DNF at 56%...

This is my first Nghi Vo book, and I do believe it will be my last. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me early access to this book, but unfortunately, it was not one I enjoyed.

I THOUGHT I would be reading about an ambitious young Asian woman who would stop at nothing to make it big in pre-code Hollywood while refusing to be typecast as the 'Fainting Flower' or the Asian Maid always relegated to the background. I'm not particularly familiar with the pre-code Hollywood era, but given my love of Old Hollywood, I figured I would enjoy this time period.


Instead, I got a confusing story sprinkled with unexplained monsters and magic, which moseys along at a snail's pace.

Now, I don't mind monsters and magic or fantasy stories when I KNOW that's what I'm going to get, but that's not what this book is packaged as. The book synopsis makes it sound like a Historical Fiction novel when it's actually a Fantasy/Historical Fantasy/SciFi story.

My biggest issue with this book, and why I opted to DNF it, is that none of the magic here is explained. Luli gives 20 years of her life to an old woman for information. Movie big-wigs shed layers of their skin to reveal their inner selves when tricked. Women are born with tails and led away from their homes by a rope, while others can change faces to resemble other people. There are Gods and Kings, and it was all so disjointed and baffling.

WHY did these things exist, and what are the rules of this world? Without setting boundaries and explaining to the reader a little about the world, it just comes off as confusing and takes the reader (well, me at least) out of an otherwise decent story. With no rules, the author can throw anything and everything into the story, and the reader never knows if this is normal or not. Because of this, I just couldn't continue. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the things that were happening, and after eight days of reading and only getting 54% of the way through a 288-page book, I decided to call it.

Even though I DNF'd this, I gave it two stars over one because I did like the underlying story of Luli and her journey to be a star, but everything just happens so slowly, and I spent a lot of my time wondering if the author was being literal or metaphorical in her descriptions, which gets frustrating.

Overall, while I didn't enjoy this, that doesn't mean you won't. Just know that this is a pre-code Hollywood FANTASY book. With actual magic and monsters. This is NOT a typical Historical Fiction story about old Hollywood.

During the interwar years in Los Angeles, Luli Wei falls in love with movies and works to make her way in the industry as a rare non-white actress who refuses to fall into the common stereotypes available as roles. In Vo's story, the movie magic is actually magic and the movie stars are actually stars who shine brightly, some for a short period of time while others last for decades. The magic of this Los Angeles is dark and slightly sinister, which honestly makes sense for Hollywood and the movie industry. It is handled by the author and the narrator as something matter-of-fact, part of everyday life as well as the world of movie-making. Sometimes it makes things a little confusing, but the supernatural elements work to compliment the overall feel of the novel, which is mysterious, melancholy, and yet triumphant. Luli is all of these things as well, but the first-person narrative (which sometimes interjects snippets from the present and more recent past) gives insight into her character and makes her more sympathetic and tangible, even as she confronts sinister studio bosses and directors threatening her future with a coldness and resolve that seems at times otherworldly. Luli's story will stick with you long after you finish, inviting re-reading and conversations to suss out more of the details of this supernatural Hollywood and Luli's journey. Incredible and thought-provoking.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for the opportunity to read Siren Queen early in exchange for an honest review!

Old hollywood, magic and monsters? Sign me up!

In this dark hollywood tale, we follow Luli Wei, a Chinese American actress who starting from the very bottom, wants to make it BIG. Like, BIG BIG. While the premise was really really appealing to me and I love how dark it got at times, I don't think this one scratched my itch for a disturbing tale. I think it might have been due to the fact characters weren't as developed as I wish they were, especially Luli. I really, really, REALLY wanted the author to get into her head and tell us why exactly she wanted to make it THAT big and HOW! I wanted to FEEL her thrill and will to succeed. We all know hollywood's a very competitive and sometimes horrible place and I guess I was expecting a tiny bit more. However, the fantasy elements were undeniably intriguing and the novel still enjoyable and more than worth it! I'm definitely going to check out more by the author whom I didn't know before reading Siren Queen!

Special thanks to Macmillan-Tor Forge and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my own opinion.

