Review: Sirenz by Charlotte Bennardo and Natalie Zaman

Book Description via Goodreads:

Paperback, 280 pages

June 8, 2011, Flux

Bickering frenemies Meg and Shar are doing serious damage at a midnight sample sale when the fashionistas find themselves arguing over a pair of shoes – with fatal consequences. One innocent bystander later, the girls are suddenly at the mercy of Hades, Lord of the Underworld himself. To make them atone for what they’ve done, Hades forces the teens to become special-assignment Sirens, luring to the Underworld an individual whose unholy contract is up.

Finding that delicate balance between their fashion and addiction and their new part-time job in the eternal hellfire biz turns out to be harder than Meg and Shar expected, especially when an entire pantheon of Greek deities decides to get involved. Then there’s the matter of the fine print in their own contracts…

Source: Natalie Zaman (Thank you!!)

My Thoughts:

Sirenz is one of the best books I’ve read this month! The pace was smooth, not too fast but not too slow. The narrative was the fun, engaging type that pulled me in. The characters are easy to relate to and they are interesting. The alternating perspectives never broke the flow of the story. It was like seeing one scene through two different lenses. I was so in tune with them that I could easily imagine what the other was thinking when she was not narrating. Their voices were so distinct. Shar: shoe-addict, prim and proper, pretty and girly. Meg: dark, charming, considerate and wise. Through disasters and shopping sprees, they bickered and helped each other out. Despite the greed, hatred, doubt, temptation and deceit that brewed, the girls were able to develop a strong friendship.

The twist in the Hades-Persephone mythology, troublesome at best, was mixed up with a handful of contracts, credit cards, feathers and shoes. I liked the naughty, seductive version of Hades. He offered Meg and Shar a way out of their problem: to hire them as Sirens. Bennardo and Zaman retained the tragic side of mythology. Meshed with fashion, modern edge and attitude, Sirenz became a perfect mix.

I couldn’t get enough of the humor in Sirenz. The events, the language and the thoughts of the characters were unfortunate, tragic, alarming and sad. But in the core of it all, there was that inane humor. The characters, especially Shar, brought it out and entertained me with it. Both girls wanted to win Badass Jacket/ Sweet Jeans. As the competition became harder and their lives more complicated, both girls needed to prioritize their mission. I enjoyed the unpredictable love moments. It’s always a joy to read something that doesn’t take the usual road.

The thrill and uncertainty of Goddess Test meets the humor and charm of Confessions of a Shopaholic. Sirenz is funny, surprising, charming and brilliant! I highly recommend this to readers of Greek mythology and Greek-mythology-related books and to readers of chic lit.

Rating:

Review: Sweet Treats & Secret Crushes by Lisa Greenwald

Book Description via Goodreads:

With a blizzard threatening their town, a trio of seventh-grade girls devises a charitable plan to make and distribute fortune cookies to all their lonely, stranded neighbors. What they hadn't anticipated was that each of the cookie fortunes would communicate a special message to its recipient. Sweet confections of friendship and love. Editor's recommendation.

Source: Abrams Books - Amulet Books, Emma Sanders (Thank you!)

My Thoughts: 

Olivia, Kate and Georgia have been friends for years. Growing up with the same set of friends both has advantages and disadvantages. If there was such a thing as an itch in marriage, there was such an itch in friendship too. It cannot be avoided; at least that’s what I think because generally people do not expect the change in the interaction.

The book was about friendship and the transition from being a kid to being a teen, as well as the changes that emerge in the process. The feel of the novel was anxious, hesitant and nostalgic – the usual set of feelings that was associated with growing up. We were never sure of many things when we were growing up into a teen. It was honest and a bit problematic. The egocentric tendencies were also expressed in this novel. We could read it in the three perspectives of the teen friends. I appreciated the variation in the realities of each character. An event could mean something entirely different from one perspective to another. It was a cute and innocent read, brimming with curiosity and the urge to experience and find out about everything under the sun.

Living up to expectations has never been that easy. Olivia was labeled as obsessed. Boy craziness usually comes with their age. Interacting with the opposite sex, one whom she has a crush on was something Olivia barely did. Observing from afar, jotting down notes and thinking about them later was what she did. As her friends start to get irritated and concerned, she started to feel the tension within their trio.

Georgia Chen, Olivia’s best friend, was the daughter of the owners of Chen’s Kitchen, a Chinese restaurant. It was known for the sweet fortune cookies. They spread the spirit of friendship around the building and tried to cheer up everyone in the cold day through fortune cookies, getting to know the neighbors and jotting down notes about the fortunes to see if they really had magic in them (for Olivia.) In some ways, there was magic in the fortune cookies. It was both wonderful how something so general like a “fortune” could easily fit in to the life of a person and make them positive and awful how a fortune could do the opposite. I just wished that this concept of magic within fortunes was explored more.

This was an enjoyable read. I was able to connect with the characters and understand why they acted like that. I had been in their shoes a few years ago, just with a different set of thoughts and questions. The only thing that is constant in this world is change. We were made to cope with these changes and make the most out of them. This novel is for younger teens, maybe 13-15, tweens and older readers too who want to remember what it’s like to be young!

Rating: