Just realised I never published my review for this omg?? What a disaster bisexual I am.

5/5, amazing, this book got me super invested in every Vo novel.

Luli is a Chinese-American actress in an alternate 1930s Los Angeles where magic is real and movie stars with the right kind of talent might just get immortality. Leaving her poor immigrant family behind, she manages to get hired by a major film company, but being an actor is a dangerous business and Luli goes into it already having enemies.

This book started off too slowly for me and I almost lost interest. I'm glad I kept reading, though, as it ended up being a really good story. Luli has boundaries with what she will do and the roles she will accept, and I appreciated that she wasn't willing to concede them, even though it would have made her life easier. I think the author took the downsides of the film industry and the scariest parts of old fairy stories and combined them in a way that not only works really well but also highlights how hard it is to be successful while breaking out of the stereotypes that others want to define you with.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for and Advance Reading Copy.

This was a pretty short book, but felt so packed with events. It had a dark vibe throughout and I really enjoyed it despite a bit of confusion.

The fantasy elements here gave me a bit of a headache. I like knowing what's going on and why things are the way they are and this left me with a lot of unanswered questions. This is the problem I have with a lot of magical realism books.

Amazing diverse representation,

I am excited to read more novels from Nghi Vo. I really enjoyed this story set in the glam hollywood days gone by. It was also very nice to get an inside look at how racial and sexual identity fit (or really didn't) into Hollywood at that time. As Luli Wei continues on her journey to become a star, it's clear as she finds out, that there are a few things that she thought had to be done in order to become one. Not all of those were in a good light. I really enjoyed reading this novel.

Nghi Vo was able to beautifully weave literal magic into the figuratively magical world of Hollywood. Luli's story was mesmerizing and kept you hanging on every word.

WOW WOW WOW!

I can't even.

Outsiders achieving stardom on their own terms, the dark and mysterious backdrop of pre-Code Hollywood, magical realism and LGBTQ+ themes - this literally checked everything off for me.

I could not put this down!

Multi-layered characters and such a one of a kind story. I absolutely loved it and will read anything that Nghi Vo writes.

A book that directly transports you to another world. I didn't find the intial opening all that intriguing but as I read on, the story became better. I loved how descpritive the world building and it is a book that truly transports you back to old Hollywood adding a little bit of menace and fantasy.

Interesting story but at times I felt the plot line could have been further explained. I did enjoy the characters.

This was my first book by this author (who I’ve heard so much about!) and I thought it was fascinating, well-written, and evocative. I struggle a little with historical fiction but the combination of the themes and the writing carried this one through for me.

Nghi Vo is such a talented writer. I didn't enjoy this story as much as her other works, but Nghi Vo does such a great job of writing full, atmospheric stories. If you enjoyed Hollywood-centric stories then this will definitely work for you.

Just like with The Chosen and the Beautiful, Vo entices and entrances with elaborate and gorgeous descriptions, painting rich tableaus of the fantastic and macabre - but also like The Chosen and the Beautiful, Vo fails to explain and define the lines between magic and reality, leaving us with a sludgy mix of both that doesn't entirely make sense.

We get such a deeply grounded in reality introduction, with the focus on racism, homophobia, and inequity in Hollywood, especially as our main character carves out a space for herself (where "her kind" doesn't belong) by any means necessary. But the fantastical elements devolve into chaos that's difficult to follow and left me wondering what the point was.

I'm a big fan of Vo's novellas, but with both novels being a miss for me, I think I'll probably think twice before picking up another.

This was such a unique take on Hollywood with really great social commentary regarding racism and how people are treated differently based on how they look or their nationality, etc. I wish this were longer because I feel like certain parts could've been a bit more stretched out and gone into with a bit more depth, but still really loved it,

In Siren Queen we follow Luli, a Chinese American who’s willing to do almost anything, even become a monster, to make it into the world of Old Hollywood. This world is not an ordinary world. It’s filled with monsters who guard the gates of the studios, where debts are collected in a strange way, it’s a world where people of different ethnicities get a chance to get a part into Hollywood.

Luli is such a great character, she’s not perfect and I loved that. She’s an independent queer Asian woman who’s so strong, knows what she wants and goes for it without letting the men of Hollywood stereotype her or stand in her way to grow her career.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this one before. It’s so unique! It jumps between genres, from magic realism to fantasy and historical fiction. The magic system is amazing, it doesn’t have the rules set out and I liked that about it even though I’m mostly a person who likes rules in a fantasy world building.

This is my first book by Nghi Vi and I’m amazed by her writing. It’s rich and descriptive which makes the book majestic.

This book has great representation in terms of sexuality and race.

I was wowed by Nghi Vo after her Singing Hills Cycle and so it was a no-brainer to add Siren Queen to my TBR.

