Spanning 200 years and following two sets of sisters and the bonds that tie families together, this was a beautifully written, atmospheric tale of pain, circumstance, misfortune and sisterhood.
I really enjoyed the subtle magical realism, and the way the stories of Jess & Lucy and Eliza & Mary were woven together seamlessly.

Told in dual timelines The Sirens follows two sets of sisters; Mary and Eliza, who are convicts being transported to Australia in 1800 and Lucy and Jess in 2019.

Lucy flees her University in terror after hurting someone during a sleepwalking incident and heads to her sister’s house hoping Jess can provide some answers. After the long drive to Comber Bay Lucy finds the house empty and Jess nowhere to be found. After seeing her artwork Lucy soon realises she and Jess have the same haunting nightmare about the two Irish sisters.

The family secrets soon start to unravel as Lucy is determined to uncover the truth about where Jess has gone, the shipwreck of the Naiad and the notorious male disappearances in the town.

The Sirens is a mixture of magical realism, historical fiction, intrigue and sisterhood all intertwined. As the narrative shifts between past and present how the characters are connected to each other and the eerie allure of the sea slowly unfolds.

The Sirens was a captivating read for me and I loved the undercurrent of sisterhood and resilience that was woven throughout the story. Overall The Sirens is an atmospheric read that perfectly blends mystery and magical realism with historical elements.

4.5/5 for me

This story gripped me from the start and didn’t want me to let go. Beautifully descriptive writing and tragic but magically storyline’s woven throughout the lives of different women across time. Yes, there were parts i guessed long before they were revealed and other parts that remain slightly confusing but the richness of the writing and haunting beauty of the multiple stories kept me absorbed and it feels like a level of grief to leave Jess and Lucy behind. Thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins Australia and Emilia Hart for letting me read this advanced copy in exchange for a review. The book has just been published and should now be available for purchase

I have mixed feelings about this one. I loved the authors debut novel Weyward and I feel like this one didn’t live up to the high standard of such a phenomenal debut. Emilia has a gift of writing such graphic and detailed scenery, I could almost hear the ocean as I read however the plot pace suffered at times because of this. I didn’t particularly like Lucy as a character and even though this story was about the four women, we spent more time with Lucy’s pov than any others. I would have preferred Jess’s pov rather than just meeting her through the pages of her diary. The ending was satisfying so I’m glad I stayed with it but it did feel like too much of a slog at times to stay engaged. I would recommend this book but really only to those who enjoy historical fiction and/or mythical retellings and don’t mind a slower pace.

It took a few chapters for this book to have me hooked, but once there I was completely caught up in the stories of Lucy & Jess (2019) and Mary & Eliza (1800) and how they might come together.

This novel weaves back and forwards in time as Lucy tries to unravel the disappearance of her sister and the secrets she finds once she starts looking, and how they are linked to the dreams she has been having that are getting more vivid and real each day.

Mary & Eliza's story was so well written I could see and feel myself on the ship just as Lucy and Jess must have in their dreams. What dark times they were for the women on the convict ships.

I loved the magical realism and myth around this story. I also liked the way the author left it until the end to share exactly what the truth was behind Lucy & Jess' parents and the baby rescued from the cave in Comber Bay.

There were bits of this story I worked out before the author had Lucy and Jess uncover the truths but it didn't ruin the story and there were some conclusions I came to that turned out to be wrong.

There are some dark events running through this book; grooming, image-based-abuse and the protection of men with little thought to the victim. There is also the disappearance of the men from Comber Bay and part of me likes the idea behind these disappearances (I can think of a few men I'd like to have disappeared over the years).

I really enjoyed The Sirens and will be listening to Weyward in a couple of weeks time.

An eerie, atmospheric read. Beautifully written, playing off dual timelines to weave together a story connected through time. This is a slow paced piece of magical realism, with strong running themes of sisterhood, dreams, and the sea. Our narrators are Mary and Lucy, women each with distinct voices and stories who each highlight female defiance in the face of the injustices they face.

Mary, an Irishwoman being transported to Australia with her sister Eliza on a convict ship, after committing a crime, slowly revealed to us. Lucy, an Australian university student who runs to seek safely with her sister Jess, after a sleepwalking episode ends in her assault of the man who leaked intimate photos of her to social media. We’re quickly immersed in the mystery of each woman’s relationship to their sisters, and their connection across time to one another. By the end, all the interlinking threads are tied off, allowing us to see the full picture of the plot.

I do wish there was less name dropping of devices and social media platforms in Lucy’s POV, as it read as rather inorganic and took me out of the story. There was a real warmth in reading about familiar places for me in this novel, with magical realism rarely being set in Australia. This is my first time reading one of Emilia Hart’s novels, and I so look forward to her future work! I already have a copy of Weyward ready to go!

A warm thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book for an honest review.

The Sirens by Emilia Hart
Three and a half stars.