Wow! I did not expect this book to be what it was, but I liked it. This book is set in the roaring 20's, a magical time in Hollywood, about a Chinese American girl, who wants to become a starlet. She takes on her sisters name and has quite an uphill battle. With maybe the best time in Hollywood, (questionable), there was such a thing called Siren Queens, beautiful actresses. She makes a movie as one under her sister's name Luli Wei, and after being a siren queen, starts making monster movies. And oh yes, she is gay in a time when it was not so accepted.

But being a star means the Hollywood studios knowing everything about you to who you're dating, when, where and with whom. Also everything else about you and what you have to do remain in goodstanding. So the monsters she plays onscreen are nothing to the monsters offscreen, and the powers that be in Hollywood.

This book surprised me because there was a magic realism element in it and forces of what one starlet will do to become immortal. I enjoyed this book. Perhaps one thing I'd like a lot more of is more on her sister, Luli Wei. I am a fan of Nigh Vo as well, but good book. I recommend.

4.5 stars. The glitz is real but the price is steep.

Siren Queen follows Luli Wei, a Chinese-American who grew up in Hungarian Hills her whole life and dreams of making it big on the silver screens, desiring to become one of Hollywood’s many glittering stars.

The line between what's fantasy and what's reality blur in this novel like smoke. The little snippets of the magic within this world make you curious about the fantasy aspect of this take on old Hollywood but it never detracts from the desire to know more about Luli. Furthermore, the imagery is spectacularly vivid; you can taste the dusty heat of the movie sets and the bustle of people moving in and out of the spotlight. You get a sense that the world has a life outside of the protagonist’s story.

Despite her ambitious dreams of becoming a movie starlet, she never loses grip of her reality as a Chinese-American, queer, lower-class woman. She nurses a hunger that fuels her ability to keep fighting for her place in the movie-making world and rise to the stars. She’s determined, resourceful and gutsy. As it’s quoted in the summary, Luli refuses to play a maid, put on funny accents or be a damsel in distress, as expected of people of her gender, class and race. She wanted to be the *lead.* She wanted to shine, even if it meant playing the ‘malevolent’ role of the monster and staying strong in face of threats to bury her career (and perhaps herself) before it took off.

Despite the grim journey, hope is laced in every word as you realize that the story is narrated in past tense and, in parentheses, has dialogue between Luli and a woman named Jane, insinuating that Luli is recounting her life and has already achieved what she wanted. But perhaps it’s this writing choice that robs the story from attaining a sense of anticipation, because you, in a way, know what happens at the end. Perhaps I’ve missed the point with this writing choice and focused on something that’s not what the book was intending, but that’s my two cents on it.

While I’m fully aware of the immersive powers stories have, and how actors are to settle into the mindset of their characters while playing them on camera, I’ve never seen any story have its acting (or writing) associated protagonist narrate while in that mindset. The first time it happened, it was slightly surprising but I found it welcoming. Plus, it conveys how much Luli is devoted to the art of acting and makes her journey towards stardom much more engaging to read.

Quick-fire notes:
- Names have power; that’s an age-old fact. If I’m not wrong, our protagonist doesn’t have her own name, ‘stole’ her sister’s, the studio heads own their actors by giving them names (and even appearances) and nicknames and, to a different extent, the roles they believe they inhabit. Other themes (or topics) include agency, the power of appearances and sacrifice.
- In relation to some of the themes, I felt pity for many of the characters, like Greta, Brandt and Harry.

Overall, a peculiar read!

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have conflicting feelings on this book. On one hand, the world it takes place in is extremely confusing: it is set in the Golden Age of Hollywood, but this Hollywood is filled with magic, fantastical creatures, and directors who are not just men but "kings". There are fortune tellers on set and glamors cast on the studios, and all of this is beautifully described by Nghi Vo, whose prose shines. However, much of this is never explained. There is no context given to characters with cow tails from Sweden or girls who have new faces stitched onto them to look like someone else. Are these metaphors for something else? Is this soft worldbuilding? You don't know, and maybe that's how it's intended to be. Personally, this was not for me; I struggled to immerse myself in Luli's world when so much of it felt disjointed and off. Was I supposed to see the Wild Hunt riding through the studios as a normal occurrence? There's much that Vo doesn't tell you, and while that adds to the allure and dark magic of the story in a way, it also convoluted it, making it difficult for me to get fully immersed in the world Luli inhabits.

