Book Description 

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.

My Review 

I was very excited about the opportunity to read this book because I thoroughly enjoyed Weyward. This book also has three distinct perspectives, each set in its own time period. Each of the narrators is searching for purpose and belonging and must undergo trials and tribulations during her journey. 

Jess is the main narrator, as her story is set in the modern day. She faces disciplinary actions at university for something she doesn’t remember happening, and then the mystery deepens when she can’t find her older sister. The other pair of sisters—convicts bound for transportation to Australia from 1800—provide an added layer of depth to the story. 

I loved this book so much because the characters were easy to empathize with and despite the three different eras, they were all relatable. On that note, the stories are all connected, so there was also a sense of mystery to discover how and why everything fits together. Many of the chapters end with little cliffhangers, but that didn’t bother me because the switch in perspective meant a new opportunity to find more clues. 

I would absolutely recommend The Sirens. This book features incredible three women’s journeys of survival and empowerment in a cruel world. Hart has quickly become one of my favorite authors and I am already looking forward to her next book.     

I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley.