The Sirens by Emilia Hart Review by Nicole Yurcaba

The Sirens by Emila Hart

Review by Nicole Yurcaba

Publisher: St. Martin’s Publishing Group

Publication Date: April 1, 2025

ISBN: 9781250280824
Page #: 352 pages

In 2023, novelist Emilia Hart shocked and awed readers with her novel Weyward, a tale of centuries-long female power and resistance. In 2025, Hart returns to the literary stage with The Sirens, another stellar examination of female strength and fortitude in toxic masculinity’s face. The Sirens is the sea-swept tale of Jess and Lucy, two women raised as sisters whose spiritual inheritance is informed by a mysterious place in New South Wales called Comber Bay. As Jess and Lucy slowly uncover the truth about who they are, Jess’s former art teacher faces sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, they discover their current lives are somehow intertwined with those of twin sisters Mary and Eliza, two women from Ireland who were forced onto a convict ship bound for Australia in the 1800s. While Jess and Lucy both return to the place that unexplainably has shaped their lives, a dark part of Australia’s history collides with the present, and Jess and Lucy must come together in ways they never imagined in order to survive.

The Sirens blends a little magic with the best of historical fiction. Via Mary and Eliza, the novel exposes an ugly part of both British and Australian history. Their isolation mirrors their sense of Irish identity and the discrimination the Irish endured by the English at the time.   In 1777, The Lady Juliana became the first ship to transport only female convicts to the new colony of New South Wales. Female convicts were separated from earlier arrivals, and they were trained in domestic skills before being assigned to domestic service. However, that service often resulted in women being subjected to violence-filled lives rife with prostitution, rape, and domestic abuse. The bulk of the transports occurred between 1787-1868, and the dangerous journey incurred high passenger death rates. Mary and Eliza’s experiences on the Naiad are an insular replication of convict ships’ conditions and female prisoners’ circumstances, but Mary and Eliza’s emotional and physical isolation is necessary.

Compounding their sense of isolation are the physical anomalies that plague the twins whenever they encounter water. The skin between their toes and fingers becomes webbed, and small slits develop on their necks. A silver sheen emerges on their skin. The twins struggle to hide their physical transformation until the Naiad strikes a reef and they must rely on those attributes not only to save themselves, but also to save others. Thus, at this point, The Sirens develops yet another message: sometimes, one’s disabilities and deformities can become the force that saves them. In essence, by examining the attributes that Mary and Eliza—and society overall—consider grotesque and harmful, The Sirens encourages readers to develop a keener self-awareness and question the attributes on which an ableist and/or superficial societies place importance or emphasis.

While Hart manages to adeptly tackle these complex topics through the novel’s historical setting and characters, where her ability to fuse contemporary women’s rights issues into fiction is through Lucy and Jess’s modern-day experiences with healthcare, sexuality, men, and disability. Both Lucy and Jess suffer from an allergy to water, known as aquagenic uticaria. The affliction leads both to avoid water, wear clothing that is more comfortable than trendy, and bear a deep sense of isolation. However, despite the warnings both women receive about avoiding water, about not sweating, etc., water—and particularly the sea—call to Lucy and Jess in a voice neither of them can quite understand or ignore. This call leads Jess to Comber Bay, where over the years a slew of strange disappearances—mostly of men who have physically abused or violated women—occurred, making the town a hotbed for true crime enthusiasts. After Jess’s former art teacher, a man known as Hennessey, faces sexual assault allegations at his institution, Comber Bay lures Hennessey back into Jess’s life. Jess attempts to help Hennessey for reasons she cannot understand, but the sea reclaims what it will to protect its own.

The novel’s teacher-student sexual allegation dynamic is reminiscent of Kate Elizabeth Russell’s My Dark Vanessa, an uncomfortable book that examines the intimate relationship between a 15-year old and her 45-year old English teacher. The Sirens differs from My Dark Vanessa, however, because Hart does not focus on the male teacher’s experience or response. Rather, Hart gives agency to Jess. Most concerning is the way Hart’s novel reveals how even modern societies continue to protect male offenders while devaluing—and even disbelieving and blaming—female victims. Lucy is gaslit by student welfare officers and college administrators who side with the male student whose actions went unpunished. Lucy’s experience also reveals how many women must defend themselves in all ways since societal systems implicitly and immediately disenfranchise them.

For both Lucy and Jess, nonetheless, their skin condition and the sea’s call to them become what saves them and redeems their relationship. Both women embarked on a life where their skin condition is not an attribute of which to be ashamed, but one they can embrace. Yes, it sets them apart from others, but it inexplicably ties them to the sea, and, overall, to nature. Their ability to “tune in” and become one with the sea is Romantic and Transcendentalist. To a greater extent, the 21st century Romanticism and Transcendentalism is Hart’s way of subtly advocating for Earth’s fragile environments which are threatened on a daily basis by climate change, industry, and pollution—reminding readers that they, and their lives, are intertwined with nature in ways they cannot always necessarily understand.

Once again, Emilia Hart establishes her rightful place as a masterful novelist and storyteller. Eerie and magical, The Sirens is a siren-song, one sure to lure readers into its depths and not release them anytime soon. In its study of female identity and encounter, as well as its focus on the environment, The Sirens holds its place in the realm of literary calls to action with novels such as Roz Dineen’s Briefly Very Beautiful. A mystical and mythical dive into family secrets, personal reckonings, and societal gazes that must be exposed and adjusted.

Nicole Yurcaba (Нікола Юрцаба) is a Ukrainian American of Hutsul/Lemko origin. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Atlanta Review, Seneca Review, New Eastern Europe, Euromaidan Press, Chytomo, and The New Voice of Ukraine. Nicole holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University, teaches poetry workshops for Southern New Hampshire University, and is the Humanities Coordinator at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College. She also serves as a guest book reviewer for Sage Cigarettes, Tupelo Quarterly, Colorado Review, and Southern Review of Books. Her poetry collection, The Pale Goth, is available from Alien Buddha Press.

Emilia Hart is a British-Australian writer whose debut novel Weyward garnished her international attention. The Sirens is her second novel. She lives in London.

5 November 2025