Jule Welsh can sing. She enthralls people with her bel canto voice. But it takes more than practice to reach her level of exquisite song; it takes siren’s blood running through her veins. Jule is starting her senior year at Cougar Creek High when her relatively normal world begins to resemble a roller coaster flying through a carnival scare house. Her mother is diagnosed as insane and committed, a psycho-stalker is snapping pictures of her to put into his homemade Jule-shrine, her voice is suddenly putting people into comatose trances, oh and the gorgeous new guy in town, Luke Whitmore, is interested in her . . . but also wants to kill her.
First lines: Carly Ashe, BFF bordering on sister, flaps her hand in my direction as she stares through my mom’s opera glasses. “Jule! They’re moving in, and you have to see this!” She shoves the golden binoculars into my hand and points across the road toward the new subdivision of colossal homes set on three-acre manicured lots-Amberly Heights.
Siren’s Song is a bewitching novel. Like the Siren’s of lore, McCollum’s writing will draw you in and never let go.
The Siren theme is a well used one but McCollum weaves a unique story all it’s own. Jule is a teenager whose life has been recently turned upside down. Her mother is battling mental illness and the worries of regular teenagedom are interwoven with her mother’s celebrity and all the crazy that brings. It’s clear there is a real family connection between Jule and her parents. I enjoyed learning their family dynamic and was delighted that the protagonist had a good family.
The idea that someone’s singing can be so beautiful that it holds people captive is a more realistic concept than people might think. Music is an integral part of our daily lives. It’s our muse when we need inspiration. It’s our therapist when we need to work out emotions. Music already has the ability to elicit a wide range of emotional responses as well as assist the listener in recollecting memories. The idea that it can hold our minds is very believable and brings a realness to the story. That thread of realness carries the paranormal aspect of the story. It assists the mind with imagery through out the story and keeps the words flowing at a nice pace. This is a story you will definitely get lost in. I know I did.
The play between Jule and Luke is riveting. The romantic in me loves the idea of perfect matches. The tug o’ war these two go through is heart wrenching and I found myself getting more and more caught up in the story as I read. I even found myself invested with the supporting characters and their plight. At one point in the book Matt hits on Jule and tells her “she has options”. This is the only conflicting thing I found in the book. She doesn’t actually have options. She is only one person’s siren. It’s not one size fits all. I would like to see McCollum explain that passage. In my opinion, it pulls away from the story and confuses the reader.
The climax does have some pretty intense violence and almost violence.
I love almost everything about this story. The characters are fully formed and interesting. The story is unique and captivating. Fantastic book.
5 stars.
The Technical Data:
Title: Siren’s Song | Series: The Guardians Series | Author(s): Heather McCollum |Publisher: Spencer Hill Press / Publication Date: 3-18-2014 |Pages: 376 (Print) | ISBN: 978-1939392824 |Genre(s): Paranormal Romance & Science Fiction |Language: English |Rating: 5 out of 5 | Date Read: 9-13-2016 |Source: Copy from Author
P.s. The book I was sent has a different cover than the one listed on Amazon. Both are awesome so I’m not too worked up about it.
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