The Sirens is a well written, atmospheric novel with a strong storytelling voice. Lucy is on the run—from what she’s done, and what was done to her. She seeks refuge with her sister Jess, only to find her missing. Alone in a remote coastal town full of eerie legends and whispers of the past, Lucy begins to hear voices—stories of two sisters from centuries ago, bound by trauma and resistance.

While I admired the lyrical writing and layered narrative, the plot felt a bit predictable, and the magical realism didn’t quite work for me. Still, this is a thoughtful, haunting read that will no doubt appeal to fans of myth, magic, and feminist folklore.

The Sirens is the second book I’ve read by Emilia Hart. The first book being Weyward. If I’m being totally honest, I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to give this book a 3 or 4 star rating. The story just didn’t seem to grab me and hold my attention like I had hoped it would. But if I’m remembering correctly, I think I felt the same way about Weyward at the time. I did like the fact that this story has a dual timeline and has two different storylines about 2 sets of sisters. I believe this made the story a little more interesting to read. It also has a touch of magical realism as all of the sisters were from the sea and they all had the ability to change into mermaids. The more current story about Jessica and Lucy and how Lucy learns of their real connection is what I found to be the most interesting part of the book. It’s a story that depicts the love of family, both between parent and child and between siblings and it displays their strengths and willingness to do what’s best for the sake of others. I’d like to thank Kejana Ayala, Marketing Coordinator @ St. Martin’s Publishing Group for inviting me to be an early reader by sending me a widget and NetGalley for the arc. Although I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I had hoped I would, I’m sure others will and I do believe it deserves a good recommendation. I’ve decided to rate it at 4 stars and I hope to get the chance to read more by Emilia Hart in the very near future.

The Sirens by Emilia Hart was one of my anticipated reads of the year because I really loved Wayward. However, I did not enjoy The Sirens as much. I do not usually compare books by authors but I could not help but feel detached to this one. It was as if another person wrote it entirely. There were so many events that took place that do not have a clear solution and that really bothered me because they were huge events. For example, the sleep walking.

I do enjoy novels about sisters so that was a huge plus for me. There were moments in the book I enjoyed but overall I felt myself getting bored by the pace and the events that took place. Thank goodness I had the audiobook to help me.

Even so, I am thankful to NetGalley and St. Martin Press for my gifted copy.

I really enjoyed Sirens! Another great hit from Emilia Hart. While the chapters were shorter than I would have liked, i couldn’t put the book down waiting to see what would play out next!

Highly intriguing and multi-faceted story with a touch of the mystical and a wee bit of romance
This was another epic novel! In these pages the reader will find three stories all tied together in interesting ways told in three parts with 48 chapters and a most fascinating epilogue. It is told from the perspective of current day Jess and Lucy with the addition of Mary and Eliza’s stories from the 1800’s. Like I said, epic!
Events that are out of Lucy’s control send her in a tailspin. She retreats to the last known place where her sister Jess lives in Comber Bay in New South Wales. When Lucy arrives however, there is no Jess but she left behind her phone, her car and her keys plus artwork that scares Lucy. Lucy has dreamed of these faces! What could that mean? Where could Jess be?
Oh. My. Word. The things that the reader will discover throughout this book will intrigue, anger, provoke and stimulate an intense curiosity. Because it is told through so many eyes, this story virtually comes alive from these pages. I could almost smell the brine of the sea and feel the webbing between their fingers. What topped it off nicely and gave me closure was the epilogue. Tied together one minute facet that was questioned early in the book. I felt it was somewhat slow in the beginning laying the groundwork for the rest, but looking back, I see the need for it. I volunteered to review an ARC of this book through NetGalley.

The side characters and main character didn't read as intriguing as you would have thought with the synopsis.
The romance was forbidden but yet inevitable.
The pacing, the plot, the writing felt very off for me and didn't excite or pull the reader in like Weyward did.
Perfect if you like:
Who hurt you? I wake up to hurt you...? Who dis?
Slowburn Teacher/Student Relationship
Feminist Magical Realism/ Fantasy
Thank you so much to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this arc!

This is an excellent natural horror novel loosely based on real events. The Bermuda Triangle of Australia, where sea creatures and the inhabitants of the land, live in harmony. Until they don't ... the details in this book are strong, the reader can feel the jagged rocks in the sand and hear the waves crash against the cliffs. This is great book for it's scenery and general relation to true events.

