Included as a top pick in bimonthly May New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

I did not finish this book. I really wanted to love it. I will give it another try in the future perhaps.

Personally the plot line was slow and did not keep me interested.

It's probably a little on the nose to say it, but this book dazzles. From the protagonist's sharp, strong voice to the twisted and beautiful Hollywood magic to the queer romance to the descriptions of classic Hollywood movies that never were this book basically delivers on its' every single promise. That the writing is beautiful and a joy to read is really just the cherry on top.

If there's an issue here, it's that I did feel a little bit cheated out of knowing more about the breadth of Luli's career. There was so much foreshadowing of her eventual fame that I expected that we would get to see more of it, not just the siren movies. I do like how it ended (and what an ending) but if that was where Vo was going to leave us...I don't know, maybe more of Luli's movies could have been mentioned in the flashforwards, something to really give her character an additional brush of gravitas. What little we did get about her movies in the Epilogue was so intriguing, and it was definitely worth expanding on.

Aside from that, really, this one's a stunner. I will definitely recommend this one far and wide.

Alrhough slow going, Siren Queen was right up my alley. I loved the setting and time period. I love the golden age of Hollywood” time era and old time Hollywood is a setting I love. My only complaint was that there several parts of this book that reminded me of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I feel like the author piggy backed off of the immense success of that one to gain material for her book. Nonetheless, it was otherwise original enough for me to thoroughly enjoy it.

Three books in, I’m starting to realize I find Nghi Vo’s writing a little bit incomprehensible. It’s a similar feeling I have when I read James Joyce - I acknowledge the technical skill there but it’s just so rambling and disjointed I find myself completely disconnecting from it as a reader. She tends to overuse hyperbole and metaphor in a way that gives a sense of whimsy when she’s writing in the fantasy genre, but is incredibly distracting when her story is set firmly in our real world and grounded in literary fiction.

Siren Queen is a sharp departure from the things I appreciated most in Vo’s previous works - specifically The Empress of Salt and Fortune. My first attempt with her writing, aided in part by being my favorite genre and set in a world that really allowed her authorial voice to shine, made the pieces come together beautifully. But what is now the third work I’ve read from Vo, Siren Queen lacked a sense of direction. This is a story about one woman’s rise to Hollywood stardom, bogged down by very flowery and exaggerated prose. And unfortunately I just generally dislike reading about celebrities, be it fictional or otherwise.

What Siren Queen does best is explore the barriers in place not only for women in the film industry, but queer women of color. And I think there’s an important message here, somewhat eroded by the distracting use of long, meandering metaphors that mask a lot of the meaning here. So I fully respect the project of this book. I just have no interest in film stars. Everyone’s favorite The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo couldn’t sell me on this type of flashy, tumultuous literary fiction. Siren Queen doesn’t either, and the prose itself was more a hindrance than a help in this aspect.

I don’t think Siren Queen is going to universally work for fans of Nghi Vo’s previous works. But if you like lush, rambling stories chock full with figurative language about the tribulations of a rising starlet, this book could be a winner. There’s a lot here to unpack - from exploration of female rage to barriers Chinese women have faced in professional spaces. I just couldn’t work past the style of writing to ever connect with the story itself in a way that will leave a lasting impression.

Thank you to the publisher Tordotcom for providing an ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

3.75 stars
I want to start off by saying I’ve been trying to be more diverse in my reading by reading by exploring different genres. Siren Queen is described as historical fantasy and magical realism, two genres I don’t typically read. What pulled me in was that the main character was of Asian decent and I felt it could be relatable. I also did not read a synopsis of this book prior to reading.

I don’t think historical fantasy is my cup of tea but with that being said this story was so well written. I also enjoyed the various side themes that were touched upon; discrimination of Asian Americans, the poor treatment of women, forbidden love, politics of the workplace, and more I’m probably forgetting. I really liked how the author unfolded the various layers of this story. I liked how she gave the Luli so many side companions/allies throughout her life. I really enjoyed the ending and thought the length of the book was appropriate. It did not seem drawn out or stagnant in areas. I also did somewhat like the magical elements even though at times I felt confused. Overall, I would recommend Siren Queen, especially those who enjoy historical fiction.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy.

I stayed awake until 2am to finish this and my mind is still reeling. On one hand, the magical system was somewhat confusing because it's not really explained BUT it works to make the story feels more ethereal, surreal and overall wild. I have a love for pre-Code Hollywood novels and this one certainly didn't disappoint.

Luli Wei, an aspiring actress, finds herself in studio lots surrounded by rituals, magic, sacrifices and trickery. Even though this is a fantasy setting of sorts, I have no doubt that Hollywood is currently just as creepy and disturbing. Part of me isn't exactly sure about Luli's personality by the end of the book, but I feel like it's part of who she is: the mystery, the secrecy, and only revealing what she wants us to know. I do know, however, that she's determined, ambitious and somewhat fearless. I also loved some of the secondary characters, like Greta. I thought her story was so good and I kept wanting to read more about her.

