Undercurrent ~ Tricia Rayburn review

here's the second of my broken-computers-that-eat-reviews-are-mean catch-up reviews:

Undercurrent (Siren Trilogy #2)
EgmontUSA
July 12, 2011
352 pages
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Life is definitely still not back to normal for Vanessa Sands. Still dealing with the death of her older sister Justine (caused by sirens that Vanessa learned of over the past summer), she also now knows just about everything she ever thought she knew about her family is, in fact, a lie.

Her boyfriend Simon - who was there with her through everything, all summer - and her friend Paige are the only one's she thinks she can trust.

But once the school year starts up again and Hawthorne Prep's biggest charmer sets his sights on Vanessa, she needs someone to turn to even more. Suddenly unsure of things with Simon, Vanessa doesn't know what to do . . . and there's one big secret she still hasn't been able to tell him.

And the sirens she thought they'd banished don't seem to be as gone as previously thought. With more than one problem on her hands, Vanessa doesn't know who to turn to - or what to do.


Undercurrent starting at the start of the school year while Siren took place over the summer is fantastic reading-wise. It makes the second book feel very much like it's a continuation of the first and not as much a separate entity - leaving it harder for the reader to connect the two story lines - the way some sequels/series do.

A lot of the beginning of the book focuses on Vanessa and Paige as well as Vanessa and her family - and their coping after Justine's death. At times it almost feels like the siren aspect of the story is taking a backseat to the family and interpersonal and school drama that is going on with and between the characters. Of course, the story is not at all the weaker for any of this because we, as readers, get to know a lot more about the characters and subtly, get to know more about things that we don't even realise we're learning.

Then, just as you decide maybe the siren part of the story isn't as important in Undercurrent as it was in Siren . . bam! there it is in a major - and pretty great, too - way.

The ending of Undercurrent is pretty amazing. It pulls on things from all different parts of the books (little things, big things, things that seemed inconsequential), as wells as some things from Siren. It is a more than satisfactory addition to the Siren trilogy.

9/10


Copy received from the publisher for honest review - thank you.