Monday, September 23, 2013

Sirena

Title: Sirena
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Standalone
Number of Pages: 210
Date Read: 9/23/13  
Genre: Fantasy, Mythology Re-Telling, Mermaids


Synopsis (Found on Goodreads.com)

When Sirena and her sisters sing their siren songs to the sailors on their way to the Trojan War, the men crash their ships upon the rocks. There is one survivor. Sirena defies the goddess Hera by tending his wounds and soon the two are deep in love. But does Philoctetes love Sirena's song, or her soul? And will the pull of honor prove stronger than the bond of love?



My Review:

This book is a great quick read that I really enjoyed. 

I went into thsi book not knowing anything about it except that is is about a mermaid named Sirena. The synopsis gives no information about the time period or when it takes place. I was happy to find out that the book takes place in Ancient Greece at the time of the Trojan War. It is a re-telling of the myth of Philoctetes, who was abandoned on the island of Lemnos when he was bitten by a serpent on the way to Troy. The myth was changed to add a mermaid into it. The story takes place in the years that Philoctetes was stranded on the island. 


I really liked Sirena. She was very innocent in the beginning. In this book, mermaids can gain immortality by mating with a male human. They use their singing to lure ships to their island where the ships will wreck and the survivors will have to stay on the island. Sirena is a very determined character who realizes that her singing can cause death which is why she promises that she will never sing again. She is very determined to keep that promise. Sirena has a sense of right and wrong, which her sisters don't have. Sirena wan't immortality but she doesn't want it at the price of a person's life. 


Sirena is also very loyal, loving, caring, fun-loving and playful. She is also very nuturing which can be seen when she helps to heal Philotcetes. She is very amazed at small things such as mosaics and fire and rejoices when she is able to do some human skills (like make a fire). She becomes wiser throughout the book. She is also fiery and passionate especially in her beliefs. 


I also liked Philoctetes. I admire him for staying on the island for so long without going crazy or trying to get off of it multiple times. He is a good man with unfortunate circumstances. He is a renowned archer and a Greek hero (after he gets off the island and goes to Troy). He is very brave and willing to try new things like learning to swim. He is very protective, loving, passionate and a wonderful story teller. He also had impressive friends~ Theseus, Heracles (Hercules) and Achilles were his friends. He gets used to life on Lemnos and with Sirena~ he begins to love it. He is very sweet and caring, surprising Sirena with surprises he thinks she will like and giving a lot of thought and hard work on his surprises. Of course being a human, Philoctetes, even though content with his life on Lemnos, dreams of going to war to be a hero and have people tell stories about him like he tells Sirena of Theseus, Achilles and Heracles. Honor is everything to him and he wants to go to war to win honor. 


I love the romance in the story. The love between Sirena and Philoctetes is sweet. They both love each other completely and they fell in love on their own without her singing or anything interfering. They truly enjoy each other's company and have lively debates on some of the stories Philoctetes tells. While I loved this book I have to say I wasn't too happy with the ending. For me it was too sad and that sucks. I hate sad ending.

Rating:




1 comment:

  1. Great Post :D I have nominated you for the Liebster Award and details can be found here: http://abookparadise.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/liebster-award-again.html CONGRATS :D Much Love, Tanya x

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