My impression of the novel is… mixed. While I enjoy overarching extended metaphors to the silver city and the film industry, and also immensely admire the lead character’s ferocity and determination to “making it big,” some aspects of the magical realism alienated me. But perhaps that was the intention! To invoke the uncanniness - Vo successfully does so through various narrative elements, such as the almost Faustian deal the lead character makes in exchange for fame and power, the weekend parties at the studio and the “hunt.” Hell, even the kitsune-esque roommate/best friend evokes a sense of strangeness yet immense joy (and sorrow). The plot, however, seems to fall a bit flat.

Overall a passable read but doesn’t bring me the same pleasure as Singing Hills. A 3-starter that you can miss but certainly won’t regret reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.
I had never read a Nghi Vo book before and I'm definitely more interested in reading more. The writing style is very captivating and I really enjoyed the premise

The way the world is created is very detailed, but not explained well enough, which made me confused sometimes. It's like a preview of a bigger world that you can explore if you keep going. I really enjoyed the way the movie was set in the Golden Age of Cinema period. The combination of magic elements, sneaky deals with faeries, and a sense of danger and cruelty made it feel like the perfect fairy tale. I really liked the friendships that Luli made while working towards becoming famous. She found it difficult to trust people and it was an emotional process for her, whether it was in a romantic relationship or not. I like reading books by Nghi Vo. There are many wonderful stories and interesting parts. The writing in this book is the best part. It is really pretty. I loved it so much that I wanted more.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

I started out interested but quickly got bored with this title! I found myself skimming through because I was ready for it to be over.

Luli is one of the most desired movie stars in 1930s Hollywood. She has the glamour and mystique to succeed. But when a Hollywood studio goes beyond the usual cutthroat business to something darker, she must do whatever it takes to survive and make a name for herself.

Her story begins as one of two daughters of Chinese immigrants. Trying to figure out her future, she discovers the movies. She is immediately smitten when she gets an opportunity for a bit part in a film. She is instantly transported into the movie's events as if it is happening to her. Vo is a master at describing her experience. Luli now hungers for more and craves the spotlight. Big things may be coming for her, but she may need to wait several months. Instead, she finds her way to get an audience with the head of the movie studios, even though it takes 20 years of her life. Now getting her shot, she exclaims that she wants in her roles no maids, no funny talking, and no shrieking violets, and although it delays her stardom, eventually, she becomes the Siren Queen.

Vo is dazzling in this novel. She worked magic into the Chosen and the Beautiful, retelling The Great Gatsby. Studios are cutthroat, but here the threat is not being cast out but one could be cursed or have a changeling replace you. Studios also had no time for gay romance. Forced heterosexuality sells pictures, even if it costs an actor's personal and love life: a magical but frightening world only for the truly driven.

I love the adventure film's setting. Men are fighting ancient battles with mermaids and sea monsters. These are pre-Hayes codes, and they sound wild. I also wondered if some of this was based on Anna May Wong, a famous actress, around the same time this book takes place.

"We were stories that should never have met, or stories that only existed because we met. I still don't know."

When this book says Hollywood is full of monsters, that's only the literal truth. Stars on the screen are also stars in the sky, and some people sell their soul trying to get there. That's the premise of Siren Queen, and I really don't want to say more than that, because I really enjoyed slowly figuring out what was literal, how this world differs from our own, where the metaphors have become reality.

Luli is Chinese-American, and she knows full well what kind of roles await her in Hollywood -- but she's going to go there on her own terms and do what she can. Whether she's going to get there never seems like an option: she wants to be seen, she wants millions to see her, she wants to be just like the people she's seen at the local cinema. She never really questions this desire or her determination to go there; she's almost possessed by it. I could definitely have stood to understand that better; I understood Luli's ambivalent feelings about her home and her sister, and understood her drive toward Emmaline and her friendship with Greta... but I wanted to understand more of her drive to be seen, to rise, because the brief references to that felt powerful.

Luli is surrounded by characters who almost all want the same thing: they didn't just somehow end up there, against their will -- except for Greta, of course -- and I found myself at risk of forgetting that with people like Harry Long and Emmaline and maybe even Brandt Hiller. But they chose this, just like Luli did, and the ways they are trapped and hurt each other arise from that as well. It adds a little complexity to the sympathy you feel for them sometimes. Luli's far from perfect, but Emmaline has made the same choices in many ways.

There's a lot that isn't explained, a lot that you're left to intuit or guess or imagine for yourself, and I really liked that. It stays with the central concept and doesn't try to elaborate it too much, and there are mysteries that we don't get to understand. I like that a lot; I don't think it should have tried to unravel Oberlin Wolfe's existence or why certain things are as they are -- this is Luli's story, shaped by those mysteries but never seeking to understand them.

People have compared this to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and there are similarities there, for sure. I've certainly enjoyed both!