This was good but slow in my opinion. I will continue to read Emilia Hart books as she is an author that makes you really connect with the characters and draws you into the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review!
If you are ok with different point of views in time periods then this book is for you! The hardest part of reading a book with multiple time lines is when you stop and pick up remembering where you are in the book. I put a post it with which time period I was in if I stopped in the chapter before finishing!
This book has themes of female trauma,(abuse) sister bonds, facing the past, and female empowerment. Some parts are dark.
The book follows the stories of four different women from the past and present and how they connect. The beginning of the book is where Lucy thinks she has done something terrible and flees to her estranged sisters home. The other timeline is where two sisters are on a ship convicted of a crime and leaving Ireland. This book is by the same author as Weyward. So if you like the writing in Weyward, you will enjoy this book.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review!
If you are ok with different point of views in time periods then this book is for you! The hardest part of reading a book with multiple time lines is when you stop and pick up remembering where you are in the book. I put a post it with which time period I was in if I stopped in the chapter before finishing!
This book has themes of female trauma,(abuse) sister bonds, facing the past, and female empowerment. Some parts are dark.
The book follows the stories of four different women from the past and present and how they connect. The beginning of the book is where Lucy thinks she has done something terrible and flees to her estranged sisters home. The other timeline is where two sisters are on a ship convicted of a crime and leaving Ireland. This book is by the same author as Weyward. So if you like the writing in Weyward, you will enjoy this book.

I really enjoyed Emilia Hart’s first novel, Weyward, and have been highly anticipating The Sirens. Unfortunately, Hart’s writing differs in this book and I found there to be parts that rambled where I lost interest. I believe an audiobook experience would have been ideal to help keep the different storylines straight. The Sirens is an atmospheric tale of sisterhood that many readers will enjoy.

The Sirens by Emilia Hart is a story of three generations of women who may or may not be sirens. Sirens are sea creatures from Homer's The Odyssey. They are beautiful and lure men to their deaths with their enchanting song. The scenario that keeps getting repeated is evil men taking things from women like dignity, adolescence, and their bodies. The theme is the sirens' song which happens when the bad men get punished. The Sirens tells three parallel tales. Lucy's story is set in the present day. Jess's story unfolds in the 1990s through journal entries. Mary's story is revealed in the 1800s through dreams. This unique storytelling leads up to all the storylines intersecting. The story flows very well with a consistent pace. The book is written very well with a lot of beautiful passages. The story of Mary is written like an old Irish poem. The words are not written in syntax but, have a light airy quality to them. The story is pro-feminism but also recognizes some good men. The story overall works very well I was compelled about the mystery of Jess or Lucy being sirens or not. Mary has an interesting dynamic with her mother and sister that I found very compelling. The story did have one big problem that kept it from being great. Lucy questions her origins. She makes it a big deal. I figured it out at the 30% mark. The book reveals what I already knew at the 76% mark. I thought the twist was just too obvious. The twist was a big part of the book. Despite this, the beautiful writing and other twists made me still enjoy The Sirens. I read The Sirens thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press. The Sirens was published on April 1, 2025.

Plot Summary: Lucy wakes up with her hand around the neck of a boy she once slept with in college. She sleepwalked into his dorm room and started strangling him. Along with the sleepwalking she dreams of two sisters Mary and Eliza. The sisters are onboard a women's prison ship headed towards New Wales, which is in Australia. Lucy thinks of her older Sister Jess. She flees the college after the incident. She does not want to go to her parent's house. Instead, she heads to her sister Jess's house. Jess's house is on a cliff overlooking the beach. The house is next to the cliffs that have been a local legend for missing men. Lucy arrives and Jess is not home. She finds Jess's phone in the house and starts to worry. She searches the house and finds Jess's journal. She learns they each have a skin condition. The condition makes their skin look like scales. The two sisters also haunt Jess's dreams. Jess's journal also holds many dark secrets that will change Lucy forever.

What I Liked: The prose was written very well. It was both beautifully written and understandable. I loved the history of the cliffs and sea caves. I love that pattern that starts emerging about the missing men. I loved the Mary and Eliza story. I feel this is where the best writing is. The family bond being portrayed was very special in the past and the present. It was nice to see that two guys were decent in the story and kind of get rewarded for it. I like reading women's fiction. I know that a big part of men are trash. Still, it was nice seeing two men being nice. I only need one that isn't. The history of the Sirens was great and I could have had more. I did like the ending of the book and how the stories were wrapped up.

