Is The Siren: Becoming the Villain's Family Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Quick facts
Format	Manhwa, 174 chapters
Run	2021–present · ongoing
Community score	AniList 7.4 · MangaUpdates 7.5
Where to read	Tapas — official

Overview

Aria is the last of the sirens, a creature whose voice can charm and heal, kept caged and forced to sing for nobility until it destroys her. By the time Grand Duke Lloyd Valentine finally frees her, it's too late to save her — and in the chaos that follows, she dies alongside him. Given a second chance, Aria wakes up back at age ten, with full knowledge of how everything ends and a determination to change both her fate and Lloyd's.

The premise leans on mythology rather than the usual noble-court betrayal formula, and the story's central relationship — Aria devoting herself to protecting the man who once saved her — gives it a more mutual, less transactional foundation than most regression romances in its genre.

What it does well

The art is the story's calling card: a distinctly gothic aesthetic with elaborate character designs that immediately set it apart from the genre's usual softer visual language. That style is put to good use in service of the siren mythology itself, which the story treats as a real narrative engine — the mechanics of song, curse, and power drive the plot rather than existing purely as a hook.

Aria and Lloyd's dynamic also benefits from feeling mutual: this isn't a story where one party is purely rescuing the other, and both characters are given real agency in how they navigate the plot's dangers. And by centering the story on curses and supernatural power rather than a straightforward revenge-and-inheritance plot, it manages to carve out a slightly different niche within a crowded genre.

Where it falls short

The pacing is the story's clearest weak point. It lingers at certain points in Aria's life — particularly her early teens — for a long stretch before jumping forward with an abrupt time skip, which leaves some character development feeling rushed or incomplete right when it should be landing. Several key action beats also happen off-screen, robbing what should be major moments of their full impact.

The art, while distinctive, is genuinely divisive — readers are split between finding it a striking asset and finding its exaggerated proportions and expressions hard to get past. And the supporting cast, especially Lloyd's own family, are introduced with a lot of personality and then given comparatively little to actually do across long stretches of the story, which wastes some of the story's more colorful side characters.

Verdict

The Siren: Becoming the Villain's Family earns its reputation mainly through its gothic art and a genuinely interesting siren mythology, with a central relationship that avoids the genre's usual one-sided rescue dynamic. The pacing and divisive art style keep it from being a clean recommendation, but if the visual style and mythology-driven hook appeal to you, there's a lot of story here to work through.