It’s one year until the apocalypse of 12.21.12 is supposed to take place.

Burning buildings, screaming babies, and death will surround us.

It will be the end of the world.

That can’t be allowed.

When six powerful women come together with one goal—to save humanity—they’ll get much more than they bargained for. They join forces and learn to use the gifts hidden within themselves to battle a monster feeding off something too many of us feel in our souls: Hate. But they must first learn how to forgive—themselves as well as others.

Hate is birthing a creature dwelling under Central Park in New York, and the fiend is eager to burst forth and sink his fangs into the Earth.

The Fury, The Visionary, The Beguiler, The Siren, The Prophet, and The Mystic are our last hope, and even they aren’t sure if they can win.

The end is coming, but with it, there may be a new beginning.

The Siren represents book 4 in the Hate Apocalypse series and continues with Markaza’s race against time to bring together the women she has envisioned helping her in battling the big bad festering in Central Park.  Melody, the siren, brings forward another manifestation of a way in which we as humans self destruct. Having suffered for most of my life with body dysmorphia, this episode in the series hit home hard for me. As usual with the books we got a flash forward of a potential future for Melody in The Beguiler, which hangs as a constant fear throughout this book. It also continues well with my comments from The Beguiler where no matter what gravity the reader attaches to each of the women and what they are going through – it’s all equally weighty to the person involved.

Again I felt that well researched and thoughtful prose was hampered by the short format of these books. It’s often a trade off with one major point and in The Siren, this was how quickly Melody agreed to go with Markaza. This time I did feel that this was justified to be able to spend the proper amount of time with her recovery.  A big bugbear of mine is when characters who have been starving, through whatever circumstance, tuck into a slap up meal with great abandon and lick their lips with glee.  No, if your body is starved you need to start slow and The Siren really shows the painful side of recovery from malnutrition. There were so many points where such care was taken to give great attention to detail to the illness that it really brought back a lot of memories – not for the first time, this series has really given me pause.

What stood out for me in this episode is that we start to see the starts of the strain on Markaza and also a hint of her story. Juggling bringing these women together is a big deal against the backdrop of a finite amount of time to achieve what she needs. I did very much enjoy the way the reader is drawn into how Markaza is thinking. When Melody’s ability comes through it gave me a start of understanding how things will unfurl and also a sense of hope. I do worry for Lily though but I get the feeling that until she learns not to hide behind her glamour her true potential will not be met, we’ll see.  It’s not long now until the apocalypse and I can’t wait to see where the series goes next, I get the feeling it’s going to be another thought provoker.

Whilst I give The Siren 4* it’s with a strong feeling that this series in totality will be end up being a 5!

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Buy Links:

The Fury: https://amzn.to/2PeXS63

The Visionary: https://amzn.to/2RXtH4W

The Beguiler: https://amzn.to/2qvmdtj

The Siren: https://amzn.to/2RZsVn7