Here’s the thing about Kiera Cass – whom I can really never completely hate, despite my vehement dislike towards all her books – that I just can’t seem to understand: she brings forth a ton of intriguing, refreshingly uncommon plot ideas but ultimately, carelessly rips them apart in favor of an unrealistically instantaneous, illogically all-consuming, hilariously cringe-worthy romance. It happened with her The Selection series, and the same mistake was made here in The Siren.

For me, the portrayal of the Ocean as a powerful force, albeit flawed, prone to petty jealousy, and limited in understanding the full extent of human emotions, was perhaps the most, if not the only, interesting thing in The Siren. I think that the mythology about Her existence was a pretty excellent starting point, but unfortunately, much of the mythology was left to the imagination. Interestingly enough, at one point in the book, the sirens attempted to investigate their origin and history, but their search did not conceive any substantial answers.

To cut the long review short, this book has received too many negative reviews to count, and while I’m not comfortable with the idea of adding one more to an already extensive collection, I can completely see why people hate The Siren. The story totally veered away from its interesting premise, threw caution to the wind, and invested everything in pushing forward a half-assed, underdeveloped love story between two equally underdeveloped characters with no actual chemistry. The problem isn’t that Kahlen and Akinli fell in love too quickly; rather, the problem is, based on their handful – let me emphasize that, handful of – existing interactions, their romantic development came off as exceedingly shallow, painfully rushed, and terribly executed. Much like the story’s resolution and ending. Oops.