Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Sirens & Muses

This was beautifully done. It was extremely dense and took me a while to get through, so beware if that is something you don’t like. I felt like I learned something new as I am unfamiliar with the art world or art in general and I loved how each character navigated the world. The prose was poetic and lovely, though I think it was a little overdone at times - it felt a little pretentious to use vocabulary that caused me to use a dictionary 3 times on one page. BUT I loved it because I think that’s the point!

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meh697's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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frannyrdclark's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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aweso10's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

make this a movie!!! plz. i wanna see matthew macfadyen as robert, daisy edgar-jones as louisa... i'm not super picky about the rest, but all in all this book made me feel SO many things. i flew through it, but it felt cohesive and the characters felt so raw and real and relatable in the best and worst ways. shoutout to mpls-based author/queen antonia angress for this work of art- literally!

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jneverland's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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hailspork's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I picked up this book because it was the monthly book club selection for someone I am subscribed to on Patreon.
"Sirens & Muses" follows four artists during a semester at a prestigious and competitive art school, Wrynn College of Art. Louisa is a level-headed, quiet nineteen-year-old who feels completely out of her element. Karina's parents have made a huge name for themselves in the art world, so it feels inevitable that Karina herself will succeed. Preston's home life is rife with turmoil, and he acts out and uses his shock-value art to get a rise from everyone. Robert is a once famous artist who has found himself as a professor at Wrynn. All of these characters have their flaws, and they are all just trying to succeed at the one thing that makes their life worth living.
This novel was pretentious as hell, but that is kind of why I loved it. These characters are artists and they view the world in such a different way. They are outraged by the problems they are facing in America in 2011 and are constantly walking the line between staying true to the art and creating for the sake of beauty, and selling out to a capitalistic society so they can survive in this world.
One big, reoccurring plot point in this novel is the Occupy Wall Street movement that was taking place at the time. Occupy Wall Street was a movement that protested and brought light to the economic inequalities that were taking place, and still truly take place to this day. The government can bail out big banks and multi-billion-dollar companies, but they cannot make higher education affordable? I started college in 2011 and graduated in 2016 with what felt like an insurmountable amount of debt. I completely sympathize with these characters about wanting to continue learning, being told I have to get a degree to succeed, and then feeling slighted when I graduated jobless, with debt that crippled my financial independence. Although I did not pursue an art degree, I did pursue an English degree, and I understand the struggle of feeling like a sell out because we live in this capitalistic world and I need money to survive. I think this one, moderate plot point just hit so close to home that I could not put this book down and led to my 5-star rating.
Of all the characters, I was most drawn to Louisa and Karina. They come from two entirely different worlds, but I wanted to see them both succeed so badly with their art, and their relationship. I think they are the perfect balance to one another, and having that opposite in their life, really helps them succeed with their art. Everyone thinks Karina is perfect and has the most poetic life, but she really struggles and faces real problems that would strike down anyone. She might have been born with an advantage because of her parents, but her life is far from "easy". Louisa has such a strong work ethic and is the real underdog in this story. She comes from a small town and works twice as hard just to be able to afford to stay at this art school. They are the perfect antithesis for each other.
I think Robert provides a good contrast to the other main characters because he shows a potential path they may find themselves on down the line. He has lived through being a young artist and now he has wisdom that he could not see when he was their age.
Preston is a fuckboy and I could do without his parts, but I do think he provided commentary about another type of young artist.
I already want to reread this book, and I look forward to finding more like it to enjoy!

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