John Everson, Siren

Siren

John Everson

Leisure, Aug 1 2010, $7.99

ISBN: 9780843963540

When Josh drowned, his death also figuratively killed his parents Evan and Sarah. Suffering from aquaphobia, Evan watched in horror as his son drowned. Now he watches in horror as his beloved wife drowns her sorrow with alcohol.

Over a year since the tragedy, Evan meets naked Ligeia on the beach he tramps every night before bringing his intoxicated wife home from the bar. She provides Evan with an escape from his nightmarish failure as a father and now a husband. She sexually entices him with her perfect body and her silky voice drowns out Josh's plea to him for help. Mostly she makes him forget, but not entirely as he tries to ignore her siren's call by returning to his wife.

Siren plays out on two levels; as a horror thriller and as a psychological family drama. There is also a second subplot that provides the audience with a late nineteenth century look at Ligeia's past, which is a two edged sword depending on the reader's taste; on the one hand it anchors the siren story line, but also detracts from the reader's imagination of whether she is true or a desperate figment of grieving Evan's psyche. Still this is a powerful thriller as John Everson uses the loss of an offspring as the springboard to the gripping Siren.

Harriet Klausner