Summary:
Kahlen was supposed to die. She shouldn’t have lived. Her family is gone. Miraculously, Kahlen ends up being saved by the Ocean to become a siren. Kahlen is now a very deadly weapon. She and her other Siren sisters help feed the Ocean by singing and causing people to drown. When the reader catches up with Kahlen, she has been doing this for eight years. NOW THAT IS A LONG TIME! Can you even imagine the stress of this job? Of course the Ocean has rules about what they are able to do. No sharing what they are. No avoiding their duties, different things like that. Kahlen doesn’t have a huge complaint about what is going on with her life, but she feels so much remorse for her actions. She doesn’t like killing these people at all. She tries to find some way to keep their memories alive.
By accident, Kahlen ends up meeting Akinli. She pretends that she is deaf. This didn't stop Akinli; he is still very interested in this mysterious girl. For some reason, Kahlen is drawn to Akinli. Akinli treats Kahlen like a person and wants to get to know her. He sees past all of her beauty and wants to talk to her about cooking and other things. Kahlen and Akinli are determined though; they find a way to communicate. What these two aren’t aware of is how their lives will change forever.
What I liked:
- I really liked that this book focused more on life, choices, sisterhood, and finding out who you are as a person. Kahlen is the Ocean’s favorite “daughter.” Kahlen looks to the Ocean as a mother figure. The Ocean is the antagonist in the story. I had a hard time between not liking the Ocean to wanting to offer sympathy.
- Then you have Kahlen and her sisters. These are the girls that Kahlen gets to see every day. They take care of each other. On top of that, they are the only people they can truly talk too. I love how these girls are towards each other. The sisters dropped everything to move when Kahlen needed to get away. THAT SHOWS TRUE DEVOTION. With everything, these girls just want to see Kahlen happy even if that means breaking the rules.
- “The Siren” is so much more than a romance novel. I think self-discovery is the most important part of this novel. "The Siren" is a young adult novel. The characters are not in high school. "The Siren" very much reads like a YA novel. It is refreshing to see college age characters. The older aged characters created uniqueness from other young adult novels. Finally having some characters that are well behaved and out of high school was great.
- The mythology was done really well. It wasn’t just thrown in to be filler material. Cass really did some research and incorporated the siren mythology into the story. This isn’t a mermaid tale. It is specially designed around siren mythology.
Final Thoughts:
I have not read the original novel. I ended up finding a copy at a used bookstore. I would really like to see how the story changed. I think it may also be a good learning experience to see how things change between the two. I think Cass did great with this novel. Something that I kept in mind is that this was written before the Selection. This is just a remake of it.
I would enjoy reading "The Siren" again. I thought it was a lovely experience. This may be a short read but it is so enjoyable. I think many people will enjoy Kahlen's tell. Kahlen's sisters are so dedicated and amazing. I loved each of them. This is definitely worth picking up.
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