The Sirens by Emilia Hart

 

My thoughts

I read and loved this author's book Weyward. I didn't know exactly what to expect from this one but I did enjoy it also. It kept me turning the pages until the very ending which I did not see coming. Not that this is a thriller but still... I did not see that part coming.

Four women from two different timelines. Two sets of sisters. Connected in a way that is almost unbelievable. Until you open your heart and "believe." Also between the chapters are some diary entries from one young woman in 1999. 

In October of the year 1800 two sisters from Cove of Cork, Ireland are found guilty of a crime. While it was self-defense they were still convicted and sent to New South Wales, Australia. They were put on a boat along with many other women who were convicted and exiled to Australia. Mary and Eliza are these two young ladies. Their path already paved. Their destination mapped out for them. 

In February of 2019 Lucy wakes to a scream. She has no idea how she is there doing what she is doing. She has a young man by the throat.  She's strangling him. She has no memory of how she got there or how it happened. She runs. She leaves and goes to her sister Jess. Jess is not home and has no idea that Lucy is on the way. Jess is on a mission of her own. What lies ahead for these two young women is life altering. 

What happens in these two sets of sister's lives is a story that you will not believe. It's a tragedy and an awakening. Lives changed forever. I knew that convicts were sent to Australia many years ago. I did not know that boats filled with women were sent and the men there allowed to take them and claim them. To do horrible things. In this story there is a little bit of justice. Just a bit though and not graphic. 

This book was a fun read yet also intense in places. A story that made me believe in Mermaids again. While losing a tiny bit of faith in humans who destroyed the Aborigines like the white man did the Indians in the US to make a country a place for convicted criminals that society no longer wanted to deal with. At least in Australia that was the case back then. While this book touches on sexual abuse from a teacher it's not graphic and did not cause any problems while reading. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #StMartinsPress, and #Macmillanaudio for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

Five stars

About

A story of sisters separated by hundreds of years but bound together in more ways than they can imagine

2019: Lucy awakens in her ex-lover’s room in the middle of the night with her hands around his throat. Horrified, she flees to her sister’s house on the coast of New South Wales hoping Jess can help explain the vivid dreams that preceded the attack—but her sister is missing. As Lucy waits for her return, she starts to unearth strange rumours about Jess’s town—tales of numerous missing men, spread over decades. A baby abandoned in a sea-swept cave. Whispers of women’s voices on the waves. All the while, her dreams start to feel closer than ever.

1800: Mary and Eliza are torn from their loving home in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship heading for Australia. As the boat takes them farther and farther away from all they know, they begin to notice unexplainable changes in their bodies.

A breathtaking tale of female resilience, The Sirens is an extraordinary novel that captures the sheer power of sisterhood and the indefinable magic of the sea.