Helpful Score: 2
This book was a roller coaster for me. I found myself loving it and being totally appalled in a matter of chapters. I loved the writing, the characters, and the diversity of the wounds that each of the characters carried around. I also enjoyed the fact that this novel is not happily ever after and roses and rainbows. It had a Megan Hart feel to it, if you enjoy her work this book will be for you.
Let's dive in. The characters are truly what made this story so amazing. Nora in her own right is such a strong yet fragile women and Ms. Reisz isn't afraid to take her to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. In this book I have to say that Wesley is my favorite character. Maybe because he is closest to my age so I understand his plight and fight with his emotions and hormones when it comes to Nora. He makes the story so much better but I wish he would have had a better ending. The series will continue so maybe he will.
The skeeve level in this book is large for me. There are inappropriate relationships every single way you look at these characters. Nora and Wesley, Nora and Zach, Nora and Soren...and it continues as the pages turn. I was uncomfortable a lot through this book and I almost stopped reading when Nora got her "birthday present" from Soren but I pushed through and I didn't regret it. Does the way Ms. Reisz turn the relationships make them any more appropriate, I don't know, but I promise you that if you read this book there will be something that puts you on edge.
The writing in this book is amazing. Ms Reisz definitely has command of her vocabulary and writing skills on so many levels. I enjoyed reading this novel for it's vivid descriptions and complete command of the prose just as much as I did for the actual book. If you love to ride the edge of erotica then this book is for you
Let's dive in. The characters are truly what made this story so amazing. Nora in her own right is such a strong yet fragile women and Ms. Reisz isn't afraid to take her to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. In this book I have to say that Wesley is my favorite character. Maybe because he is closest to my age so I understand his plight and fight with his emotions and hormones when it comes to Nora. He makes the story so much better but I wish he would have had a better ending. The series will continue so maybe he will.
The skeeve level in this book is large for me. There are inappropriate relationships every single way you look at these characters. Nora and Wesley, Nora and Zach, Nora and Soren...and it continues as the pages turn. I was uncomfortable a lot through this book and I almost stopped reading when Nora got her "birthday present" from Soren but I pushed through and I didn't regret it. Does the way Ms. Reisz turn the relationships make them any more appropriate, I don't know, but I promise you that if you read this book there will be something that puts you on edge.
The writing in this book is amazing. Ms Reisz definitely has command of her vocabulary and writing skills on so many levels. I enjoyed reading this novel for it's vivid descriptions and complete command of the prose just as much as I did for the actual book. If you love to ride the edge of erotica then this book is for you
Helpful Score: 1
Nora Sutherlin is a famous erotica writer in need of a new publishing house she is writing a different type of book and wants it handled differently. Zachary Easton is the editor assigned to her manuscript. He walks into the deal with severe prejudice about the types of books she writes and the type of writer she is but the more they work together the more he realizes the talent under all the smut.
I have so many thoughts floating around in my head right now, it is hard to organize them all and pick out the highlights. Forgive me if this review is all over the place.
When Nora first appeared on page, I hated her. I was completely turned off by her personality and found her repugnant. Midway through the book I started to warm up to her, mostly because of the genuine affection she showed for Wesley. By the end of the book I felt sorry for her, liked her and felt that I really didnt know her that well at all. The characters in this book are all so complex I feel like we have barely touched the surface of them.
The one thing that bugged me the most about this book was the way I felt the authors and Noras voice spoke to me. I dont know how to describe it except to say I felt like book quotes, Latin, and French were placed in the book to impress the reader rather than to have a real purpose to the story. The other thing that irked me was the use of the term Vanilla Sex. Like anything outside of BDSM was boring and Vanilla. If you are having boring sex its not Vanilla. Its wrong. LOL
Surprisingly, despite the subject matter, this was probably the least arousing of the erotic literature I have read. First of all there werent that many sex scenes. The sex really does take a backseat to the emotional struggles of each of the characters. The sexiest scene to me was probably one of the tamest a simple hand job. It was intimate and intense, sweet and terribly sexy. I loved it. A second runner up would be a scene between Nora and another female.
This isnt a lighthearted happily ever after kind of story. Its an uphill battle with what we want, whats good for us, what we can never have. It left me feeling bereft. I dont understand the appeal of ending up hospitalized after a beating from the one you love, but I understand the need to be whoever you have to be to be with the one you love.
