I HAVE BEEN CONVERTED. HUGE THANKS TO GRETAL FOR RECOMMENDING ME THIS BOOK.

I am a scaredy-cat. Actually, I'm worse. I can't watch scary movies. I jump while watching non-scary movies. And I avoid horror and thrillers at all costs. It's funny because I used to be obsessed with the Goosebumps books when I was little. They scared me and gave me nightmares, but I still read them. I don't know what happened, but at some point I turned to fantasy and never looked back. I have major regrets.

I also don't read a lot of adult fiction, though that has been changing recently. This adult, sci-fi, horror story was perfect! I didn't get nightmares, which is great. But was I creeped out? Yes. A little disturbed. Yes. Am I going to swim in the ocean. Probably never. Would I watch the movie version of this? Honestly, no. (Unless Gretal watched it first, wrote down all the jump scares, and then watched it with me in broad day light and was willing to watch it on mute with subtitles).

First of all, I had no idea Mira Grant was also Seanan McGuire. Second of all, the amount of research and thought that went into this book is mind-blowing. As someone with a basic understanding of science (maybe more than basic, since I do have an actual degree), I was shocked at how things made sense. I should read more well-written sci-fi tbh, cause I'm missing out on stuff that's creepy, but at the same time could totally exist because we absolutely do not know everything about our world. Also, the way it was written made it easy to read and understand. That's one of the problems I find with sci-fi sometimes. As the reader, if you don't get the science behind the fiction, it leads to a less immersive reading experience. This book wasn't like that at all. I loved all the science. It made me very happy and excited. ALSO THE NECROPSY WAS SO COOL I WOULD NOT MIND BEING PRESENT FOR THAT BUT ON LAND FAR AWAY FROM THE OCEAN

I really enjoyed all the perspectives we got. It was so fascinating seeing the thoughts that went through the sirens' minds too. I was really expecting to only get Tory, Jillian, Olivia, and Theo's perspectives for the most part, but the other POVs were nice to read and definitely fleshed out everything a lot more.

This book is also quite diverse, which was nice to see. The romance between Tory and Olivia wasn't distracting from the plot, just anxiety-inducing cause I was scared one of them would die. I was scared a lot of people would die. Though I wasn't upset by two certain deaths, cause they're murderers. Luis almost gave me a heart attack when he went around screaming HOWDY ARIEL. smh boys. Heather and Holly and Hallie were so great. It broke my heart when Heather died even though I knew it was going to happen. And seeing both Holly and Hallie deal with it in different ways was interesting. I loved the addition of signing in this book too, and how hard both Holly and Heather worked to accomplish their dreams and goals. Seeing Hallie really get through the captured Siren was amazing. I'm curious to see what happens next if there is going to be a second book.

Overall, highly highly recommend. I have been converted and will now try and read more scifi and horror :)