Overall this was such a good, thought-provoking read because, while some of the scenes about Hollywood are supposed to be fictional, can we actually be sure none of that stuff is currently happening? Siren Queen is a story that sometimes blurs the lines between fiction and reality, which in turn makes you want to search conspiracy theories of Hollywood until your eyes are demanding some rest.

<i>*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review *</i>

<b> 3.25 stars </b>

Set during the golden age of cinema, Siren Queen explores Hollywood through the lens of Luli Wei, where she uncovers that Hollywood is literally run by monsters carrying out ritual sacrifices and the like to maintain their power. She finds that, as a result, in order to gain power and fame, she has to turn into a sort of monster herself.

While the premise of this book was very interesting, I had a hard time connecting with out heroine, and as a result the whole narrative felt a little disjointed, which was a shame, as I've usually really enjoyed Vo's writing!

Also, I understand that this may have been a stylistic choice to add a sense of mystery, but the mention of various concepts and terms (such as 'changeling' for the young movie starlets) without really explaining them when they were first introduced in this context led to me getting less invested in the story as it went along.

Nghi Vo offers her signature dreamy atmosphere here in a book about a woman who refuses to be left out. The main character, daughter to Chinese immigrants, navigates an early Hollywood that is hostile, ruthless, and hungry. The blending of old Hollywood with fae lore is done so beautifully that you leave wondering how else you could have ever thought of it. This is a masterclass in bringing the fae into a world we think we know. Vo continues to take my breath away.

Nghi Vo’s new novel Siren Queen is both a celebration of and warning about the golden years of Hollywood. She creates a mesmerising world with fantasy elements just below the surface in which people can literally sell their souls for a shot at stardom. She effortlessly combines this with a queer, Asian-American viewpoint to deliver a story that is full of both enticement and danger.
It is the 1930s and a young Asian girl working in her parents laundry in Los Angeles is entranced by the movies. She lucks her way onto a set and starts to get small roles, promoted by Jacko Dewalt, a young director. When she turns seventeen Jacko promises to make her a star but she does not want to be owned or controlled by anyone so she makes a deal with an old woman, giving up 20 years of her life to be free of Dewalt and have her shot. She gets a contract at Wolfe Studios, run by the rapacious Oberlin Wolfe and now under the name Luli Wei, she finds she has to navigate a world of stardom, magic and desire.
Vo builds a fascinating world, full of small and large acts of magic but also calling back to medieval fantasy concepts such as the hunt. But this aspect never dominates the narrative which centres squarely on Luli and her struggles to be recognised as an Asian actress in an industry with a particular concept of beauty and what sells. This on top of the exploration of her own sexuality and the additional issues that created in a puritanical Hollywood that focussed on the surface. And with art imitating life, Luli finds her breakthrough playing a monster, an outsider who is taking her revenge on the world.
There has always been a kind of magic associated with the movies and its larger than life stars. Vo brings that magic literally to life in Siren Queen in a way that makes sense in the world that she has created. And she uses it to reveal and explore the very real issues faced by those working in the industry at that time, many of which persist.

I unfortunately just couldn't get into this book. I found it to be slow, and then when she finally starts her dream to become an actress, the fantasy aspects hit me out of nowhere and I just couldn't recover. I had to DNF this book.

”From the first, I was possessed, poisoned to the core by ambition and desire… If I couldn’t be ordinary, maybe I could be something better instead.”

In Siren Queen, Nghi Vo exposes the exploitation inherent in Old World Hollywood through a dark-fantasy lens, using monsters and immortality as allegory for the dangers of celebrity.

Often compared to Evelyn Hugo (“but with magic”), Siren Queen’s strongest asset is indeed its world building - the glamorous, shiny exterior of life in Hollywood and the monstrously seedy underbelly hiding beneath the surface.

I will admit that I felt I was lacking some context when it came to the magical/fantastical elements, and because of this, some of the references to magic within this world didn’t quite connect for me. And it is a slow burning story, focusing less on plot and more on atmosphere, which could be challenging for some readers.

But overall, the story is fascinating and thickly atmospheric, and Vo hits all the right notes, tackling issues from racism to the perils of fame to sexuality. Fans of Vo’s previous books will devour this one!

——

A huge thank you to Nghi Vo, Tordotcom, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

She’s done it again. Nghi Vo is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Fantastical, imaginative and ominous, Nghi Vo’s latest draws you into a world filled with dark magic and the sinister people who use it.

Luli is a Chinese-American girl who is willing to steal whatever it takes to become a star, including her sister’s name. But she does have her standards. She won’t play a maid on screen, leaving casting directors at a loss with what to do with her, until she’s offered the role of a monster.

The magic that brings its stars immortality weaves through the studio, which draws much of its power from deals with the devil. It’s a dangerous world, where any misstep may see you turned into a puppet, a shadow of what you once were. The stars of Hollywood and the wannabes all dance every Friday night around mystical fires, dodging the hunt that ends in a blood sacrifice every year.

Luli’s determined to wrest whatever she wants from the studio, even as she suffers losses along the way, including the girl she loves.

This book draws you into a mesmerizing world, where most things that glitter have been bought at a terrible price.

Thank you to the publisher for the advance review copy of this book.