This book is delightfully disturbing, sinful and sad. It is also beautifully written, hard to put down and impossible to forget.
Cherise Everhard, April 2013
Book provided by and reviewed for the Amazon Vine Program
I have so many thoughts floating around in my head right now, it is hard to organize them all and pick out the highlights. Forgive me if this review is all over the place.
When Nora first appeared on page, I hated her. I was completely turned off by her personality and found her repugnant. Midway through the book I started to warm up to her, mostly because of the genuine affection she showed for Wesley. By the end of the book I felt sorry for her, liked her and felt that I really didnt know her that well at all. The characters in this book are all so complex I feel like we have barely touched the surface of them.
The one thing that bugged me the most about this book was the way I felt the authors and Noras voice spoke to me. I dont know how to describe it except to say I felt like book quotes, Latin, and French were placed in the book to impress the reader rather than to have a real purpose to the story. The other thing that irked me was the use of the term Vanilla Sex. Like anything outside of BDSM was boring and Vanilla. If you are having boring sex its not Vanilla. Its wrong. LOL
Surprisingly, despite the subject matter, this was probably the least arousing of the erotic literature I have read. First of all there werent that many sex scenes. The sex really does take a backseat to the emotional struggles of each of the characters. The sexiest scene to me was probably one of the tamest a simple hand job. It was intimate and intense, sweet and terribly sexy. I loved it. A second runner up would be a scene between Nora and another female.
This isnt a lighthearted happily ever after kind of story. Its an uphill battle with what we want, whats good for us, what we can never have. It left me feeling bereft. I dont understand the appeal of ending up hospitalized after a beating from the one you love, but I understand the need to be whoever you have to be to be with the one you love.
This book is delightfully disturbing, sinful and sad. It is also beautifully written, hard to put down and impossible to forget.
Cherise Everhard, April 2013
Book provided by and reviewed for the Amazon Vine Program
Stephanie G. (thestephanieloves) reviewed The Siren (Original Sinners, Bk 1) on + 241 more book reviews
The Siren by Tiffany Reisz
Release Date: July 24th, 2012
Publisher: MIRA (Harlequin)
Page Count: 427
Source: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Little Bird Publicity in exchange for an honest review, as part of the virtual book tour
It's a man's world, but she's the one on top.
Notorious Nora Sutherlin is famous for her delicious works of erotica, each one more popular with readers than the last. But her latest manuscript is different more serious, more personal and she's sure it'll be her breakout book... if it ever sees the light of day.
Zachary Easton holds Nora's fate in his well-manicured hands. The demanding British editor agrees to handle the book on one condition: he wants complete control. Nora must rewrite the entire novel to his exacting standards in six weeks or it's no deal.
Nora's grueling writing sessions with Zach are draining... and shockingly arousing. And a dangerous former lover has her wondering which is more torturous staying away from him... or returning to his bed?
Nora thought she knew everything about being pushed to your limits. But in a world where passion is pain, nothing is ever that simple.
What Stephanie Thinks: Okay. So this review is going to be very incoherent, and very very long (reminiscent of my senior 4000-word extended essay woohoo), but please bear with me. Yes, I have that much to say about The Siren, and yes, it makes me that big of a bumbling mess. But I'll tell you a secret: all the best books do.
I suppose I should warn you: This book isn't what you're expecting. If you are a fan of romance novels, you will not like The Siren. If you enjoy erotica, smut with explicitly arousing pornographic detail, and no romance in between, you too will be disappointed because The Siren is neither. The blurb and cover indicate otherwise, I know. I picked up this one thinking it was just another Harlequin but with a kinkier theme. I assumed it was a variant of the regular romance novels we know and love/hate, with a cute but trite twist on the heroine who is an erotica author (as opposed to, say, a sexy librarian, single mother, English student, tourist, or whatever other props romance novelists are inclined to use), and another one on the hero, who's a handsome but provocative Brit. Swoon. Sounds like a romance, right? Nice try, but no. To say there is a hero and heroine to begin with, is a ridiculous statement. To the traditional literature fans who demand two protagonists in a love story: you will be sorely dissatisfied; there are none.