The writing is also a somewhat sore point for me. I enjoy flowery prose; Madeline Miller's books are some of my favorite for that specific reason. However, Siren Queen's prose is a different beast entirely, and some part of me wasn't sure how I felt about it. Vo has one of those writing styles that makes you wonder if you're missing something about it — objectively, I could tell that it was beautiful, but subjectively, it felt a bit pretentious. That is not to say that all of it is bad, however, I think the book would have benefitted from a cutback on that aspect of it.

Even so, once you are able to move past the book's weak points, there is so much to love about Siren Queen. The main character, for one, is fantastically written. I love ambitious characters above all, and Luli is right up there next to Jude Duarte for me in terms of cunning. She's so incredibly fun to read, and I loved seeing how she refused to back down, even when faced with giants threatening to ruin her. She's a well-rounded, deeply flawed character, and I adore her. Vo does an amazing job of making her someone you want to root for, from her origins on Hungarian Hill to her climb to the top and all the backstabbing along the way. She's such an interesting character, and her drive is beyond entertaining.

The plot is also well-done, with pacing that is deceptively captivating. At first, I thought that this book was somewhat slow and not much was happening, but I soon couldn't put it down. While it does lag at points, I was surprised by how quickly I was able to get past that, as something always picked up the pace eventually, be it a baby arriving or Luli getting cast in a new role. Siren Queen isn't perfect in this regard, and Vo could have done a better job of making the book feel high stakes — especially when you look at what Luli was dealing with, and how much she stood to lose at several points. I mean, there were no legal repercussions held above her head towards the end? This wasn't a forgiving time, so why was her relationship with Tara pushed to the side after Jacko found out and Tara wrote her being queer into the script? I would have thought it would be cause for legal action, but maybe that's just my lack of knowledge about the era talking.

Regardless, Siren Queen does a good job of keeping the reader immersed in Luli's world, giving her a complex cast of side characters to explore along the way. Harry, Emmaline, Greta, and Tara all had different dynamics with Luli and though they each had their own stories, I felt the strength of the supporting cast lay in how they helped to flesh Luli out. The troubles she faced with each of them and how she dealt with them really put her characterization on another level. Without them, I feel she wouldn't have been nearly as complicated of a person; her character was, at its heart, defined by the choices she made in pursuit of fame, and each of these people was involved in that in some way. Vo made each character interesting in their own right, as well, and it really felt like they were real people with real beliefs that affected how Luli's life played out. Emmaline in particular was interesting to me, though I do think there could have been more "showing" and less "telling" when it came to her personal characterization.

Another aspect of this book I loved was the queerness. I loved Luli's different relationships — between Emmaline, Tara, and Jane, we get to see a different side of her all the time, and it's magical. This kind of explicit representation is so good to see as well, and I loved that it was just a part of her and not some defining trait. While the rest of her life is explained in tiny bits of summary, it's so wonderful to read her perspective on the changing times, especially the part about how her movies earned a renaissance in the modern era for the LGBTQ community of today. That is so realistic, and it was such a fun little piece of information and I just. I loved it so much. I wish we had a real-life equivalent.

Finally, I loved how the title played into the book. Even once I got halfway through I was confused about where the words "Siren Queen" came into play, but as the plot developed, it was explained and more. I loved how the movie that makes Luli a star is the title, and I loved how we get to follow the series of movies as they develop even more. For some reason, it feels so personal. Luli is a monster; she is the Siren Queen, and that earns her the life she always wanted. I love that and her.

Overall, this book is definitely flawed (much like its main character), but I do recommend it. It's unique and populated by a strong cast of characters, each of whom will get you more and more invested in the story until it's too late to put it down. Siren Queen will have you completely entranced by the time it's done with you, and even with its issues, you'll be wishing it hadn't ended when it's done.

I really enjoyed this book for the most part! It started out a bit slow but once the storyline picked up, I was hooked!

