The Siren by Kiera Cass Publisher: Harper Audio (2016)
Audiobook
{7 hours} (336 pages)
Rating:
Also by this author: The Elite, The One, The Heir
Reading Challenges: Read 2016
Synopsis
From Kiera Cass, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series, comes a sweeping stand-alone fantasy romance.
A girl with a secret.
The boy of her dreams.
An Ocean between them.
Years ago, Kahlen was rescued from drowning by the Ocean. To repay her debt, she has served as a Siren ever since, using her voice to lure countless strangers to their deaths. Though a single word from Kahlen can kill, she can’t resist spending her days on land, watching ordinary people and longing for the day when she will be able to speak and laugh and live freely among them again.
Kahlen is resigned to finishing her sentence in solitude...until she meets Akinli. Handsome, caring, and kind, Akinli is everything Kahlen ever dreamed of.
Falling in love with a human breaks the Ocean’s rules. But for the first time in a lifetime of following the rules, Kahlen is determined to follow her heart.
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository
My Review
I have to say that I enjoyed The Siren more than I enjoyed The Selection series. I guess that mainly comes down to the fact that I liked Kahlen more than America (or Eadlyn, for that matter).
Let’s start with Kahlen. She has been a siren for eighty years and it is not something that she enjoys. She doesn’t like bringing down ships to placate the Ocean. Her only wish is to get married someday. This, however, won’t be for at least twenty years when her service to the Ocean is complete. Until then, her voice is deadly to all people.
(On a side note: If Kahlen was born some ninety years ago it would be the early 1920s. I’m not up-to-date on common names of that time but I sort of doubt that Kahlen was one of them. I have a hard time seeing rich parents in the 1920s naming their daughter Kahlen, but maybe that is just me.)
Aisling, Miaka, and Elizabeth are Kahlen’s sister-sirens. They have been together for a number of years. They are all their own, unique individuals. While Kahlen dreams of a wedding, Aisling lives quietly on her own. Miaka is an artist, selling her work online, and Elizabeth likes to party. They are all such individuals and I love that.
There is also the Ocean. The Ocean is a sentient being, the controller of all that happens on her waters. She hand-picked each siren, binds them to her service, and releases them after one hundred years. The Ocean is not human and so cannot fully understand humanity. She takes care of her sirens as best she can, but she can’t truly be their mother.
Then there is Akinli. Yep, there are some strange names in this one. Akinli meets Kahlen in the library. He isn’t put off by her apparent muteness and this makes Kahlen feel like she hasn’t felt before. This boy, Akinli, honestly wants to get to know Kahlen, the person. He doesn’t know about Kahlen, the siren, for good reason but he likes the Kahlen he interacts with. He even finds ways to help her communicate despite her muteness.
Kahlen knows that she has no future with Akinli. He is human, aging. She is a siren, unchanging for the next twenty years. By the time Kahlen could have a real relationship with Akinli, he would be middle-aged and she would still be eighteen. That isn’t exactly going to work out and Kahlen knows it. She is torn between wanting to spend time with him and knowing that she can’t. What is a girl to do in such a situation?
While I listened to this on audio, I found myself so engrossed in the story. I wanted to know how it was all going to turn out. Would Kahlen be able to be with Akinli? Would the Ocean manage to keep them apart? Would Akilni ever discover Kahlen’s secret, that she is a siren? I usually take at least a week to listen to an audiobook but, with The Siren it was only two days! I was that caught up in Kahlen’s story.
Since I did listen to this on audio I just want to apologize if I completely mangled the spelling of some names. I did try to figure out the correct spelling by scouring the internet but I’m not sure it was a complete success.
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