My Sisters in Death

Siren Suicides #2

by Ksenia Anske, Colleen Albert (Editor), Anna Milioutina (Illustrator)

In the second installment of the Siren Suicides trilogy, Ailen Bright finds herself in a sticky situation. Her new supernatural abilities haven't solved anything - in fact, they've royally messed up her life. She can't be with the one person she loves (though her self-control is wavering by the second), her old, well-dressed dog of a father hasn't learned any new tricks, and her supposed siren sister doesn't seem to have her best interests at heart. A pawn in the game between her father and the Siren of Canosa, Ailen is constantly searching for her next move. Through all the hardships, however, Ailen's self-doubt begins to dissipate as she comes to accept her new identity. 

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 4, 2013

About the author

Ksenia Anske was born in Moscow, Russia, and came to the US in 1998. She is the author of dark fantasy short fiction and 8 novels, and the resident writer of the Amtrak Residency Program 2015 (http://kseniaanske.com). Her novel Rosehead won Honorary Mention in the YA Category in the Indie Ebook Award 2016. Ksenia lives in Seattle.

Reviews

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Canosa goes over the finer details of being a siren. Every siren needs to eat. It's important to know how to hunt. During this teaching session Ailen hopes that their connection is more family related than student-teacher related.

With death at her heels, thoughts of death and suicide are left far behind. While she wished for her own death not even 24-hours ago, she couldn't stand the thought of her nemesis doing it for her.

The story gets better in this second installment of the Siren Suicides. There is more action-packed scenes. The reader learns more about sirens and the world of siren hunters.

[Laura Chisnall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant second instalment by Ksenia. I loved the idea of acceptance and responsibility that was prominent in this book.

[Rachella Tirazona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I managed to continue this series and I would like to say that Im closer to the ending.

When it comes to reading trilogy books, second books were the most boring ones and the best ones were 1st and the 3rd ones. I might say that this book enlightrned me a bit so bad.

The series were created for people who struggled in depression. Seeing the main character, Ailen, turning out to be a strong girl and adjusting to her life as a siren. From a girl who drowned herself in a bath tub, her suicide in Lake Union, to her siren transformation. She is getting stronger indeed.

However, the fact that she keep making wrong decisions and trying to fix them makes me hope that she can finally have the answer she is looking for.

This book is not bad but it did not made me surprise like the first book but the author managed to make me read it till the end.

I hope that the third book will give the ending it deserves to have.

Rating this 4/5

[Sandra Hould · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved book 1 of the series, and I adored book 2. I can only imagine how book 3 will be. Truly, this book will, like the look of a siren, will catch you in it' gaze and it will keep you until all your soul will have been spent. I really had a hard time putting this book down. The action is constant. What I love best about the characters is that I can easily put myself in their shoes. It was really an incredible read.
If you love a good story that will bring you many surprises, with relatable characters and a thirst that will make you want for more, so much more, than this is the book for you.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anske's writing is so unique. It's polished and scary. I find the topic matter disturbing, but its compassionate, tragic and gritty all at the same time.

[Lee Gunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

'My Sisters in Death' is the second part of a three book series. This series was at one time, per my understanding, once a single book. This is a fact that impacts the book rating quite a bit. I review based on three primary attributes: the story, the characters and the writing. Plus I like to make some general observations about what I liked and didn't like and present a little "recommended for/not recommended for" advice. I earnestly avoid spoilers. I will do my best to follow that pattern in this review.

THE STORY: the story in this book is weak. And I would suggest that's part of what you get when you have the first and last thirds of the original book removed from the mix. There is a significant amount of geographical movement in the story, a good deal of interaction between the main character and three of the secondary characters, and an encouraging amount of character development (NOTE: in the first book, the only character that really gets any development, for my liking, is the main character, Ailen. We see three other characters start to solid up and take on personalities in this section).


THE CHARACTERS: high score for Knesia on this point. Ailen, the main character, takes on more shape. Hunter, the boyfriend/adversary starts fleshing out nicely. We get to see a little of the humanity of the less than human father and Canosa the Alpha of the Sirens. All other characters are still pretty much cardboard cut-outs placed on stage to fill space as needed, but that actually is fine in my mind. Frequently when reading a book I got overwhelmed with the number of characters I have to keep track of. The cast is full enough to make the story work. And those who are important enough are developing nicely through these pages.