Grab your champagne cocktail and brush up on your foxtrot. Are you ready to experience Nghi Vo’s world of mystical realism?

In the glamorous golden age of Hollywood studios, actress Luli Wei is hungry for fame. As a queer Chinese American woman from Hungarian Hill, she knows she has a fraught path to stardom. The biggest dangers lie off-screen, where ancient magic with a thirst for blood requires sacrifices of eager young starlets like Luli Wei. The studios want to own her. After playing a siren, she begins to take on the roles of monsters. Ironically, living her dreams may just turn the ambitious Luli into a monster herself.

“Siren Queen” themes include racism, priviledge, Chinese labor, erasure and LGBTQ+ discrimination in 1920s Hollywood.

Vo’s vivid descriptions and captivating prose kept me spellbound from start to finish. She is a star among “the crème de la crème” of speculative fiction authors.

A huge thank you to @Netgalley and @tordotcompub for the ARC of “Siren Queen”.

Siren Queen tells the story of a young, talented Chinese-American girl who dreams of becoming an actress in the Golden Age of Hollywood. She makes a deal with a movie company, takes on her sister’s name - Luli Wen - and begins her fight to rise to stardom; a fight against racism, sexism, and other dark forces.

Nghi Vo is one of my favorite instant-buy authors and Siren Queen proves that she deserves that title. Her newest novel is a gorgeously written story that combines the glitter and prestige of the most glamorous era of Hollywood with a fantasy world filled with monsters. I loved how much of this novel focuses on queerness and the huge role Luli’s relationships with women play in the plot. Vo’s works always have a very intimate, fairytale-like quality to them and this one is no exception. I found the plot to be slightly confusing at times but it wasn’t confusing enough to be irritating - quite the contrary, it added a fantastical, dreamy layer to the story. I only wish we’d gotten more of Luli’s sister because I was fascinated by her and would love to learn more about her life, but even without it, this novel is definitely one of my favorites this year.

TLDR: Siren Queen is a beautiful, dark and emotional story about what it means to be immortal and what people are willing to do to achieve it.

this review wasn't easy to write because while I adored this book I am not sure I can do it justice and cover all its themes.

This was my Evelyn Hugo, or more specifically I finally get what people see in old Hollywood stories about stars rising to fame by any means necessary and all it took for me to be interested was speculative fiction (and a lesbian protagonist).

This book starts with the protagonist, still a young girl, a child of Chinese immigrants, falling in love with cinema and getting small roles on the local set. We get our first inkling of something magical going on where years are accepted as payment. As the years pass, she gets hungrier for bigger roles and blackmails her way into Hollywood (and we love her for it).

I loved the monster dichotomy in this book: on one hand we have Luli and her gay friends who are seen as monsters by the society and who needs to be discreet and hide their true selves and on the other hands the real monsters of Hollywood the big producers in power, a wonderful metaphor of atrocities. Fantasy elements truly elevated the Hollywood story.

I was glad to have some lesbian bar culture incorporated in this story as well as a major butch character who is unapologetically herself even when she's seen as "too much" by other queer women.

Sometimes I struggle with how to review books that are less than straightforward, like this one. Vo has created a stunning alternate Los Angeles filled with magical realism and tension. We meander along Luli's path, and it is engrossing, but--much like Luli herself-- her narrative is frequently detatched, almost made to hold the reader at arm's length.

This is a book about being Other - being Chinese, being queer, being female, during a time when ostracism and exoticism were the norm.

I liked this book, but it left me feeling profoundly incomplete in a way that I can't put a finger on. Maybe it's because the world where magic and fame were inextricably intertwined was so rich, so layered, that I wanted to know more than Luli's first person narration. I don't know if there would have been a different way to tell the story that invited me as a reader in, that immersed me in the full ache and joy of the world Luli was so desperate to be a part of - but maybe that was the point, after all

Holy crap, I want more!

Siren Queen is the story of Luli Wei, a star who stole her sister’s name to become famous and became the monster in many films, but also managed to find love and friendship outside the monstrous side of Hollywood.