So then, you are brought to ask, why DO I fucking love this book so much. In so many words (or, relatively none at all), it's because The Siren is complex. It's not a book you read and forget about the next day. It's incredibly intelligent in both structure and style: a perfect combination of present-day havoc and brief, flitting memories, with a deep, effortless tone that must be superglue I couldn't keep my hands off! The pages literally turned themselves. I devoured the whole thing way before I wanted to before I could even realize.
Remember Carrie's Story? Well, Nora's story isn't too dissimilar, except that it's more emotionally rendering, more scarring. The Siren could be considered its more tasteful yet more convoluted, brutal, destructive, and torturous aftermath. And of course, starring our more human and unforgettable characters. Zach, I feel, is the one I can explain most easily, so I'll talk about him first. Eight years ago, he met the woman of his dreams, albeit, through a ferocious, sexually-charged tumble he swears he never deserved, and he married her. But thirteen months ago, his life began falling apart when she told him to leave. So he hops on a plane to New York to forget about her and focus on his career. A Cambridge professor, he's a much sought-after figure at Royal House Publishing; soon, within the time span of thirteen months, he gains notoriety as being the house's toughest, but best editor, as well as the infamous label, London Fog, because of his cold, shady demeanor.
Nora's plagued by a slightly more elaborate situation, one that's certainly more dangerous and... obscene. She too, is estranged from the man, Søren, who, in many ways, owns her soul, but for Nora, it's by choice. Well, not entirely choice. Mostly it's under the influence of her self-respect, what little of it she has left, as well as of the disapproval of the only person in her entire life she's ever come close to loving. She's been steadily depriving herself of Søren, whom she loves in a twisted, fierce, and selfish way, for five years now, and she's been doing well distracting herself with her soaring career. Not her erotica novelist career though that's been successful too but her secret career, the one only the most elite people of the underground world know of. When this circumstance of hers collides with Zach's, his transparency reflects in the most intimate of ways, her own depravity, and sweeps her peaceful, relatively safe life into ruin.
What I just worship, is how well Reisz portrays the tragedies of real-life relationships, including the failure to recognize a lasting love's demons because of the need to deal with first, those of our own. Even though The Siren is highly indulgent in setting, the feelings we see and grow upon, are so, so real. The characters are so complex and so fleshed-out, that I feel the utter aching they are each inflicted with and sharply inhale the searing breaths each of them take. Further, the author's eloquence and novelty shock me. Just in general, everything she comes up with, everything she pens, is astonishing. There not many authors who are this skilled. So Reisz, I commend.
The Siren is sexier than sex itself, but not because of its explicit scenes. I can't pinpoint this one as erotica because the scenes, while frequent and red-hot, are not the pivot of the novel. They certainly make it a naughtier read, but they aren't what solely constitute it. This isn't another Harlequin, not another aforementioned penny dreadful. You must know what I mean: boy meets girl, boy wants girl, girl finds a reason not to like boy, boy does something to win girl's heart, girl wants boy, sex, marriage, happy ending, boom. The end. Nope. None of that. The Siren has a story other than the expected romantic elements. As a whole, you could view The Siren as a love story, a very tragic, very arresting love story, but it could never be a romance. Romances are meant to make you feel good. The Siren will make you feel so empty, you will want to tear up the book's spine, but so affected, you will then want to make love to its ripped-out pages. I guess that's what separates erotica or erotic romance from erotic literary fiction; this is the kind of material readers will debate about and speculate on for the years to come, rather than binge on in one sitting and fail to ever recall again.
It gets better (or, I argue with myself, worse), though; you think I'm done with my review, hooo boy you're wrong. The best (and most painful) part about The Siren is that it's not about Zach's relationship with Nora. He is a mere passerby in her life, an extremely troubled one at that, one who is vanquishing his own monsters. That isn't to say his involvement with her is insignificant, because the way in which she helps him overcome his angsts will be indistinguishable from the method in which he will help her stave off her own. But once Zach proceeds, she will never be able to influence him again, and vice versa. The Siren is not a romance. Once the two briefly-acquainted lovers have saved each other in ways only they will ever have known, they will move apart, move along, and move on, in order to face (and hopefully fight) the bigger catastrophes they each have managed to push aside for the book's time being. This is one of The Siren's most tragic messages of all: life goes on.
