When A Mermaid Falls In Love | The Siren

The Siren by Kiera Cass
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: January 26th, 2016
Genres: YA, Romance, Fantasy
Pages:  336
Source: Bought it
Goodreads Purchase
From Kiera Cass, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series, comes a captivating stand-alone fantasy romance.

Kahlen is a Siren, bound to serve the Ocean by luring humans to watery graves with her voice, which is deadly to any human who hears it. Akinli is human—a kind, handsome boy who's everything Kahlen ever dreamed of. Falling in love puts them both in danger . . . but Kahlen can't bear to stay away. Will she risk everything to follow her heart?

The Siren was previously self-published; this brand-new edition has been completely rewritten and redesigned.
Review:

The Singers Of Death.

That's what I'm gonna call the Sirens.

You see, this is a romance storyan impossible romance storyof an otherworldly beautiful girl who has a lethal voice and an ordinary boy who's cute and adorable and totally likes her because of her personalitiesnot her beauty.

Why is this girl's voice lethal?

She's a Siren. A servant of the Ocean who sings to keep the Ocean fed with human bodies-slash-souls. You might know a similar story of mermaids who sing to distract sailors and get them killed. Close enough. Except Sirens have regular human bodies and no fins. They'll serve the Ocean for a hundred years, after that, they'll be released to the society and their memories will be wiped out.

I have to admit, the premise itself is very intriguing. I found myself getting more curious about this Siren thing after each page. Even though I've heard many similar stories about this kind of creature, it was fun to read how Kiera Cass managed to execute it all.

I liked how the whole Siren's idea is portrayed. They serve the Ocean. See how the 'O' in the Ocean is capitalized? That's because the Ocean is alive. It's a She. She can talk and understand her Sirens and people. I liked how the Sirens treat the Ocean as if She's their own mother. And I liked how every humanly move that the Ocean makes is portrayed, even though at first I found it a bit ridiculous.
So, one of the best? Is it bad to tell You that I don't really want to be good at this job?

She swirled around my face and hair, trying to console me. No one with a beating heart could enjoy killing their own.
As for the characters itself:
  • Kahlen — Maybe because she was written by the same author, I found some similarities between her and America Singer (lead of The Selection series). Both of them are whiny and often come off as annoying. Kahlen has been a Siren for 8 years and yet she still cries and mourns deeply every damn time after she sings. You'd think by now, she'd get used to it and have a heart like stone. There would be pages of her being sad and confused with her emotions and actions that sometimes it confused me too.
  • Akinli  Moving past his weird name, I found myself liking Akinli. He's cute, adorable, and so NICE! I really liked how he finds his way around Kahlen's muteness (Sirens aren't allowed to speak around human, except when they sing). He's one of those people who's VERY capable of avoiding any kinds of awkwardness because he always finds a way to change the topic. He's also one of those people who's too good and too polite for their own good. But, you know what? It's actually some of his best qualities.
  • Kahlen's friends/sisters — They're all okay, I guess. There isn't exactly a moment in time when they really caught my attention or anything. Even though they all have different personalities, nothing about them really captivated me. Maybe that's what side characters are for, yeah? To make everything but the lead characters seem dull and boring.
  • The Ocean — I don't know what to say about Her. She's motherly at one second, the next she's annoying as hell. How so? You see, she's no human. She has no equal. She thinks She understands what humans feel when the truth is she doesn't. Sure, She gives the Sirens immortality, but that doesn't mean She always knows what's good for Her Sirens. That doesn't mean she can order the Sirens around like they're a pair of sandals.
The plot itself feels too slow-paced, in my opinion. There isn't really that many of swoon-worthy scenes, since the girl and the boy barely spend time together. If I could make it into a graph, I'd say only about 40 percent of the book is actual romance, really romance, with the boy and the girl face-to-face. The rest is just some Siren stuff-slash-problems or Kahlen missing the boy and wishing to be with him, but then a second later she'd say No, I can't be with him, I might kill him yadda yadda.

I think this book is decent and okay. It's perfect if you need a light reading just to pass your time. I read it in the middle of an exam week and it barely affected anything (I hoped so). You can just skim most part of the book and still be able to know the outline and the story in decent details. There are swoon-worthy scenes, but not that much. If you're looking for a swoon-worthy book filled with swoon-worthy scenes, go read The Sky Is Everywhere or Lola and The Boy Next Door or maybe The Heir. If you're looking for a book with a main character who has the opposite traits of this one's, go read Snow Globe.

In all, The Siren is a so-so book. It has a so-so plot, so-so characters, and so-so conflict. The only thing that made me give it three solid stars was the whole Siren premise. While Kiera Cass never ceased to amaze me in the past, I'd say this book is not her best one. But, I'd still read her grocery list in the midst of waiting for The Crown to come out in May.

My rating:  ★ ★ ★ 

Reviewed by Inas 

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