What I Disliked: My main problem was one big twist that Lucy just could not figure out even if it was obvious. I did have a slapping my head in disbelief moment. Lucy was going over everything she had learned in Jess's journal and at the library. When she put it all together, she thought if this and this is true then the only possibility is this. And she is wrong and worse it makes no sense. When she finally understands everything, it doesn't even seem like a huge deal. It's almost as if she had an inkling about it the whole time. The rest of the writing and plotting is good, This one just bothered me. I did not like that Lucy called her mom to talk about the things in Jess's journal. Her mom then said to stop reading. She would be there in a day or so. But the mom is not mentioned again when the dad comes. The mom had a moment and when everything was revealed she had more to lose. The book is well written there are no plot holes just missed opportunities.

Recommendation: The Sirens is a beautifully written book with a lot of promise. The story has a lot of heart and is very interesting. The Sirens did make me want to read Hart's debut novel Weyward, which more than a few reviewers have recommended. As I was reading The Sirens, I couldn't stop the Cell Block Tango song. It was from Chicago the musical and it kept playing in my head. The line "He had it coming" kept repeating. The Sirens was a good read that I recommend to my followers. If I were to choose my top five reads of the year so far, The Sirens would be on the list.

Rating: The Sirens by Emilia Hart I rated 3.9 out of 5.

I feel somewhat neutral about this one. It reminded me a lot of Weyward, but it was unique enough that I think if they weren't written by the same author I wouldn't have even connected the two beyond the female-focused, timeline-jumping storylines.

Overall, I felt like it was hard to connect with the characters, and I didn't care much about Mary and Eliza's story. I would have liked to learn more about their mother? I liked that the different traumas the women experienced didn't define them, even if it seemed to be a central part of their stories.

The epilogue definitely came as somewhat of a shock.

This book was a bit of a disappointment for me. The premise sounded great, but the execution was a rollercoaster...a very, very slow one. The first 60 or 70% of this book was so slow and did not engage me at all unfortunately. I wanted something to happen, and I almost dnf'ed it multiple times. The flashback pov to Mary and Eliza's parts were my least favorite. I just didnt see how their parts were that necessary to the main story. The last 25% of the book was slightly redeeming but I just ended up having more questions at the very end. It did have a decent twist but I also didn't care that much for any of the characters, so it wasn't enough to make me want to rate this book higher. I wanted and hoped to enjoy this book much more than I did. However, it just felt like the majority of this one was endless details and descriptions and very little actually happening.

This was my first book from Emilia Hart and I’d heard such lovely things about her previous book, Weyward. The writing wonderful, she seems to be a great story teller. It flows through 3 timelines and interweaves the story and lives of multiple women. While, the writing was great, the story itself just wasn’t for me. I found myself not engaged in the plot and story. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an advanced readers copy of the Sirens.

This story had a great mystery that immediately sucked you in, the characters were sympathetic and complex, and the ending was mostly satisfying. Selkies and Sirens are much too much slept on in retellings and stories.

The one criticism I have is that there were a too few many references to modern, contemporary fads like Tiktok. This will date the book more than it deserves in the future.

Ultimately, really good.

I really liked the story line, plot and characters of this book. I felt like there was a lot going on and sometimes struggles to figure out the timeline. Overall, I felt this was a decent read.

I enjoyed Emilia Hart's Weyward so much that I knew immediately I would love this book. It did not disappoint. The magical story from the sea crossing two timelines was a rich and wonderful experience. I highly recommend you try this if you are into all things magical and witchy like me!

I enjoyed Hart's Weyward so I decided to request this one and unfortunately did not enjoy it nearly as much. The story started with a bang with Lucy waking up to find her hands around the neck of guy she recently slept with that had recently turned sour. From there she flees her school to an island town that her sister is currently living at only to find her sister missing. The story then goes back and forth from the current timeline to the 1800's which follows a couple of sister's on a convict ship to Australia from Ireland.

I was expecting an epic tale that ended up falling short. I didn't feel any connection to the characters and could not get engaged with the story. It felt disjointed and flat.

I was so excited to receive this book as I loved The Weywards. Sadly this one just didn't work for me- the initial premise of the book seemed to last until 2/3 of the way through when finally the plot was shaped and moved forward. I love Hart's writing and characters but I was pretty confused with these characters for a while, it didn't help that we jumped around so much.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC, pub date 4/1!

The Sirens is the kind of novel that thrives on the enchanting setting and character building. The way Emilia Hart reimagines classic mermaids is unique but it still awoke my childhood love of swimming and the familiar desire to swim in the depths with schools of beautiful fish. Hart skillfully weaves together historical fiction with mythology and mystery in a way that explores bonds between women without sacrificing the plot.