I'm kind of a whore for purgatory when it comes to fiction. The more tragic, the more I grow attached. The Siren, to summarize, is brutal, twisted. It isn't a nice, pleasant story. Charming, wicked, savage, oh yes. But it's not a good story. It's gnawing, it's agonizing. It is hideous and immoral, but I am proud to say, I enjoyed every sentence of it; without one word out of place, The Siren is a true tour de force. Masochists, this one's for you.
The Siren is NOT for everyone, I'll be among many to confess. If you like wholesome stories, stay away. If you like morals, well-being, and happy endings, stay away. If you like missionary position, please just stay the fuck away. I warn my readers: The Siren prances around topics like statutory rape, sexual violence (BDSM), polyamory, casual sex, sodomy, a wickedly clever pottymouth, and sins under the Catholic church... and well, to civility. Yes, it's an intense, brutal, blasphemous read, both in its harsh sadomasochistic scenes and emotional turmoil, BUT it absolutely will steal your breath away. I disclose not everyone will find The Siren palatable, but guarantee that no reader will finish it without having been thoroughly and salaciously impacted, and that much must be enough to make you want to at least give it a try.
Now, let's have a stupendous and thought-provoking one-way discussion about Nora Sutherlin, the female lead. While I refuse to name a definitive hero and heroine in this book, Nora's, no doubt, our frontwoman. She's as complicated as the plotline itself, and I couldn't love her any more for it. She is, essentially, the ideal female fatale. She is wry, cheeky, sexy, hilarious. Guys want her, girls want to be her... hell, to be honest, girls want her even more. But she also possesses fragility that isn't as deeply embedded into her skin as one would expect. Zach discovers it quite directly, actually. Nora is a masochist in only the most disturbing of ways, a masochist who not only enjoys the strike of the cane and the welts purpling her body, but also the pain arisen from heartbreak and perversion, that stems mainly from self-disgust. And the way to vindicate such vile sins? Well, a lashing or two; that ought to be punishment enough. Nora is a highly flawed character, a walking contradiction, and by all means, not a righteous one. Yet despite her brashness, charm, and impropriety, she is in desperate need of tenderness and care. She is strong, a renown Dominatrix, merciless, dangerous... but she is at the same time, the weakest character, the most miserably vulnerable, in that the worst of pain is always inflicted on her not by others, not by Søren but by herself. She is brought to life through Reisz's mastery of words, which almost make her a fantasy of a woman, and even with her mistakes, her awful hideous, selfish ambitions she is a character I love, and loved even to the end.
The supporting characters each have roles as great as Nora's, but I feel there isn't enough relevant information in this book to really say much about them. The Siren is anticipated to be a part of an eight-book series (Tiffany, babe, I loVE YOU), so I suspect the ensuing novels will focus on them more. To be quick (though by now you know I'm not a girl of brevity): there's Søren, a terrifying, overarching character. Not much revealed about him, but he's Nora's ex, the one who holds the reigns, the one she swears herself away from. But they're soul mates. Swearing away can only do so much. I'm so intrigued by their incomprehensibly warm and forbidden D/s relationship, and look forward to seeing more of it in The Angel. We've got Wes, Nora's baby-faced roommate, biggest fan, and most powerful authority (second to Søren, of course); he's mine, I love him, don't you lay a finger on him, I swear he's mine ok. Then there's the sexy Griffin, a coworker and former fling of Nora's, and of course, the mysterious, criminal Mr. Kingsley Edge, Nora's... let's call him her employer. Intrigued and confused? You must be.
I promise I'm wrapping this review up. Rather than summarize all katrillion plus ninety-six words above, I'll leave you with this: The Siren is a book that distinguishes hurting from harming, and reveals a broken character's most tragic purging of sins. The Siren proves that we can have fun and be sinfully sexy, naughty, and rogue, but in the end, we are all only just human. The Siren conveys the sheer importance of the craft of writing: bringing people back to life, resurrection with words; and does a little bit of reviving itself. The Siren reveals a grievous lesson: that in the end, if we're lucky, we all return to the people we love, and if we're not, we are destroyed by their persisting memory; and tells us a corrupt secret: that the only way to be cured of a broken heart is to break one back.
My fingers literally trembled as I turned the remaining pages of this one. I am outraged to have to wait til September for the sequel's release. Tiffany, you fucking sadist! You better not disappoint me.