This was a tough one for me to rate because there were some parts of this story that I genuinely really enjoyed, and others that I did not.
To start with, I was excited to read this book because I really enjoyed the authors book ‘Weyward’. I became even more excited when I found out the book was mostly set in Australia, because how many books in the fantasy-ish genre are set in Australia? Not many that I have read anyway.
How the story presented in terms of themes reminded me a bit of The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland. Both stories carried deep familiar connections and secrets, as well as a strong connection to the sea. Not only that, but both touch on the cultural importance of Country to Australia’s First Nations, and both are deeply descriptive.

Strangely, I thought perhaps this book was too descriptive. The writing was beautiful, but I think the letters written by a 16-year-old female character were too descriptive and mature to be realistic. I also wish we could have learnt more about the characters through conversation, rather than POV’s of multiple characters. I felt this especially at the end of the book.

There are also some big truths thrown at our FMC at the end of the book, and I wish we could have had a bit more insight into how she dealt with all of them. To me as a reader, she seemed quite accepting of her new reality.
I am excited to see what Emilia Hart has in store next!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Australia for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you netgalley and HarperCollins for the arc, I was excited to dive in after loving hart’s debut novel.

The Sirens covers two storylines; Mary and Eliza, and Lucy and Jess, over a period two centuries. The themes of resilience and womanhood are startling in all of their experiences.

Hart excels at intertwining stories from different times together and this was a highlight for me. The more the events clicked, the harder it was to put down the book, as I wanted to find out everything right there and then. The epilogue did a great job in closing up the picture and provided some key insights into the story.
I highly recommend!

Lucy is very much troubled and in trouble. After a huge humiliation, she found herself attacking the cause of it and so she escapes it all by rushing off to see her older sister, Jess. But when she arrives, her sister is gone, having left her phone and an unlocked door. Her sister has been distant for a while and Lucy doesn't feel she even knows her sister well enough these days to make heads or tails of what Jess has left. On a different timeline we see the story of Mary and Eliza, Irish sisters on a convict ship heading to New South Wales from centuries before. The sisters have their own mysteries to solve, having lost their mother to the sea many years before. And they have their own futures to consider as they travel away from all they've known.

The sea figures heavily in this book, along with the kinship of sisters and women, in general. It's an eerie tale at times and there are twists and turns that make this a fascinating read. There's also a certain otherworldliness about it, using elements of fantasy and mythology to round out the story. At times it isn't completely clear what the connection is between the modern and historic aspects of the story, but it's nicely tied together by the end, and I think it was elegantly done. This left me with much food for thought when I finished reading and I suspect it will linger with me for a while.

Overall, this was an excellent read and I rate this 4.5 stars. I would like to thank Netgalley and Harper Collins Australia for the free copy of the book. I have provided my review freely and with no obligation.

Two sisters, two timelines, separated by over 200 years. Mary and Eliza are convicts on a ship bound for NSW, while Lucy and Jess navigate a world filled with secrets and a haunting past. Their connection? The small seaside town of Comber Bay.

Comber Bay has a checkered history marked by a tragic shipwreck, predatory men who vanish without a trace, the mystery of a foundling, and the elusive sound of women’s voices echoing from the waves.

This novel will captivate your attention, immersing you in its mystical and ephemeral world as you unravel these intertwined stories. The writing is simply beautiful.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from the author of Weyward, which I am yet read but am now eager to explore!

Thanks to @emiliahartbooks, @netgalley, and @harpercollinsaustralia for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. 📚✨

The Sirens is Emilia Hart's second novel after her debut The Weyward Girls which I have seen all over bookstagram. I didn't know much that novel but the blurb of The Sirens sounded interesting.

This was a dual timeline historical novel with a dash of magical realism and mystery thrown in and the title gives away the mermaid/sirens link. The book was also set in Australia (the author is Australian but now lives in London) with a NSW South Coast location for the present day.

In 1800, sisters Mary and Eliza are deported from Ireland and put on a convict ship to Australia. In 2019, Lucy living on her university campus almost strangles a boy during a sleepwalking nightmare. She then flees to her sister Jess's house at the coast hoping she can help her. But Jess is missing. Lucy soon starts to hear rumours about the town, about a number of men who have gone missing, a baby who was left abandoned at a beach cave. Her nightmares are also increasing.

This was an easy read but it didn't completely land for me. There were themes of sisterhood and female resilience in the face of men's poor behaviour. The magical realism was done a little too lightly for my personal taste.

I did like the dual timelines and the setting but the unravelling of all the threads took too long and the end felt like it was wrapped up in a bow too quickly with a few threads left unclear or not resolved at all. I didn't gel with Lucy in particular, I couldn't understand why she would run away and there was a problematic relationship later in the novel that I didn't enjoy. So unfortunately overall this wasn't quite the book for me.

The Sirens is quite a complex story with several narrative threads moving it along. I enjoyed the way this story came together, culminating in the revelation of a family mystery along with confirmation of a mythological/supernatural aspect.