THE WRITING: as part two of the same series in which I have already reviewed book one, the writing is essentially the same. The voice is consistent and appropriate for the story, albeit strange to me. A girl turning 16. She's mixed up, brought up badly, lives on the fringe of her own culture, has few friends and is suicidal. She annoys me. I feel like she needs slapped quite frequently. Oddly, I mean that in a good way. It's a creative and interesting voice. In book one I wanted to slap her a lot. Book two - a bit less slapping and a growing inclination to give her a hug. Well, as long as she promises not to... never mind. That's a spoiler. So the writing style is good. The voice, as odd as it is, is good for the story.

PROOFREADERS SIDENOTE: one aside I want to offer is that I noticed several editing errors. Places where words ran together and stuff like that. They were only a mild distraction for me, and my ADD tends to kick into high gear when I read, so it shouldn't be a big deal for anyone else. But if there ever is a republishing of these books in the Kindle and/or Google format (I used both in my reading), it might be worth hunting them down and making the corrections. Just a thought.

OBSERVATIONS: there is an ample supply of death and dying in book two. I mean a lot of it. It makes me wonder things about how the story is going forward and where it came from. How could the sirens have existed for so long, doing what they do, without notice, and now suddenly Seattle gets turned upside down at the advent of Ailen's story. I have ideas that I won't know for sure until I read book three (next week). To speak them would be very inappropriate. Like a spoiler for this book and the next. Or they would just be wrong, and I'd look like a fool. Or a bigger fool. Something like that.

RECOMMENDATIONS: this remains unchanged from what I said before. time to employ the copy/paste function.... "I would recommend this book to readers of YA, people who like a bit of the hereafter in their story, people who enjoy a mix of local landmarks in their fiction and either know Seattle or are interested in the area. It feels to me like a good summer/at the beach read or better yet a read me late at night on a crisp autumn with a fire in the fireplace kind of book.

"If you don't like modern lit this might not be the book for you. If you only read authors off the top 20 New York Times list this might not be your perfect read. The voice is a bit immature, but it's a first person teen voice so that makes sense (to me). If your not happy with the odd reference to a girls breasts and a few PG level references to sexuality, it might be a pass for you. If you only like books that are 1,000 pages or more, it's a bit more bite size friendly. Even if you lump the three books back together."

This books gets a 3 star review from me. Even a bit of a weak 3 star, honestly. I can't in good conscience give it more without a strong plot line to hold on to. I don't mind chasing the main character all over the greater Seattle area, but it's not the sort of story that wins you rave reviews. On the other hand, I know I must read book 3, so the joke's on me. I suspect our conclusion will fare better.

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anske really doesn’t waste any time between novels, and by “time” I mean: this second installment in the Siren Suicides trilogy starts exactly where the first book ended.

So Ailen’s a siren, and she’s trying to embrace that. But it’s really hard to do when she’s still so uncertain about her feelings for Hunter and her father, and even Canosa and the other sirens, as well as her new nature and the need to kill humans (by singing out their soul) in order to survive. While she struggles internally, there’s also quite the umber of external problems: her best friend is a siren hunter, her father is a siren hunter, Canosa wants her to kill both of them, and Ailen realizes that she might just be a pawn in everyone else’s game.

So the question is: who really cares about her enough to save her, or will she have the courage and strength to save herself?

Ailen’s character is so complex in this book, her psychological torment increasing as the people (or sirens) around her continue to chase after her and force her to make decisions she doesn’t want to make. In the meantime, the word “monster” is thrown about quite the number of times as she questions her loss of humanity, and as the reader there’s definitely a few moments where you can’t help but wonder whether Ailen is actually the villain of this story.

Which means that her development as a character has taken quite the delicious turn.

In this sequel, we also get a lot more of information about Canosa – the siren who turned Ailen into a siren – and Ailen’s father, as well as what might have really happened the morning Ailen’s mother jumped from Aurora bridge. The history between Canosa and Ailen’s father is grotesque, and it’s absolutely wonderful what it reveals about why Canosa chose Ailen. I think the worst part is that, personally, I knew all along what Canosa’s game was, and yet it still sucker-punched me due to the sheer power behind the hatred that exists between those two.

