Blaze Trales returns to Sanctuary Preparatory Academy for another year of Healing Hamburgers and video games like Kombat the Gay. His parents still don’t know that his pray-away-the-gay school is really a haven that encourages its students to accept themselves, but somebody else does. The radical Zimmerman’s Zealots, under the Siren’s influence, have undergone an image revamp. With Senator Joseph at their head, the Zealots begin investigating institutions for healing gay teens with the aim of discovering whether they are genuine or not. Everyone at Sanctuary knows the Zealots will be coming for them too; it’s just a question of time.

The Gay Teen’s Guide to Defeating a Siren is a satisfying blend of laugh aloud humour, magic, and social commentary. Blaze Trales is an unlikely hero and an utterly lovable character. The plot moves a little slowly initially as Blaze tries to balance his sense of duty towards fighting the Siren against battling the school bullies and navigating a new crush. The latter part of the book is thrilling as Blaze, Roze, and Cassie follow clues that lead them to the mind-blowing revelation of the Siren’s identity.

Wagner injects many humorous moments into The Gay Teen’s Guide to Defeating a Siren without glossing over the devastating reality that none of the students would be at Sanctuary if their parents had accepted them for who they are. The horrors of ‘conversion therapy’ are a real threat to many young members of the LGBT community, and the concept that one of these institutions is a secret haven for gay teens is highly effective. You want to believe it far more than the whimsical idea of magic being real.

In The Siren, Book 2 of The Gay Teen's Guide to Defeating a Siren series by Cody Wagner, Blaize Trales and his friend return to Sanctuary, a school that is supposed to heal gay kids from their affliction, i.e. being gay. What parents and others do not know is that it's only a cover, and behind all the anti-gay propaganda, the school is indeed a sanctuary - just not the kind the parents expect. The loss of his friend still haunts Blaize, and in addition, the teenager is hiding a new gift (or is it a curse?): he is the new seeker, which means that he can see it when people are influenced by the Siren, a powerful being who can control the minds of everyone who is attracted to women, i.e. gay women included. Sanctuary is a thorn in the Siren's side because it is one part of the resistance against her. This year, the Siren takes her fight to a new level. She wants to out Sanctuary for what it really is. Blaize is the only one who can stop her, but for that he needs to make a hard choice.

The Siren by Cody Wagner is just as good a read as the first book in the series. And with the way it ends, I am quite sure there is at least one more novel to come. I can only tell you that it's an ending you won't see coming for a while. At least, I was taken by surprise and found the twist rather shocking. Once again, I found it easy to dive into the world of Blaize. You don't have to be gay, by the way, to enjoy this slightly supernatural teenage novel full of suspense and a little bit of romance. There are some typical teenage dramas that you'd expect from a novel set in a boarding school: there is the bully who ends up being bullied by her own old group, but who can't shake off her own bully behavior even after Blaize and his friends take her into their own group. There is the good looking crush who ends up breaking Blaize's heart. There is the theater play that leads to a drama of its own sort, and so much more. The book never gets boring and, for a week, Blaize and his friends were with me every evening. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to learn how the story continues.