There are elements of this that remind me of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, mainly the narration style and the old Hollywood setting. But do not go into Siren Queen expecting the same story or same kinds of characters. Luli grows in her monstrousness, because she refuses to be typecast as a maid or fainting violet just because she’s Chinese-American. The ways she stays true to herself, while also learning more about who she is and the impact of her actions and choices, this book is utterly compelling and unputdownable; I read it in a single sitting when I wasn’t expecting it to read so quickly.

I love Nghi Vo’s story telling, but after being slightly conflicted by The Chosen and the Beautiful, I was worried about going into Siren Queen, especially with the dreamy, otherworldly quality of the storytelling, but those fears were utterly unfounded. This is absolutely a complete story, but also I feel desperate for more of Luli’s story and her relationships and all the ways she claimed and thrived in her immortality.

Siren Queen is utterly fascinating and compelling, and the writing lends itself perfectly to a dreamy, otherworldly feeling, like everything is happening in a half-awake dream. I did not expect this to be so utterly compelling, and now I’m not sure how I’m going to move on from Luli’s story. If you like lightly paranormal (but still very central) messy sapphic stories, especially set in classic Hollywood and featuring that time’s magic and possibility, you absolutely need to be picking up Siren Queen!

[Review will be posted to Cannonball Read May 10]

WOW. This book. Dark Fantasy/magical realism set in Old Hollywood full of monsters covering racism, sexism, LGBTQ relationships and what might be sacrificed to become a star. The tension in the writing made the book hard to put down. Very good.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Tor/Forge for an eARC.

Obligatory I don't usually read historical novels etc etc but also this book stalked me on the internet for months until I requested it from NetGalley. Also I was not persuaded to read more historical novels by this book! Great writing! Great magical realism! Great book! Incredible intense look into names and ownership of names and what names are, etc. I don't know maybe I'll read this one again. I think if you're into historical fiction, this would be a great book for you. Just not necessarily for me!

This really feels like one of those "this was a great book but I personally did not like it" reviews, which it is! And that's why the star system should be abolished. Three stars! At great personal cost.

I read The Chosen and the Beautiful a few months ago and it was fascinating. Nghi Vo actually made me like a Gatsby retelling, which is damn near impossible. I requested Siren Queen knowing I absolutely had to read more of her work. Siren Queen did not disappoint! I don't feel that I can accurately sum up this book in a few short sentences, but I can try.

A satirical take on one young woman's journey to success in the golden age of Hollywood, Siren Queen tells the story of a hungry actress finding her way in a world of monsters (both metaphorical and literal.) I'll admit, it did take me until about 20% of the book to fully get into it, but after that point I was completely hooked. I read the latter 80% in one sitting.

I love that Vo doesn't take a lot of time to over-explain the magic system to us - rather, the world has always been filled with magic and monsters, of course it has! While it may be hard to follow at first for some readers, I think the mix of vague allusions and overt portrayals of folklore magic and demonic entities masquerading as humans work extremely well. We are on the same journey as our main character, deciphering man from monster. And lastly... the ENDING. A perfect blend of metaphor and magic.

I had to DNF this one 65% of the way through it. :'( I'm soo sad about it because I've loved her previous works, but this book is seriously just the MC pining for stardom the whole time and I can't deal with it any more. Some stuff has started to happen but I just want my life back at this point.

If you like your fairy tales with a lot of bite then you’re going to love this book. Vo’s take on Faerie and it’s infamous characters and monsters (including the Wild Ride) is written so beautifully and weaves an incredibly gripping tale of ambition, love and embracing your inner & outer monster.

I received this eARC thanks to NetGalley and Tordotcom in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 rounded up to 5 stars

This book is amazing and haunting in the best way possible!

We follow a Chinese American girl as she grows up in LA in the 1920s. As a child she falls in love with the movies and after stumbling on a movie set one day on her walk home, she decides she will be a star no mater what the cost. And in this world filled with devilish creatures dressed as men, and devious deals, the cost is quite high. Never mind the fact that people who look like her and come from her background are relegated to demeaning roles and the worst deals. Despite the odds being completely against her she lives the life that she wants on her terms.

