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A review by bookgirlie_unbound
The Sirens by Emilia Hart
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Once again, I am the target audience for Emilia Hart's beautiful stories!!!
"The Sirens" is another masterfully woven intergenerational tale of longing, freedom, fear, and magic. One timeline is in the early 1800s and the early colonization of what will be known as Australia and two Irish women sent there for crimes against the crown. The other is modern-day New South Wales, where a uni student wakes up after choking a boy while sleepwalking. Tell me how you could ignore this plot- I'll wait. Hart's use of dreams to move us between the two timelines furthered the sense of magic within the story and helped tie them together.
Adoption and family can be difficult waters to navigate and I thought Hart did so with care and tenderness. I come from a family shaped by adoption and my hackles immediately rose when it came up in the book. To my surprise, but maybe I shouldn't have been, Hart dealt with this very well, reinforcing that biology does not make one family. Do I condone how some chose to handle the knowledge of adoption in this tale? Absolutely, not and the tensions portrayed between the adoptive parents and the child were well warranted in my opinion.
All in all, another wonderful book from Hart. I only wish she had used the relationship between the sisters in the 1800s to share more about the Irish lore surrounding sirens. She could have used the time about the Nyad to share folktales about sirens and other mythical water creatures to further up the magical elements within this story.
Once again, I am the target audience for Emilia Hart's beautiful stories!!!
"The Sirens" is another masterfully woven intergenerational tale of longing, freedom, fear, and magic. One timeline is in the early 1800s and the early colonization of what will be known as Australia and two Irish women sent there for crimes against the crown. The other is modern-day New South Wales, where a uni student wakes up after choking a boy while sleepwalking. Tell me how you could ignore this plot- I'll wait. Hart's use of dreams to move us between the two timelines furthered the sense of magic within the story and helped tie them together.
Adoption and family can be difficult waters to navigate and I thought Hart did so with care and tenderness. I come from a family shaped by adoption and my hackles immediately rose when it came up in the book. To my surprise, but maybe I shouldn't have been, Hart dealt with this very well, reinforcing that biology does not make one family. Do I condone how some chose to handle the knowledge of adoption in this tale? Absolutely, not and the tensions portrayed between the adoptive parents and the child were well warranted in my opinion.
All in all, another wonderful book from Hart. I only wish she had used the relationship between the sisters in the 1800s to share more about the Irish lore surrounding sirens. She could have used the time about the Nyad to share folktales about sirens and other mythical water creatures to further up the magical elements within this story.