Under the Sea

There's a lot of trouble going on under the sea.  First of all, for me, Siren's Storm is a tough-to-remember title (I kept calling it Siren's Storm or Siren's Scream or The Secret Siren).  The cover reminded me of the Lois Duncan book covers when they were redone in the late 80s.  They also look at lot like Joan Lowery Nixon's old covers, too.  They've redone the Lois Duncan covers again, and they are really cool.  That said, the old redone ones were cool, too, as is the cover of Siren's. 

Cover circa 1988

But now on to the book.  Will is seventeen and lives year-round in Walfang, NY on Long Island.  Walfang changes in the summer when all of the wealthy, beautiful NYC folks come to vacation.  That's when Gretchen comes, too.  She and her dad, Johnny are summer people, but they, like Will's family also have roots that go way back in Walfang, so Gretchen is a different kind of summer person, and she's got a thing for Will, but it is complicated.  It is complicated because Will (and Gretchen) are still grieving the loss of Will's brother, Tim.  During the summer previous to the start of Siren's, Tim and Will are involved in a boating accident and Tim was killed.  As the anniversary of Tim's death approaches, things are getting weird in Walfang.  The local troubled teen, Kirk, has taken to making a scene in public places, singing and crying and screaming about approaching doom and the voices he hears.  Tim is sure that he saw a mysterious, beautiful girl walk into the ocean and kill herself, only to see her that next week, waiting tables at the local dive diner. 

I really liked Siren's a lot and I want to read Fury's Fire when is comes out, because Will and Gretchen are really likeable characters and the story is a captivating mystery that sucked me in from the start.  The only two little issues I had with the book was the language.  As you can tell from my "books read"  I don't shy away from bad language or controversial content in my reading, but the swearing in Siren's just didn't seem to need to be there.  The book seems like a good book for tweens, and where I would have recommended it quickly to a fifth grader had the f bomb not been there, now I can't and won't.  I know that the book is a "teen" book but no part of the rest of the book made it "tween- not tween" with the exception of the f bomb.  It was just too bad and came off as out of place.  The other thing was the reveal at the end, when a character explains the reasons for the strange goings on, it just happens so quickly and in one, long conversation.  Still, really good book and I will check out more from the author. 

Cover circa 1990