Siren
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A brave new novel that sensitively explores one woman's experience of sexual violence and the silencing of those who feel compelled to speak out.
What happens when a young woman enters a city apartment early morning, with two footballers? Jordi Spence is sixteen years old and lives in outer Melbourne. By daybreak, her world has shifted. Max Carlisle, a troubled AFL star, can’t stop what comes next. And Ruby, a single woman from the apartment block, is left with questions when she sees Jordi leave.
In this remarkable novel, Rachel Matthews captures the characters of Jordi and her family, the players, and the often loveable inhabitants of a big city with a deceptive lightness of touch that seduces the reader. Siren reveals the often unnoticed life of a city while simultaneously drawing us deep into a dark and troubling world. What happens has an unexpected effect on all those who are both directly and indirectly involved.
The result is a powerful and haunting novel about cultural stereotypes and expectations, love, loneliness, family and our struggle to connect. In so many ways, Matthews subtly sounds the siren on sexual violence and its prevalence in our culture.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Rachel Matthews’ novel draws together a disparate cast for a tense examination of trauma and the politics surrounding it. Teenage Jordi follows two Australian Football League players back to a luxurious pad after meeting them in a bar—and the worst possible outcome transpires. Siren is about the intersection of sex, power and football, but Matthews also explores stories of dispossession, poverty, substance abuse and gambling. Though the book is starkly written, it’s studded with tender details, a sensitivity to human vulnerability and a deep compassion for survivors.
