Gabi Burton discusses the legendary siren, family relationships and love in her début

The premise of Gabi Burton’s Sing Me To Sleep reads like a wishlist of everything I love in YA fantasy: forbidden romance, diverse characters and a siren protagonist who isn’t afraid to embrace her murderous impulses. I read it a few days before my Zoom call with Burton and throughout our chat had to resist the urge not to spend the whole time fangirling.

Fittingly, the inspiration behind Burton’s début was sparked during a Zoom session with some author friends: “It was around Halloween time, so we were talking about monsters, and one of the monsters that came up was a siren. The idea stuck with me,” says Burton, who later began wondering, “What if there was a Black siren?”

This question, coupled with her determination to answer it, sowed the seeds for Sing Me To Sleep.

With sirens, a lot of the time the focus is on the beauty, but there’s a balance

Burton has always been drawn to mermaid and siren mythology; she says that swimming has been a passion of hers since she was a young girl. However, similarly to her siren protagonist, Saoirse, Burton’s relationship with water is complicated. “I went to a majority white school and I felt really, really seen and watched if my hair wasn’t straight”. She cites this as a reason why she didn’t pursue swimming competitively. “It’s one of those insecurities that hasn’t really gone away, but when I was thinking about Saoirse I wanted her to be someone who felt confident and powerful and beautiful and that’s what I wanted to capture with her.”

Sirens are legendary for their beauty, but Saoirse’s looks take a back seat in the story, except when she’s tapping into her siren abilities. “With sirens, a lot of the time the focus is on the beauty, but there’s a balance,” says Burton, who doesn’t shy away from showing the dark side of Saoirse’s nature. Beauty and bloodlust go hand in hand—this is something that Burton makes clear from the first chapter when Saoirse uses her beauty to lure a mark to his death. “I wanted to go for it from the beginning,” says Burton. “This story is going to be dark and if this isn’t for you, you’ll know from the beginning.”

Expect the unexpected

As I was reading Sing Me To Sleep, I was really taken with how Burton subverted my expectations. If I were 
to define Sing Me To Sleep by tropes, “found family”, a swoony prince and morally grey characters would be 
top of my list. However, similarly to how she explores the dual nature of Saoirse’s protector/killer instinct, Burton goes deeper.

“The concept of love not being enough was a really big motivation for the character,” says Burton of Saoirse’s found family. The love Saoirse and her family have for each other shines through, but Saoirse’s interactions with her parents and sister, Rain, are shadowed by her fear of her family becoming afraid of her. “Even though they love her, they don’t fully accept her,” says Burton, who adds that part of what drives Saoirse’s inner conflict is her search for understanding and acceptance. “Saoirse’s character is someone who wants to be loved and understood. And part of her journey is at first realising that this is something she’s been longing for.”

This book was the one where I discovered a lot about the characters while writing it

Saoirse’s inner turmoil colours her relationship with her little sister, Rain, who, as Burton shares, is perhaps the only person who could relate to what she’s going through. But Saoirse shuns this connection as she doesn’t want to risk Rain’s rejection. This plays into their sibling dynamic, with Saoirse placing herself in the role of her sister’s fierce and emotionally invulnerable protector. The idea of a sibling willing to sacrifice everything, even themselves, for a family member is a popular trope in YA. But Sing Me To Sleep is the first book I’ve read where the author makes a conscious effort to invite the reader to sit back and question whether this dynamic is even healthy. “This book was the one where I discovered a lot about the characters while writing it,” says Burton. “Initially, it was that Saoirse fiercely loves her sister but as the story developed I realised the way Saoirse uses Rain as a coping mechanism is really unhealthy. A lot of the time there’s this selfish quality there and I didn’t want to shy away from that.” I really enjoyed how Burton unpicked the almost claustrophobic nature of Saoirse’s love for her sister, and also how Rain began to push back and show her sister that she could look after herself.

For Saoirse, acceptance and understanding come in the unlikeliest form: Prince Hayes, the heir to the Kingdom. At the beginning, I was sceptical about Saoirse’s growing attraction to Hayes, the son of the man responsible for wiping out her entire race, especially since I was hoping for a romance between Saoirse and her close friend Carrik, or at the very least a love triangle. “My editor wishes,” says Burton to the latter, before sharing that Saoirse’s most meaningful relationships are with people who are lively and bring out a more playful side to her. Saoirse’s attraction to Hayes is initially based on appearances and despite her best efforts to suppress her attraction, she is slowly won over by his boyish charm. This aspect was key to Hayes slowly subverting Saoirse’s (and, yes, my) initial opinion of him as a spoiled playboy prince. “I loved writing both of their characters and their progression to seeing more of each other,” says Burton. She developed their romance by asking herself: “What kind of traits does Hayes have that Saoirse would be drawn to?”

Childhood me would be on the floor with where I am right now

Burton is currently working on the follow-up to Sing Me To Sleep and admits that the way she writes has changed a lot since she got her publishing deal. “There are so many moments where I’m writing, and my brain will pause and be like, ‘my editor would ask this question here’. I’m not giving away any spoilers,” says Burton when I not so subtly try to pry into what’s next for Saoirse, but leaves me with this: there will be more Carrik.

In place of spoilers, I ask Burton about the dream of being a published author versus the reality. Although Burton “knew there were different tiers with how people are treated in publishing,” she realises that she had a more idealised image of publishing at the start. “I didn’t even realise I had that image in my mind,” she says as our conversation touches upon the issue of transparency in publishing, the general experiences of début authors and the podcast “Publishing Rodeo”, which discusses the realities of being a traditionally published author. “I feel very fortunate the way my publishers have supported me,” says Burton as she reflects on her experiences.