Book Review: Shriek (The Legend of the Bean Sidhe Book 1) by Jennifer M. Barry

 
 
When Sara starts traveling to people's house and shrieking in the night against her will, she discovers she's a banshee from a whole family of banshees she never knew about, and the family she screams for happens to include Ridley, the guy she's crushing on. Sara will have to figure out how to avoid a banshee hunter and how to break the banshee curse before Ridley is killed.

Book Review: Shriek (The Legend of the Bean Sidhe Book 1) by Jennifer M. Barry | fantasy, paranormal romance, banshees, new adult
Title: Shriek
Book Number: Book 1
Pages: 231
My Rating: 3 Stars
More Info: Goodreads, Amazon
 

Review:

*I received an ecopy of this book from the author. This has not influenced my review.*

This book was kind of half about romance, half about banshees, and although I found the romance a little too sudden to really be believable, I enjoyed the banshee aspect!

This was the first book I’ve read about banshees, and it was an interesting take on the creature. The author used a lot of the Irish folklore about them, and I appreciated that the banshee aspect wasn’t completely overshadowed by the romance. Also, this is the first of a series, and from the way this book ended, I suspect the next book will probably focus more on the mystery surrounding the banshees.

Speaking of the romance, although it felt rushed (or maybe I was just confused about the passing of time), the characters didn’t make a bad couple. They seemed to fit together well enough. They weren’t perfect, they made mistakes sometimes while learning to navigate the whole relationship thing, but they were supportive of each other.

As for the characters, I didn’t understand all their decisions (most notably, they all knew someone was trying to kill Sara, yet Sara kept going outside completely alone), and their emotions and relationships weren’t delved into too deeply, but (those decisions aside) they were believable. I loved that Sara and her friends felt like authentic 18-year-olds. Sara had her immature, rash-thinking moments, but also times when she showed a lot of maturity, intelligence, and compassion. And Ridley was a nice guy who was just given a bad lot in life because of his abusive, alcoholic father.

So overall, though certain aspects of the book didn’t quite suit my tastes, I still enjoyed reading this deadly take on banshees.

 

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26 thoughts on “Book Review: Shriek (The Legend of the Bean Sidhe Book 1) by Jennifer M. Barry

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  1. Stephanie Jane (Literary Flits)

    I remember reading a scary banshee novel ages ago. I can’t recall the title or who wrote it though so not much help, though it was really good!
    How bizarre must it be to suddenly find oneself behaving as a banshee? What a great story idea!

  2. Greg

    Wait- banshees? YES! And wow how inconvenient to be shrieking your crush’s death. That would seriously impact the relationship! I like that it skews towards the NA side of things too rather than younger YA. Now we need a banshee in college lol.

    Seriously though this sounds really interesting!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Just a tad inconvenient, haha. Honestly I’m terrible at figuring out the difference between YA and NA, so I just trusted the category on Amazon. I think she is in college in the next book, so there will be XD

  3. Rose

    Great review! I always like reading stories with banshees and this one sounds like it all about the banshees and I haven’t read anything that focused on the banshee before.

  4. Olivia Roach

    It sounds like the banshees were the best aspect of this book. I have never read a book featuring a banshee as the main characters or featured a lot so I am curious about this one. I think I might wait for you to read book 2 and see if the series does improve before jumping in to start the series though. A shame that the romance sort of took over but being hopeful for the next one to be more mythology and banshee based sounds promising!! It sounds like the author has definitely done her research.

  5. Uma @Books.Bags.Burgers

    Hey Kristen <3 It's been long! I was in a blogging slump but I'm now back 🙂

    And woohoo banshees! I think the only book I've read about them was "My Soul to Take" years ago. I need to get back to that series! Shriek sounds interesting but I'm not sure it's my kind of book! Great review 🙂

  6. Becky @ A Fool's Ingenuity

    Yay for a new kind of supernatural creatures. I can officially say I’ve never read any books including banshees so that part sounds fun, it just sucks the romance was a touch too sudden to be believable, but I feel like that happens in a lot of books. Now we just have to hope there are more banshee books out there to enjoy because I think it could be interesting.

    1. Kristen Burns

      It does seem to happen in a lot of books. But I definitely think banshees are interesting, so maybe I can find some banshee books that are a little more suited to my tastes.

  7. Sam @ Spines in a Line

    I think banshees are so interesting, I’d love to read more books about them. I read one in junior high called, I think, The Devil, the Banshee, and Me, which I remember being pretty funny and dark though I can’t remember much more about it. Maybe time for a reread!

  8. Lola

    I once read a whole series about banshees, The Soul Screamers series it was called I think. It was quite good and you don’t see books about banshees a lot, it’s always fun to find a book that tackles a less common paranormal creature. Sounds like the whole banshee thing was well handled in this one. And the romance sounds pretty good too with how they made for a good couple even tough it happened a bit quickly. That’s nice their actions felt believable for their age even tough you didn’t always understand their decisions.

    1. Kristen Burns

      I’ve heard of that one! I should probably give it a try. There really aren’t many books about banshees. I did appreciated the realistic 18-year-olds since so many young characters come across as so much older.

  9. Daniela Ark

    oh that cover reminds me of Bookiverse! LOL

    I’m so into moons lately, it’s ridiculous! I would totally read this book JUST because of the cover but I also like that it’s about banshees and… folklore. MOI is a big folklore lover just so you know! since she has been confusing you with her budget driven reading taste lately 😉 She is reading everything she can get on sale BUT she is a SFF and MR reader at heart 🙂

    Abusive, alcoholic fathers are the best character crafters! Better than King 🙂

    1. Kristen Burns

      Lol I like moons on covers too. You have been confusing me lately! It’s not my fault you’ve been confusing! Lmao abusive, alcoholic fathers must be the best character crafters, seeing as how many books have them 😛

  10. Wren

    gonna be perfectly honest with you, I read the title as “Shrek” instead of “Shriek” and got excited about a possible novelization haha

    I’ve read a book about banshees before, by Rachel Vincent. I thought the creatures were interesting, but I wasn’t a huge fan of her writing in the end, and I decided not to continue the series. Maybe if I ever want to read about banshees again, I will give this one a try 🙂

    1. Kristen Burns

      Multiple people have told me that, though you’re the only one who was excited about it 😂

      Banshees are cool, sorry the other book about them didn’t work for you!