The Siren - Book Review

"There's always room for love, even if it's as small as a crack in a door."

Mermaids are the creatures of the deep, the ones that every little girl has always wanted to be. Even now, as those girls grow up, there's still some part of them that yearns for their own tail and clam shell top, exploring the depths of the ocean to parts unknown. It's a fantasy that we can only wish was real life. But, while many little girls think about being mermaids, there's another mythical creature that lives in the sea, one that is similar to the beautiful mermaids but so much deadlier to those around them. For this creature is said to lure the lives of sailors to their death by calling them to the Ocean with their beautiful voices, singing a song that has no choice but to kill those who hear it.

These creatures are Sirens, and they are so different from their mermaid counterparts.

As we have learned in this book, there are never too many sirens in the world at one time. In fact, the most number of sirens at one time is 5, for any more than that could risk exposure of their kind. In order for sirens to become what they are, the Ocean has to save them from drowning, and when that happens, they are to serve Her for 100 years. No more, no less. It is with this information that this story begins, with Kahlen making the difficult choice of becoming a siren.

Fast forward 80 years, and the story really begins.

Sirens have come and gone, with new ones coming to take the place of those whose times have already passed. Two of the three Sirens that were there when Kahlen's new life began have already left her, and her oldest friend is Aisling. Her time is almost up, it's just a matter of months now. Kahlen lives with her two other siren sisters, Elizabeth and Miaka, two party girls that live a completely different life from Kahlen, who is content with people watching around the university that they live near. It's on one of those excursions, in the library where her silence will not go noticed, that her life changes. She meets a boy, Akinli, who comes to terms with the fact that she can't talk and still manages to have a full and wonderful conversation with her anyway. Their interactions are short for the most part, especially considering that Kahlen is already 80 years into her sentence, but for some reason, she is so infatuated by him, to the point of falling in love with him. But with her being a siren, she can't afford to fall in love with a human. The Ocean wouldn't let her, or any of her daughters of the sea.

But Aisling, right before her time is up and she turns back into a human, confides a great secret in Kahlen, making everything that seemed impossible. Aisling was able to hide her love for her family, from the daughter that she left behind to her great-granddaughter who is already grown up. She was able to hide the fact that she was keeping tabs on her family the whole time she was a Siren, and one of the main rules that the Ocean said was that mothers can never be sirens because they wouldn't be able to take the lives of children away. Yet, Aisling was able to do her job with no hesitation, and it changes everything that Kahlen was brought to believe. She could love, and still do what she needed to do to serve her time. But when she accidentally speaks in front of Akinli, and he finds himself succumbing to the Ocean's power, Kahlen begs for Her to spare his life, and leaving him in the process.

This was a wonderful love story, one where it shows that even the act of kindness and friendship without expecting anything from it can lead to the most beautiful kind of love. Kahlen and Akinli couldn't communicate normally, and yet that didn't deter them from having a wonderful friendship. Akinli was the boy that Kahlen needed in her life, to show her that love does exist, even from the most unexpected source. Their love was so pure, so strong, that with them far apart from one another, they would have died together. Sirens aren't supposed to be able to die, but Kahlen almost did, and so did Akinli. With the help of the Ocean, even though She didn't want to let go of the one Siren that loved her unconditionally, helped Kahlen to get back to the life that she needed to lead, and heal her heart in a way that the Ocean could never do on Her own.

Rated: 5/5 Stars