Wow! Super different. Told from a memaids perpective in ancient Greece. Very believable emotions. There was a very interesting feel to the way it read. I can't put my finger on it, but sort of a...poetic-ness, or sensory feel. I just can't put it into words.
I enjoyed the way that the story fit in with what we know of both the history and mythology of the time.

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The first part of the book was slow and even once it started picked up, it still felt a bit slow. I never really felt like I got completely into the book. Even so, that didn't stop my throat from choking up a little at the end.

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A very poignant look at the pain and wonder associated with being different and the power and sadness of true love....
Very well put together novel .. and quick read for adults and a MUST read for YA readers. Choices seldom are easy to make...

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Enchanting story.

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A beautiful tale of a mermaid, told simply but with strength (in
first-person present tense, which some may find awkward, but I didn't
mind).

Sirena and her fifty mermaid sisters are victims of a curse - they
must lure human men to sleep with them, or they will die. However,
after seeing first hand the unpleasant fates of the Greek sailors the
siren song lures from their ships - and witnessing the violent revenge
against one of her sisters that the sailors enact, Sirena decides to
accept mortality and cause no man's death.

However, when a sailor with an infected wound is abandoned on her
lonely island by his shipmates; left to die, Sirena's natural urge is
to help him. Love follows - but it is complicated: Does the sailor
only love her because he once heard her sing? If he gets a chance,
will he leave her on the island, off once again to fight in the Trojan
War? Is it fair for Sirena to wish him to stay, isolated from all of
humanity, on her tiny island?

A quick read, but poetic and bittersweet.

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Sirena is one of my all-time favorite books that I can read again and again and find something new to love. Mermaid books are few and far between and Donna Jo Napoli does an expert job of weaving together a story set in ancient Greece where the myths are real and the Battle of Troy started because of jealous women and a golden apple. The story is told in Sirena's point of view as she leaves her sisters and her home for a life of solitude only to find an injured sailor has washed up on her island. Through trials and tribulations they build a life together on the secluded island and fall in love. But the battle of Troy is close to being lost and Sirena learns that her injured sailor is the key to winning the war. But the only way to let him fulfill his destiny is to let him go knowing that he can never return to her.

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For young readers. I had a hard time getting through it but I did enjoy how it ended.

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