Stephanie Loves: Yeah, so this is kind of against my religion, but I'm going to pick three quotes I revere, a little because I cannot be bothered to narrow down to just one (I already whittled my selection from six!), but mostly because this review needs to be graced by brilliance, pure brilliance, rather than solely that mad rambling you just read above: "She seemed to be trying to stare down the city. He had a feeling the city would blink first." and "'...sacrifice can only get you so far ... although two people can love each other deeply, sometimes love alone doesn't cut it. We can only sacrifice so much of ourselves in a relationship before there's nothing left to love or be loved.'" and "[Her book] felt like a melodrama to her. But then again most relationships falling apart often genuinely degenerated into melodrama. There was no dignity in grief, a truth she knew all too well." These quotes all show that Reisz is not only accomplished in the portrayal of flirting, love, and naughty sex, but also in relationships, in being human, and that makes her observances all the more beautifully and startlingly real.
Radical Rating: 10 hearts - I'm speechless; this book is an extraordinarily amazingly wonderfully fantastically marvelous masterpiece.
Release Date: July 24th, 2012
Publisher: MIRA (Harlequin)
Page Count: 427
Source: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Little Bird Publicity in exchange for an honest review, as part of the virtual book tour
It's a man's world, but she's the one on top.
Notorious Nora Sutherlin is famous for her delicious works of erotica, each one more popular with readers than the last. But her latest manuscript is different more serious, more personal and she's sure it'll be her breakout book... if it ever sees the light of day.
Zachary Easton holds Nora's fate in his well-manicured hands. The demanding British editor agrees to handle the book on one condition: he wants complete control. Nora must rewrite the entire novel to his exacting standards in six weeks or it's no deal.
Nora's grueling writing sessions with Zach are draining... and shockingly arousing. And a dangerous former lover has her wondering which is more torturous staying away from him... or returning to his bed?
Nora thought she knew everything about being pushed to your limits. But in a world where passion is pain, nothing is ever that simple.
What Stephanie Thinks: Okay. So this review is going to be very incoherent, and very very long (reminiscent of my senior 4000-word extended essay woohoo), but please bear with me. Yes, I have that much to say about The Siren, and yes, it makes me that big of a bumbling mess. But I'll tell you a secret: all the best books do.
I suppose I should warn you: This book isn't what you're expecting. If you are a fan of romance novels, you will not like The Siren. If you enjoy erotica, smut with explicitly arousing pornographic detail, and no romance in between, you too will be disappointed because The Siren is neither. The blurb and cover indicate otherwise, I know. I picked up this one thinking it was just another Harlequin but with a kinkier theme. I assumed it was a variant of the regular romance novels we know and love/hate, with a cute but trite twist on the heroine who is an erotica author (as opposed to, say, a sexy librarian, single mother, English student, tourist, or whatever other props romance novelists are inclined to use), and another one on the hero, who's a handsome but provocative Brit. Swoon. Sounds like a romance, right? Nice try, but no. To say there is a hero and heroine to begin with, is a ridiculous statement. To the traditional literature fans who demand two protagonists in a love story: you will be sorely dissatisfied; there are none.
So then, you are brought to ask, why DO I fucking love this book so much. In so many words (or, relatively none at all), it's because The Siren is complex. It's not a book you read and forget about the next day. It's incredibly intelligent in both structure and style: a perfect combination of present-day havoc and brief, flitting memories, with a deep, effortless tone that must be superglue I couldn't keep my hands off! The pages literally turned themselves. I devoured the whole thing way before I wanted to before I could even realize.
Remember Carrie's Story? Well, Nora's story isn't too dissimilar, except that it's more emotionally rendering, more scarring. The Siren could be considered its more tasteful yet more convoluted, brutal, destructive, and torturous aftermath. And of course, starring our more human and unforgettable characters. Zach, I feel, is the one I can explain most easily, so I'll talk about him first. Eight years ago, he met the woman of his dreams, albeit, through a ferocious, sexually-charged tumble he swears he never deserved, and he married her. But thirteen months ago, his life began falling apart when she told him to leave. So he hops on a plane to New York to forget about her and focus on his career. A Cambridge professor, he's a much sought-after figure at Royal House Publishing; soon, within the time span of thirteen months, he gains notoriety as being the house's toughest, but best editor, as well as the infamous label, London Fog, because of his cold, shady demeanor.
