The Siren

Reviewed by: Cidney Mayes - Memorial Middle School, South Portland, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: September 21, 2016

Review

The Siren is a re-edited rerelease of the 2009 book by Kiera Cass, author of the popular Selection series. Kahlen and her wealthy family's pleasure sailing trip is tragically ended when their boat is hit with siren song, luring everyone to their deaths. Kahlen pleads desperately for her life, and the Ocean offers her a deal: become a siren for 100 years and serve the Ocean by singing humans to their death and then go free, or die. Kahlen accepts the offer, and the story resumes eighty years later. She interacts with humans carefully, never using her voice as it is deadly. With twenty years of service left to go, she falls madly in love with a boy from a college campus she likes to visit, and so begins a tortured romance.

The prose is stiff at times, and endless scenes of pining for love grow a bit tiresome. Attempts at incorporating multicultural characters fall flat, as they are multicultural in name only; little is explored about the others Sirens' cultures. Give this title to hopeless romantics; or, better yet, stick to Cass' Selection series.

Overall Book Score: good