The chapters set in the past onboard the convict ship were incredibly engrossing, dread filling all the spaces in between with the appalling conditions the women were kept in and the certain knowledge of their fate at the end of their long and arduous journey. From the outset, you know this ship ends its journey as a shipwreck, and as you become attached to these women, that tragedy is an ever-present hum in the background of their chapters.

I really loved the epilogue, where the origin of the baby found at sea was fully explained, bringing all of the narrative threads full circle. Just as she did with Weyward, Hart has a talent for interlocking the past with the present. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and recommend it.

The Sirens by Emilia Hart is an intriguing story that is sensitively written with characters who are both captivating and complex. Set in two periods it creates an interesting historical perspective as well as capturing the contemporary issues that emerge from the storyline.

Highly recommended read.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from HarperCollins Publishers Australia via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#TheSirens #NetGalley

I loved the first book I read by this author and was looking forward to this one. I have to say I didn't like this one as much but it's still a good read and a very interesting book, somewhat about folklore and the crossover between Ireland and Australia.

Written over dual timelines we see two sisters deported from Ireland to be shipped to Australia as convicts and then we have two sisters in Australia that struggle with a skin condition that makes them different from the people around them and their struggles through life. But not all is as it seems.

This book and the links between the sisters from long ago to today, the folklore surrounding the sea creatures/mermaids. There is a lot going on in this book but it was still easy to follow even though it goes back and forth between the two stories. It is a bit of fantasy you could say along with reality and is quite emotional and historical.

A good book and I still do look forward to seeing what this author writes next.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Last year I read and loved Emilia’s book, Weyward, as it perfectly weaved together the genres of women’s fiction, historical fiction with magical realism. Therefore, I was excited to read her new book, The Sirens, a book of sisterhood and magical realism involving the sea.

The Sirens is a complex, dual narrative involving characters from 1800 and 2019. I have to be honest and state that I struggled to relate to this book as I did Emilia’s previous one. That is not to say that this is not an intriguing book about women, their secrets and strengths, especially surrounding sisterhood. Basically the story follows two sets of sisters; twins on a convict ship in 1800, exiled to Australia, and two sisters in 2019, who dream or have visions of the former twins journey.

Emilia’s writing is once again most engaging with themes of nature, relationships and love, all wrapped up in a mystery surrounding the water and voices that call to the sisters. Sadly for me, it just did not live up to my expectations.

5 Stars

*Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for provoking me with the e-ARC - this is my honest review*

Even though I guessed what was happening and where it was going, I loved this.

Sirens is the story of Lucy and Jess and Mary and Eliza. After a traumatic experience at university, Lucy travels to Comber Bay, up the coast from Sydney, to see her sister, Jess. When Lucy arrives though, Jess is missing. In a town where men have been going missing for decades, Lucy begins to search for clues about her sister’s whereabouts and begins to unravel more secrets than she bargained for. Two hundred years earlier, Mary and Eliza are boarded onto the convict ship, the Naiad, bound for the New South Wales colony. The women’s stories enter-twine across time and space in a story of love, loss, heartbreak and female rage.

This was so ripe with history, mythology, emotion and catharsis. It felt like a cross between an episode of Round the Twist, depictions of the First Fleet, and Promising Young Woman with a hint of My Dark Vanessa. As soon as I started I had no choice but to settle in for the ride as I couldn’t put it down.

Sure, it was derivative and at times predictable, but I didn’t find it took away from the charm. It feels like everything the failed Netflix Tidelands show could have been with a better story and compelling mystery.

I love a homegrown, Australian story and it’s nice to see more female led convict stories making it into the zeitgeist. I would adore for this to be made into a mini-series.

Some minor historical and logical errors that I noticed, but otherwise a very good book that I devoured - much like a siren.

*4.5 stars*

*Thank you to NetGalley & HarperCollins Australia for providing a digital copy to review*

As someone who grew up obsessed with The Little Mermaid as soon as I see anything associated with magic, mermaids, and the sea I am immediately interested.

This book has a fantasy element to it that is not immediately obvious and I love how it slowly develops throughout the story. There are two POVs and timelines, Lucy in 2019 and Mary in 1800. I enjoyed Lucy’s chapters more, especially with the element of mystery surrounding the whereabouts of her sister Jess and Lucy learning more about her through reading her diary. I also liked how Mary’s chapters are framed as being intense dreams that Lucy has started getting, we are learning about Mary through her subconscious.

The two kind of big mysteries relating to Lucy and Jess I guessed while reading but it was still satisfying when they were uncovered. The other part of the mystery, which is revealed in the epilogue, really made me love this book even more. Just how it connects everything in the story and mirrors specific elements of the characters’ history. It felt like a full-circle moment which just once again felt really satisfying.

Overall I really enjoyed the story and loved the character development, especially the relationship between the two sets of sisters.