 The Sirens, by Emilia Hart.
This book is a MOOD. The sea splashes from every page, simultaneously alluring and predatory, like the song of the sirens themselves. There are three timelines. We begin in the present with Lucy, an Australian college student who wakes from sleepwalking to find herself trying to strangle her ex-boyfriend. (Suffice it to say that he did her very wrong.) She flees to the home of her estranged sister Jess, a painter who lives in Comber Bay. This seaside town is notorious for a series of mysterious disappearances over the years, always men. Jess is gone, and there are indications that she left in a hurry. Lucy finds Jess's old diary, which gives us the second timeline from 20 years earlier. Lucy gradually learns the family secrets, most of which I'd already figured out. Lucy and Jess share a recurring dream about Mary, a woman on a prison transport ship from Ireland to Australia in the early 1800s. Mary and her twin sister have something in common with Lucy and Jess: a skin condition that turns scaly on contact with water. The book isn't subtle in its theme: women who've been wronged by men becoming sea monsters, luring men to their doom. Trigger warnings for violence, mentions of sexual assault, and revenge porn. Booklist Queen Challenge: 2025 bestseller. This Challenge Killed the Bookworm: Water works. Around the Year Challenge: An author's second book.
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