Review for The Siren by Kiera Cass!
Quick View Review
Characters: **** (4/5)
Plot: *** (3.5/5)
Writing Quality: *** (3.5/5)
Amazon Rating: **** (4.5/5)
One Sentence Review: Overall a success, although the plot did cause some eye rolls and the writing could have been better.
Pairings: The Selection series by Kiera Cass, The Little Mermaid (IT COUNTS, OK)
Playlist: Never Be Alone by Shawn Mendes
One Call Away by Charlie Puth
A Whole New World by Lea Salonga & Brad Kane
Kiss the Girl by Samuel E. Wright (I HAD TO DON'T KILL ME)
This Love by Taylor Swift
Full Review
After a tragic cruise accident, Kahlen becomes a siren, sentenced to serve the Ocean for 100 years by singing and luring humans to their deaths in the water. She’s never really interacted with anyone other than her Siren sisters so far in her 80 years as a siren and has always obeyed the Ocean… That is, until she meets Akinli, a human boy. He’s gorgeous, kind, and is basically a vision from Kahlen’s dreams. Falling in love is extremely dangerous for both of them, especially since Kahlen still has 20 years left in her sentence, but she’s determined to follow her heart no matter what the cost. Will she be able to pull through and find a way to be with Akinli?
This book was one of the quickest reads I’ve had in awhile. It didn’t even take as long as Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid, and that’s saying something. I guess there are a lot of cheesy short books that have made it onto my tbr…
So anyway, this was the book of the month for The Court of Books and Readers in February as our romance pick, and I was so excited to pick up another Kiera Cass novel (because, um, the Selection? And Maxon?) And were my expectations lived up to? The characters: they almost, almost surpassed my expectations. The plot: overall it was pretty good, but there were were definitely some eye-roll-worthy moments. The writing: definitely could have been improved and made the book incredible.
The characters. I honestly wasn’t expecting much especially after reading the Heir, but hey, I was happily surprised. I didn’t love all of them and was frantically searching for a fault in Akinli’s personality, but overall I really enjoyed them. I loved (and very much envied) the siren sisterhood and the unbreakable bond the girls shared. My favorite “character”, though, had to be the Ocean. Can She even be considered a character? I don’t know, but in my opinion She was the most complex and had the most depth. She showed us different sides of Herself: compassionate, angry, jealous, and so many other realistic sentiments that I felt I was sometimes missing from the sirens themselves. Besides these minor flaws, though, I felt like most of the personalities of the sirens were relatively realistic and I could relate to a lot of their emotions.
The plot. Exactly. What. I. Expected. Which means it was pretty good. And very, very, predictable. There was one particular moment (I’m not going to say, but those who have read it may know which scene I’m talking about) where even I couldn’t handle the clichéd cheesiness of it (and that’s saying quite a lot). It was one of those moments where you need to just close the book, eat a snack, accept that this story has just passed the bounds of where fated cheesy love should go, and continue past the cringe-worthy moment. But other than that… All was well. This book didn’t cause stress with action-packed moments, but it didn’t have to to be enjoyable. It didn’t come close to being mind-blowing, but it was good enough that I recommend it for you if you’re in need of a de-stressifier.
I’m not really going to talk about the writing, because I feel the story only really had one way to be told and so Cass’s style didn’t really affect my perception of the novel, but I will say this: the writing was very, very simple. Simple to the point where I think a middle-grade student would have no problem at all exploring and understanding every nook and cranny of the room that is this book, and that disappointed me a bit. I was hoping for something with a little more complexity to make this book more than just a simple story, but maybe the target audience for this particular book is a little younger than I imagined.
Overall, this book is flawed, but it’s still a story worth reading, especially if you’re super stressed out. The atmosphere of the novel is very relaxing, and man, sometimes I wish I had the Ocean to comfort me in times of stress and confusion.
Make sure to come back next Wednesday for a new review!
Happy reading!
Jordan :)
