After enjoying Emilia Hart’s first novel, Weyward, in 2023, I’ve been looking forward to reading her new one, The Sirens. Weyward linked the stories of three women in different time periods through a family connection, a shared love of nature and a theme of witchcraft. The Sirens also has multiple timelines, but this time the characters are linked by water and the sea.
The novel begins in Australia in 2019 with student Lucy waking up from a sleepwalking episode with her hands around her ex-boyfriend’s neck. Ben is not entirely innocent – they broke up after he shared a nude photo of her with his friends – but she’s afraid he’ll report her for assault, so she packs her things and flees. Planning to take refuge with her sister Jess, an artist, Lucy heads for the town of Comber Bay, but on arrival she finds her sister’s house empty, as if it had been abandoned in a hurry. Lucy is concerned, but on learning that Jess did tell one of the neighbours that she would be going away for a while, she decides to wait in the house until she returns.
Comber Bay is a small town on the coast of New South Wales and has a sinister reputation; over a forty year period, eight men disappeared without trace, never to be seen again. Also, in 1982, a baby was found abandoned in a cave not far from Jess’s house. As she waits to hear from her sister, Lucy begins to uncover the truth behind these mysteries – but she becomes distracted by unsettling dreams of another pair of sisters who lived two centuries earlier.
Lucy’s present day story alternates with the story of those other two sisters, Mary and Eliza, who were found guilty of a crime in Ireland in 1800 and transported to Australia on a convict ship. Later in the book, Jess’s story also begins to unfold, mainly in the form of diary entries from the 1990s (the diary reads more like a novel, but I think we just have to suspend disbelief there). It takes a while for all of these threads to come together, but we eventually begin to see how cleverly they are connected. There are some surprising twists that I didn’t see coming, as well as some that I was able to guess before they were revealed. As ever, when a book has more than one timeline, I find that some are more compelling than others – and in this case, I particularly enjoyed Lucy’s story and the flashbacks to Jess’s teenage years. Mary and Eliza never fully came to life for me, so their adventures on board the Naiad didn’t interest me quite as much as I would have liked.
The title and cover of the book made me think there would be more siren/mermaid mythology incorporated into the story, but there’s only a little bit of that. There’s a lot of beautiful watery imagery, though, and water plays a big part in the novel in so many different ways. There’s Mary and Eliza’s sea voyage on the Naiad; the setting of Comber Bay, with its coastline, cliffs and caves; Jess’s paintings of ships; even the rare skin condition Lucy suffers from, aquagenic urticaria. It’s a book with lots of layers and things to think about. Having read two Emilia Hart books now, however, I do have a problem with her portrayal of men. Almost every male character in both books, with only a few exceptions, is either violent and abusive, a rapist or generally misogynistic or predatory. Obviously that’s true of some men, but I think it’s unrealistic that nearly every man who crosses paths with our female protagonists would be a terrible person. I think it should be possible to promote feminism and give women a voice without going too far in the other direction.
Apart from that, I did like the book and loved the eerie atmosphere Hart creates with Lucy alone in the abandoned Cliff House, uncovering the troubled history of Comber Bay’s past while being haunted by the cries of the women on the convict ship. It’s very similar to Weyward in some ways, but also different enough to be an interesting novel in its own right.
Thanks to The Borough Press for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.
She Reads Novels 
Oh, it is SO wearisome when all male characters are evil. I don’t think it helps or, really, qualifies as feminism at all; surely it’s more effective and realistic to show how systemic sexism affects people – men included! – in more nuanced and human ways.
Exactly! I’m sure there must have been better ways for her to get her message across without portraying every man as an evil monster. It’s a shame because she’s a good writer and this book was enjoyable other than that.
I’m not a huge fan of dual timelines in books…mostly because I do end up preferring one over the other. I’m glad this one still worked even though you didn’t find Mary and Eliza’s story as engaging as Lucy’s.
I usually find that I prefer the historical storyline, so I was surprised that I enjoyed the modern one more in this book.
Great review. I really enjoyed Weyward and this one sounds as though it’s very similar in style. I think with dual timelines, I almost always end up being more invested in one of them. It’s a shame about the men being a bit one -dimensional though as I feel that would detract from the story a bit.
Yes, I think if you enjoyed Weyward you’ll probably enjoy this one too. It does have a similar structure and style.
I liked Weyward, too, but I’ll think about this one.
I think I liked Weyward better, but I enjoyed this one too.
I get very tired of the all men are evil trope that some authors seem to think is a necessary part of being a feminist. Think I’ll skip this one!
I think her books would annoy you! It’s a shame because her plots are interesting and she’s great at creating atmosphere and a sense of place.
I’m adding this to my list for the location, as lived on the south coast of NSW for many years. A fictional visit sounds lovely.
I loved the NSW setting, so I’m sure you would find it interesting as you know the location.
I’d like to try something by Emilia Hart after loving her short story ‘Apples’ in the Of The Flesh collection. I’m not sure this is the one for me as I struggle with interspersed historical threads at the best of times and note your comment that the characters don’t quite come to life. Maybe Weyward would be a better pick.
Weyward also has multiple timelines, but each one felt fully developed, whereas this book seemed less well balanced.
I understand your criticism about the portrayal of men. For me, it’s ok because of the strong feminist theme in her books. And it gives her novels that dramatic feeling. But if every author strated writing like this, it would be too much.
That’s a good point – it does add to the drama and sense of danger.
Hi Helen, I have to agree, while I haven’t read this book, that I do hate the ‘all men bad’ trend that appears in quite a lot of literature and other media nowadays. As you said it doesn’t help women. 🤷♀️
Blessings, Jessica 💌
It’s such an annoying trend – I’m sure there must be better ways to promote feminism. This was a good book apart from that!