Nora's plagued by a slightly more elaborate situation, one that's certainly more dangerous and... obscene. She too, is estranged from the man, Søren, who, in many ways, owns her soul, but for Nora, it's by choice. Well, not entirely choice. Mostly it's under the influence of her self-respect, what little of it she has left, as well as of the disapproval of the only person in her entire life she's ever come close to loving. She's been steadily depriving herself of Søren, whom she loves in a twisted, fierce, and selfish way, for five years now, and she's been doing well distracting herself with her soaring career. Not her erotica novelist career though that's been successful too but her secret career, the one only the most elite people of the underground world know of. When this circumstance of hers collides with Zach's, his transparency reflects in the most intimate of ways, her own depravity, and sweeps her peaceful, relatively safe life into ruin.
What I just worship, is how well Reisz portrays the tragedies of real-life relationships, including the failure to recognize a lasting love's demons because of the need to deal with first, those of our own. Even though The Siren is highly indulgent in setting, the feelings we see and grow upon, are so, so real. The characters are so complex and so fleshed-out, that I feel the utter aching they are each inflicted with and sharply inhale the searing breaths each of them take. Further, the author's eloquence and novelty shock me. Just in general, everything she comes up with, everything she pens, is astonishing. There not many authors who are this skilled. So Reisz, I commend.
The Siren is sexier than sex itself, but not because of its explicit scenes. I can't pinpoint this one as erotica because the scenes, while frequent and red-hot, are not the pivot of the novel. They certainly make it a naughtier read, but they aren't what solely constitute it. This isn't another Harlequin, not another aforementioned penny dreadful. You must know what I mean: boy meets girl, boy wants girl, girl finds a reason not to like boy, boy does something to win girl's heart, girl wants boy, sex, marriage, happy ending, boom. The end. Nope. None of that. The Siren has a story other than the expected romantic elements. As a whole, you could view The Siren as a love story, a very tragic, very arresting love story, but it could never be a romance. Romances are meant to make you feel good. The Siren will make you feel so empty, you will want to tear up the book's spine, but so affected, you will then want to make love to its ripped-out pages. I guess that's what separates erotica or erotic romance from erotic literary fiction; this is the kind of material readers will debate about and speculate on for the years to come, rather than binge on in one sitting and fail to ever recall again.
It gets better (or, I argue with myself, worse), though; you think I'm done with my review, hooo boy you're wrong. The best (and most painful) part about The Siren is that it's not about Zach's relationship with Nora. He is a mere passerby in her life, an extremely troubled one at that, one who is vanquishing his own monsters. That isn't to say his involvement with her is insignificant, because the way in which she helps him overcome his angsts will be indistinguishable from the method in which he will help her stave off her own. But once Zach proceeds, she will never be able to influence him again, and vice versa. The Siren is not a romance. Once the two briefly-acquainted lovers have saved each other in ways only they will ever have known, they will move apart, move along, and move on, in order to face (and hopefully fight) the bigger catastrophes they each have managed to push aside for the book's time being. This is one of The Siren's most tragic messages of all: life goes on.
I'm kind of a whore for purgatory when it comes to fiction. The more tragic, the more I grow attached. The Siren, to summarize, is brutal, twisted. It isn't a nice, pleasant story. Charming, wicked, savage, oh yes. But it's not a good story. It's gnawing, it's agonizing. It is hideous and immoral, but I am proud to say, I enjoyed every sentence of it; without one word out of place, The Siren is a true tour de force. Masochists, this one's for you.
The Siren is NOT for everyone, I'll be among many to confess. If you like wholesome stories, stay away. If you like morals, well-being, and happy endings, stay away. If you like missionary position, please just stay the fuck away. I warn my readers: The Siren prances around topics like statutory rape, sexual violence (BDSM), polyamory, casual sex, sodomy, a wickedly clever pottymouth, and sins under the Catholic church... and well, to civility. Yes, it's an intense, brutal, blasphemous read, both in its harsh sadomasochistic scenes and emotional turmoil, BUT it absolutely will steal your breath away. I disclose not everyone will find The Siren palatable, but guarantee that no reader will finish it without having been thoroughly and salaciously impacted, and that much must be enough to make you want to at least give it a try.
