Title: The Sirens
Author: Emilia Hart
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: April 1, 2025
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased (hardcover); eARC via NetGalley
Rating:

After reading author Emilia Hart’s debut novel Weyward last fall, I knew I’d read whatever she wrote next. I’m happy to report that The Sirens more than lives up to expectations, and is a beautiful, compelling story that matches the greatness of Weyward.

The Sirens follows two different sets of women across two different timelines. Our main viewpoint throughout is Lucy, a college student who’s had to deal with a strange skin ailment all her life, which leaves her with scars and marks across her body. When she wakes from a sleepwalking episode to discover that she’s attempting to strangle someone, she flees.

Lucy decides to seek shelter with her older sister Jess, whom she’s always loved, but who’s distanced herself from Lucy and their parents. Jess lives in Comber Bay, a small seaside village in New South Wales. Comber Bay has a certain notoriety thanks to a popular podcast focused on a string of disappearances in the town — over the past few decades, eight different men, seemingly with nothing in common, have vanished without a trace.

When Lucy arrives at Jess’s last known address — Cliff House, a ramshackle, dilapidated old house perched precariously over the wild sea — Jess is not there, although her keys, car, and phone are. With few options, Lucy settles in to wait for Jess’s return. She’s intrigued and disturbed by Jess’s paintings, depicting two young women and an old sailing ship. The paintings are beautiful, but the women in them exactly match the sisters Lucy sees in a series of recurring dreams. How is this possible?

Meanwhile, in 1800, sisters Mary and Eliza have been sentenced to transportation to Australia, leaving behind their home and beloved father in Ireland. Two of eighty women convicts crammed into the prison hold onboard the Naiad, they’re subjected to a terrifying sea journey in horrific conditions, with barely enough food or water to sustain them. Mary and Eliza are devoted to one another, terrified by their experiences and the rumors of what await them all in Australia, and desperate for survival. As they bond with the other women on the ship, the sense of community sustains them — but Mary is also concerned by the physical changes she and Eliza seem to be experiencing, and can’t help but wonder over what this might mean for them.

Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that the connections between Lucy and Jess’s story and Mary and Eliza’s becomes clear over time. What unfolds is a story of women living through harsh but recognizable experiences, yet also a tale filled with fantastical elements that add a haunting sense of beauty and magic to the overall feel of the novel.

The writing here is absolutely gorgeous. With every chapter, the author provides insights into the characters’ lives and inner turmoil, but also shows us the beauty of their surroundings, especially the sea, cliffs, and caves of Comber Bay.

I loved the two sets of sisters — each pair has their own special relationship and shared trauma, and obviously the different eras they live in play a huge role in what they go through, yet their stories also share common elements and resonate one to the other across time.

Reading The Sirens is an immersive experience that’s powerful, emotional, and practically hypnotic. I hated to pull away and put the book down, and was sad at the end, not because of unhappiness with the concluding chapters, but because I didn’t want to leave these characters and their world.

The Sirens is a must-read. Don’t miss it!

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org
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