Yay or Nay: The Siren (Novel) (Reading Week Special)

You know what book of Kiera Cass's I was the most excited for after her success with "The Selection" series? This one. I think Kiera Cass has her best work in creating dystopia, royal, love stories, and I just want to start off this review by saying that I love her work with The Selection and its respective sequels The Heir and The Crown. 

I loved this trailer 

And this one. 

Although I'm not exactly a fan of monarchies (it's 2018, democracy is the way of the future), I do have an unbelievable interest and fascination with the histories of them, and how they work. Which is part of the reason Cass's work attracts me because it's not just the romance she's good at, but recreating a realistic representation of the monarchy. 

Unfortunately, you know what I don't think Cass is good at? Writing in the real-world, and about Sirens. 

Unfortunately, this was my reaction to most of the novel. 

THE STORY 

Kahlen once was a human but is now a Siren, sworn to sing and lure humans to their watery graves in exchange for not falling victim to this herself, eighty years ago. 

Now she spends her time taking care of her sisters, keeping scrapbooks of all those bound to their watery fate, and waiting for the time when she will be free of her curse. Although she is forbidden from speaking with humans (for fear of their secret being revealed) she finds herself irresistibly drawn to a human boy named Akinli. Now she remains torn between her Siren-duties, and her human ones, which, as she will discover have deadly consequences. 

For reference, I felt this gif adequately summed up this novel. 

Torn between mermaid and man, quite the dilemma don't you say? 

MY THOUGHTS

Once upon a time, little Meghan always wanted to be a mermaid. She was born a water-child who never wanted to leave the beach, get out of the pool, or come up from playing underwater. 

Naturally though, to be a mermaid isn't actually feasible for me, as a) I don't have gills, and b) I can't swim much better than a doggy paddle, and c) oceans with enormous depths scare the crap out of me. I don't know why I watch documentaries of the Marianas Trench depths, but whenever I do, it's both eerie and interesting. 

So I settle for reading semi-real romance novels about mythological things that I can never be. 

Unfortunately, this sucked. 

Having said this, I will explain exactly why this sucked for me. 

My biggest reasons start, not with Kahlen or Akinli themselves, however, but the Ocean itself. For a relationship that's supposed to be motherly in nature (the ocean is a living character in this story), it's so toxic to me. 

To be specific, the ocean is incredibly possessive. There are interactions where it gets almost threatening, and constantly the ocean speaks about how Kahlen belongs to her, how she is hers, and like her child. 

It just pissed me off that they still loved her and could speak good of her after the fact. 

Like this is what they are told when they start out their sentences. 

"You must never do anything that might expose our secret. This means that, in general, you cannot form close bonds with humans. You can speak to us, and you can always commune with the Ocean, but you are deadly to humans. You are, essentially, a weapon. A very beautiful weapon. I won't lie to you, it can be a lonely existence, but once you are done, you get to live. All you have to give, for now, is obedience and time..."

Obedience and time? 

That's not from Ocean, however, this limits their relationships to each other (their sister Sirens) and a physical being (The Ocean). It's the Ocean that puts them in this mess, causes the shipwrecks to feed, and then makes the very "once-humans" that suffered this themselves be the murderers.

Something seems incredibly wrong with that. And no, I don't think the reason they give for redeeming the "ocean" is good enough. Basically, "she" (ocean), knows that they want to leave her, and she's bitter about not being loved, so she wants to keep them to herself while she can. 

Even still! That's a shitty excuse! I'm sorry, but when you're toxic like that, possessive to a fault, and just plain threatening, not many people will want to be around you. 

This is excluding the fact that I really couldn't relate to Akinli or Kahlen, despite the fact they are our main characters, I found every bit of them dull, cliché, or just plain boring. And I didn't think they developed that much outside of, oh, star-crossed love. Certainly, there's more to them than that? I understand the point of using the "star-crossed" lovers trope, but that all there was to their characters. If you want me to be cheering for you, then you need to give me a reason why. In the situation that Kahlen was in, twenty years from being free, I wouldn't want to jeopardize that over a guy I just met. 

Really? Ugh. Groan. 

And yes, it's that fast. Save for the development between the sisters, which I thoroughly thought was this novel's saving grace. They genuinely care for one another and provide company to each other over their sentences, and they understand one another on a deep level. 

Simply put, it's a fast book. Meaning, there is no development, and not really much buildup either. Some people like that, and sometimes, I too prefer this type of novel. But based on what it was coming after, I expected the same type of calibre from The Selection and not this. Akinli is dull, and they fall in love too fast, and the novel didn't allow me the adequate time I needed to get to know the characters and emotions the book wanted me to feel. To improve it, I might suggest expanding...a lot. You can use the romance "insta-love", but you need to make it believable, and this wasn't.

And that's a little concerning considering this book, supposedly was pulled, rewritten, redrafted, and then rereleased. If this novel seemed to be "meh" in every aspect of the word, I can only cringe to imagine what the initial version was like. 

I just remember turning the pages and literally saying aloud, this is stupid. Not for the romance, but just for everything else. 

MY RATING

Alright, well, unlike A Thousand Nights this book was not completely unreadable. The sisterly relationships were lovely, and the actual idea Cass has isn't horrible, it's just horribly executed (at least in my mind). 

Given that it's "meh" in nature, and that's reflected in its 3-star rating on Goodreads, I would have to concur. It's meh. It's a Nay. 

I wouldn't buy it at all. But maybe, if you really, really just want to read it, pick it up at your local library. 

~Meghan