I don’t want to tell you much more about the plot or the world of this novel as I think it is best if you go into it with as few expectations as possible. I will say that it is a world filled with magic, but the magic is unexceptional, it is just a part of the fabric of reality and this makes it so much more terrifying and uncanny.

This is not a fantasy book, this is an examination of being othered, for being a person of colour, for being a woman, for being a lesbian, for being ambitious, for daring to be anything but what people expect.

If you love magic realism, and badass heroines, this is the book for you.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free eARC in exchange for my honest review*

This book was a step outside my comfort zone and I am extremely glad I got to read it. The setting is beautiful, nostalgic and immersive. I kept picturing everything happening in my head and it was so easy to see this world and these characters. I loved reading Luli's story, even if calling her by that name felt wrong. She is strong, determined woman who can also be described as stubborn and naive. There's just so many layers to her, she's a really well-written character that you can't help but care about and want to know more about her.
What I particularly enjoyed is that not everything is explained in detail. You get to know how certain things work, but not always why, which adds a layer of intrigue and mystery that really works with the story.
The book never goes in a predictable direction and while I was expecting Luli's sister to have something more to say when confronting her, I appreciated the surprise of how that handled.
This is a book that will stay on my mind for a long time.

Spoilers Below

“It is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism."
Slavoj Žižek/ Frederic Jameson

This quote rang out while reading Siren Queen. This is not because Vo paints a world that is post-apocalyptic, as is often the case when this quote is brought up. And it is not because Siren Queen imagines a world with a vastly different political system that is egalitarian in nature. In fact it is the opposite.

In Siren Queen, Nghi Vo offers up a historical fiction of characters and stories that center people caught in the intersection of racism, classism, and sexism that is the capitalist machine of early Hollywood, a system that treats humans as commodities. Vo paints a story of historically marginalized folks who have tales to tell, if we would only listen. It is a story of folks who are literally and metaphorically dehumanized, actors caught up in the system that makes them monsters, and those who stand in solidarity with monsters. (This idea of solidarity with monsters & Gothic Marxism, came from Margaret Cohen's book Profane Illuminations & China Mieville's 2013 lecture).

Dehumanization is a theme that runs throughout the journey of Luli Wei, a complicated character whose desire for physical stardom takes center stage. Luli's psychological journey struck me as schizophrenic, but not in the way we usually think of the term. Schizophrenic in a capitalist sense, in the way that Mark Fisher describes it in Capitalist Realism. Fisher explains that there is a schizophrenic state in our minds where we can't differentiate our desires from products, our desires become products - but desires that remain perpetually unfulfilled. You can never actually fulfill desire when it takes the product form. Fisher draws a parallel to the rock star Kurt Cobain, stating that Cobain knew that he was a prop in the system, and knew his purpose was to rebel against the system, and he couldn't escape this capitalist horizon. Fisher writes:

"Cobain knew that he was just another piece of spectacle, that nothing runs better on MTV than a protest against MTV; knew that his every move was a cliched scripted in advance, knew that even realizing it is cliche."

I see a parallel here to Luli Wei, as she struggles with these same schizophrenic complexities, albeit in different ways, caught up in the system of dehumanization that forces her to participate in it (this heads a little more into spoiler territory, so I won’t expand on it, but there is some really interesting ideas around themes of names and ownership). There is one scene in particular towards the start of the novel in which the main character has an epiphany of sorts, donning the glasses of class consciousness.

Ultimately though, Vo offers the reader a world of hope. Characters leave the world of dehumanization. They leave as monsters on their own terms, monsters who have stood up in their own way. And just as dehumanization rings out, so does the power of solidarity, the power of standing with monsters.

The story's approach to magic takes a decidedly magical realist approach. It is used to dehumanize and control, but it is also a proletarian kind of magic. There are elements that are controlled by the capitalist class, but also elements that uplift those that are caught in the system.

There is also a critique of the book that takes into account Adorno and Horkheimer's idea of the culture industry, and I hope someone makes that critique! (Maybe I will later?)

In short, I loved the novel. A lot of my ideas on Siren Queen feel like they should be unpacked more, perhaps after a second read-through. But for now Siren Queen is a definite recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!