And can I just say that I love Canosa? She’s a menace, a pure and manipulative menace, but she kind of feels like the most genuine character out of all of them. And I love that in a character that I hate. She’s twisted and demented, and the way she is just makes so much sense that it’s lovely.

Once again, it’s essentially a race across (and through) Seattle, siren hunter(s) chasing sirens and vice versa, with plenty of collateral damage along the way. What’s so heartbreaking is the way Hunter – Ailen’s best friend – is caught in the middle (even more so than Ailen, in my opinion): he’s in love with Ailen, and Ailen’s in love with him, but the more their love grows, the faster Hunter’s soul burns. When it’s gone? He’s soulless; not dead, but a natural enemy to the sirens.

Poor, poor Hunter. No sarcasm, I promise; he’s had the least amount of choice in the whole mess, and his torment over what he wants and his responsibilities and how little his chances of survival are is absolutely heartbreaking.

So the hunt continues, and the whole time you can’t help but chatter your teeth and wonder if Ailen can kill her father, or save Hunter, or if Ailen’s father is really so horrid and evil that he would kill Ailen (but maybe there’s a chance at redemption for him?). What grips you the hardest is the fact that this whole situation’s a trainwreck, and as the characters let their desires and emotions get ahead of them, nobody is safe.

There was, however, one thing that started grating on me. Through nearly every interaction, the characters keep pushing the same buttons, and the arguments started sounding the same. Regardless of the fact that I understand these are big issues – Ailen and Hunter’s parents and their relationships and stress and all of the abuse Ailen’s trying to work through – it eventually became boring to hear them restated in different ways. The situations and dialogue began to feel like a carousel – around and around and I’m having a good time, but in the end I was never anyplace other than where I’d started, and while there were answers to previous questions, I never quite felt like I learned anything majorly new, other than what I might have already guessed, which bled into my question of whether there’s any development going on within the questions.

Then again, this trilogy is essentially a single novel told in three parts, so i haven’t reached the conclusion of the story yet (soon!). I’m very, very eager to see where the third and final book takes these characters and the plot.

Final Answer: 4 / 5

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Siren Suicides series by Ksenia Anske. The first book I read with low expectations (it my first exposure to this author) and was amazed. This book I approached with higher expectations and was not disappointed.

I am realizing that this book series, because it centers around a 16 year old female protagonist, could be labeled as "YA" (Young Adult). She is dealing with her past life experiences from which boil up an ever increasing and varied set of emotions as she explores her relationship with a father who never appeared to love her and a boy friend who has taken on a role of opposing predator. This label is irrelevant to the enjoyment of this novel. The book is well plotted and the pace is consistent beginning to end. The prose, phrasing, and metaphors are enjoyable. The geography will be immediately familiar to anyone from the Seattle area (I had to resort to Google Maps and Earth).

The end of this novel, unlike the first one, does immediately setup the third and final novel in the series. The author learns quickly and I'm expecting each book to be better than the previous one.

It is unfortunate that Ailen missed the Siren Suicides concert despite the face that Hunter had gotten two tickets for them.

I wonder how much of the water immediately around the Seattle area is fresh-to-brackish-to-salty and how that affects the siren's gills. Typically fish are bred for fresh or salt water; salmon are an exception to this.

I did find two typos in the Kindle edition of this book which I reported to Amazon. Unlike most self-published books, this one is well edited.

I'm looking forward to reading the third book in the series.

[Safari Spell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, Anske is still a goddess, but this book wasn't as dynamite as the first. Here's why:

1. Ailen's dad. I'm kind of over him. He can go away now. I want her to punch him in the face and learn how to speak to him without stuttering. I feel like his character can't be redeemed.

2. Similar everything. There are a few differences in this book, but it's a lot of the same. Hunter is always soaking wet and freezing, Ailen is always snapping at him, they're racing around in a rowboat, they get a few minutes of arguing before being interrupted by someone trying to kill one or both of them, you get the point. You do see a little more depth with all the characters, though.

3. Chaos. How is no one aware of sirens after everything Ailen and Canosa have done? They've set off an unimaginable chain of chaos and it seems strange that sirens were pretty much unknown until Ailen went crazy. How are they going to explain the murders of, like, 30 people? I couldn't get past the logistics in my head and thought it would be a nice twist for Ailen to suffer some backlash on her powers for the trouble.