Now, let's have a stupendous and thought-provoking one-way discussion about Nora Sutherlin, the female lead. While I refuse to name a definitive hero and heroine in this book, Nora's, no doubt, our frontwoman. She's as complicated as the plotline itself, and I couldn't love her any more for it. She is, essentially, the ideal female fatale. She is wry, cheeky, sexy, hilarious. Guys want her, girls want to be her... hell, to be honest, girls want her even more. But she also possesses fragility that isn't as deeply embedded into her skin as one would expect. Zach discovers it quite directly, actually. Nora is a masochist in only the most disturbing of ways, a masochist who not only enjoys the strike of the cane and the welts purpling her body, but also the pain arisen from heartbreak and perversion, that stems mainly from self-disgust. And the way to vindicate such vile sins? Well, a lashing or two; that ought to be punishment enough. Nora is a highly flawed character, a walking contradiction, and by all means, not a righteous one. Yet despite her brashness, charm, and impropriety, she is in desperate need of tenderness and care. She is strong, a renown Dominatrix, merciless, dangerous... but she is at the same time, the weakest character, the most miserably vulnerable, in that the worst of pain is always inflicted on her not by others, not by Søren but by herself. She is brought to life through Reisz's mastery of words, which almost make her a fantasy of a woman, and even with her mistakes, her awful hideous, selfish ambitions she is a character I love, and loved even to the end.
The supporting characters each have roles as great as Nora's, but I feel there isn't enough relevant information in this book to really say much about them. The Siren is anticipated to be a part of an eight-book series (Tiffany, babe, I loVE YOU), so I suspect the ensuing novels will focus on them more. To be quick (though by now you know I'm not a girl of brevity): there's Søren, a terrifying, overarching character. Not much revealed about him, but he's Nora's ex, the one who holds the reigns, the one she swears herself away from. But they're soul mates. Swearing away can only do so much. I'm so intrigued by their incomprehensibly warm and forbidden D/s relationship, and look forward to seeing more of it in The Angel. We've got Wes, Nora's baby-faced roommate, biggest fan, and most powerful authority (second to Søren, of course); he's mine, I love him, don't you lay a finger on him, I swear he's mine ok. Then there's the sexy Griffin, a coworker and former fling of Nora's, and of course, the mysterious, criminal Mr. Kingsley Edge, Nora's... let's call him her employer. Intrigued and confused? You must be.
I promise I'm wrapping this review up. Rather than summarize all katrillion plus ninety-six words above, I'll leave you with this: The Siren is a book that distinguishes hurting from harming, and reveals a broken character's most tragic purging of sins. The Siren proves that we can have fun and be sinfully sexy, naughty, and rogue, but in the end, we are all only just human. The Siren conveys the sheer importance of the craft of writing: bringing people back to life, resurrection with words; and does a little bit of reviving itself. The Siren reveals a grievous lesson: that in the end, if we're lucky, we all return to the people we love, and if we're not, we are destroyed by their persisting memory; and tells us a corrupt secret: that the only way to be cured of a broken heart is to break one back.
My fingers literally trembled as I turned the remaining pages of this one. I am outraged to have to wait til September for the sequel's release. Tiffany, you fucking sadist! You better not disappoint me.
Stephanie Loves: Yeah, so this is kind of against my religion, but I'm going to pick three quotes I revere, a little because I cannot be bothered to narrow down to just one (I already whittled my selection from six!), but mostly because this review needs to be graced by brilliance, pure brilliance, rather than solely that mad rambling you just read above: "She seemed to be trying to stare down the city. He had a feeling the city would blink first." and "'...sacrifice can only get you so far ... although two people can love each other deeply, sometimes love alone doesn't cut it. We can only sacrifice so much of ourselves in a relationship before there's nothing left to love or be loved.'" and "[Her book] felt like a melodrama to her. But then again most relationships falling apart often genuinely degenerated into melodrama. There was no dignity in grief, a truth she knew all too well." These quotes all show that Reisz is not only accomplished in the portrayal of flirting, love, and naughty sex, but also in relationships, in being human, and that makes her observances all the more beautifully and startlingly real.
Radical Rating: 10 hearts - I'm speechless; this book is an extraordinarily amazingly wonderfully fantastically marvelous masterpiece.
