I've been thinking a lot about monstrous women/women as monsters (I just saw Egger's Nosferatu) - and how often the monster women in these stories aren't that monstrous, just demonized by society.

This is especially true for selkie stories, often told from the perspective of the abandoned fisherman, heartbroken over the loss of his wife to the sea. Yet the end of that story is *actually* a homecoming for a trapped woman - she may have loved him once, or loved him for a time, or not at all, but even if she did, he forced her to stay by stealing her seal skin.

Hart's take on sirens is adjacent but not identical, pulling on the same tensions as the old folklore. In The Sirens, she weaves a beautiful story of sisterhood and the feminine experience, juxtaposing the story of two Irish sisters on a convict ship with the present-day mystery of Lucy and her missing sister Jessica. The two narratives intertwine seamlessly, giving readers the same merging of realities that Lucy and Jess are experiencing through their dreams.

I loved this beautiful story about the ways women can claim their power and find beauty even in things about ourselves that society may tell us are monstrous. I'm excited to read more from Hart in the future!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.