All in all, Anske is continually impressive. She has a magical writing style and draws us in once again.

[Athina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book has an interesting ending, so I was curious to read the sequel. The first chapters were good enough, but as the story continued, there were a few things that didn’t persuade me again. I think this has to do with the pacing. Like I said for book one, I’d like if the story was taking more time so it would be easier for my mind to accept and embrace the developments.

The writing is very good, I can see and feel what Ksenia wants to tell us and many times I was happily surprised to see how well and beautiful her descriptions are. I could connect with Ailen and understand her and that’s important for a character. She was real.

The other characters are pretty good too, especially her father is very convincing and even if he is the bad one here, I can see that there is a kindness somewhere deep inside him. With Hunter, I am not so sure. I think I’d like him to stand a little more on his feet. I felt like he was confused from start to end.

The ending here is pretty intense too and kept me wanting more, trying to understand or guess what the end will be. It was an interested read.

[Valarie Kinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this second installment of Siren Suicides, the situation has really become tangled. Ailen is desperately fighting to reclaim some semblance of her life, stand on her own feet, and fix the mess she feels she has made. She knows that deep somewhere inside, the woman she wants to be is there still, fighting, trying to come out. But the toxic relationships she can't seem to rid herself of continue to drag her down. Though some might think this aspect of the story is a bit drawn out, I disagree, because if you've ever lived in a toxic relationship and/or struggled with depression and anxiety, you will understand that these things do not have quick, simple fixes. Your rational mind might very well understand the right thing to do, but that doesn't automatically mean one is able, right then, to do it. To break free of the relationship, or the depression. It's a struggle, a dance, you move forward and back. I think the heavy symbolism throughout this story makes it clear. I enjoyed this story and look forward to finishing the series.

[Ley Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually tore through this book much faster than I did the first one. And as much as I enjoyed the first book, I absolutely adored My Sisters in Death. It was a wonderful ride that is definitely going to be one of those that I come back to over and over. That's why I give My Sisters in Death an easy 5 out of 5 stars.

In the second book of the Siren Suicides trilogy, you get to see Ailen really come into her own and become a Siren in the realest sense of the word. She comes into her powers and learns to embrace the new creature that she's become, even when it means embracing the darkest sides of her new personality. Anske writes the turmoil of a teenager trying to accept herself and stand up to an abusive father in the most clear and endearing way, even though it is tinted with the paranormal throughout.

I would suggest this book to anyone who loves paranormal stories with a little bit of love, a lot of angst, and a whole lot of ass-kicking.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book two in this series continues on from the point book one left off. Ailen Bright is adjusting to her new life as a siren, although her relationship with her father and her close friend, Hunter, remains complicated. I love the ideas in this series. Especially the part about souls having sounds and smells associated with how you live your life. It's fresh and inventive. With some trilogies the middle book can sag a little, after a bright start and before the finish. Not so with this series. Book two is just as much fun to read as the first book was. Now onto book three.

[Cami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still neither dead or alive

Ailen is still hunted by her father and Hunter is chasing her as well as Canosa, however they are all after different things..Papa wants all Sirens dead with her help...Hunter's soul is making sounds again because he still loves her but wants to kill her at the same time....Canosa wants her to kill Papa because she can't do it herself. Ailen's story draws you in so deep that it's hard to put down...can't wait to read The Afterlife free download

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only thing about this book is that I come from the school where it was beaten into me to be concise. (Perhaps too concise) There is just some things, some action sequences, I believe could have been cut. And the constant love/hate between Hunter and Ailen did get slightly exhausting. That being said, I still really, really liked this trilogy and am excited to read the next installment.

[Audrey Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing sequel to the first book. So much character development and growth in every last character. I love that Alien figures out what women are really for, just for her own sake and I love that her and Hunter are trying whatever they are because it's beautiful. I love the love.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this instalment in the series and can't wait to start book three.

[Marva · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite of the trilogy. I think there's a bit too much repetition of Ailene's emotional responses to everything. Needs a bit more action.

Overall, I'd give the trilogy 4-1/2 stars.