Instantly enthralled, I loved the real and mystical aspects of Siren Queen. A fascinating story of Hollywood, and unfortunately its racist history, this book shone a light on the road to movie stardom. Lyrically written, Siren Queen is a true treasure.

Luli Wei is desperate to make it in Hollywood, but she has some rules of her own; no maids, she’ll play a monster before a maid. But the monsters aren’t the ones onscreen in Hollywood.

This one was good, but a little strange for my tastes. It had a touch of oddness where it seems like it takes place in a realistic world, but then something magical or unrealistic happens. I know a lot of people love whimsy, and would probably love this book but that aspect is not for me. I still enjoyed the story and the main character.

“The studio which would try to devour me in a dozen different ways was mine, from the wolves to the pond I would never be able to find again, to the dust that scourged them paint from the signs. It was all mine, and as strange as it was, as dangerous and as odd, that victory seized me and never let me go.”

Siren Queen comes out 5/10.

I did not know this author before beginning this book and I think the cover and blurb really threw me off. I thought this was a coming of age novel about a young Hollywood starlet. But, the magic they are referring to in the blurb is not just the magic of Hollywood.

This was a historical fantasy book and when I started to get to parts where old ladies were drinking blood and the young starlets roommate had to have her cowtail surgically removed, or wolf statues came to life, I knew this book was not going to be for me.

Ultimately, it is the story of a young Chinese girl who wants to be a Hollywood star and I can see that it was making a parallel between Hollywood moguls and the monsters they can be, but this is just not the type of book I enjoy. Fantasy readers may be drawn to this one.

I think this book needs a different cover with a siren, and if you don’t know what a siren is then this book is also not for you. It needs a mystical appearing Hollywood lot with fires everywhere and the siren in the middle of it all.

Pick this up if you like fantasy reads and want a new spin on the fantasy genre

Nghi Vo’s Siren Queen is the tale of how a new kind of monster is born in old Hollywood. And while our scene may be set in Los Angeles during Hollywood’s Golden Age, Vo never lets us forget that it’s less a solid, pure gold than it is a kind of gilded rot. The big movie studios are rife with exploitation, and the wannabe movie stars are ripe for exploitation. Among them is our narrator, whose name is sometimes this and sometimes that, though she finds fame as Luli Wei. Luli is a queer Chinese American woman, and we first meet her as a reckless child, dazzled by the silver screen and wedging her way into the outskirts of the movie business. As she grows into adulthood, she gets herself tangled up in the sinister side of cinema, striking a deal with a monstrous studio head who can make people disappear as easily as he can elevate them to fame. Luli is an ambitious and complicated protagonist that you won’t always love or even like, but that’ll only fuel your need to find out where she ends up by the end of the book.

Magic is real . . . and so are monsters:

Siren Queen is lush with whimsical fantasy elements. It’s not at all inclined towards the rigid magic systems that you’d find in a high fantasy, though, so readers who prefer everything to be explained according to set rules might want to skip this one. Instead, Vo leans into the kind of magic that is varied, mysterious and exists simply because it does. It’s reminiscent of magic realism and based heavily on European fairy stories and folklore. As someone familiar with all those traditions, I loved seeing them reshaped to form cinema’s dark underbelly. In Vo’s world, cameras feed off the talent standing before them, and actors and actresses who truly ascend to stardom are immortalised as actual stars. It’s fascinating to see fairy logics like the Wild Hunt, courts, and the power of true names integrated into the everyday happenings of the movie business (even the Lindworm makes an appearance).

Wonder and whimsy aside, the magic works best when Vo uses it as a metaphor for the horrors of Hollywood. It’s sometimes so reflective of the rumour and speculation that clouds the movie business in real life that metaphor and reality start fusing together until it’s hard to distinguish where one ends and the other begins. Blood sacrifices to keep the big studios running and monsters that lurk inside men . . . not so far-fetched after all.

Visibility where it matters:

Another aspect of Siren Queen that I enjoyed was Vo’s representation of individuals from marginalised communities carving out spaces for themselves in an industry that is deliberately hostile. Racism, sexism and homophobia colour Luli’s experiences, and her struggle to stop them from defining her altogether is treated with thought and care throughout the book.

I appreciated that, while Luli is stubborn and holds steadfast to an idealistic kind of identity-making, Vo doesn’t try to demonise other BIPOC or queer characters who make decisions that might be considered less courageous, but which ensure their safety and allow them to provide for themselves. This led to a realistic exploration of the many roads people paved to occupy space in Hollywood’s early days, even if it was a cramped and claustrophobic kind of space.

I’ll briefly mention here that a pet peeve of mine is when authors identify every BIPOC character by their race but don’t do the same for white characters. This is the case in Siren Queen. Take that as you will.

Where it fell short:

The book is split into three ‘acts’. I adored the first act, and I consider it five-star material. Unfortunately, I found that the pace slows in the second and third acts, and the story takes to meandering rather than following any central plot. If I had gone into this expecting it to be more of a literary read than a genre one, then perhaps I wouldn’t have felt let down in this regard.

It also seems like Vo set us up for higher stakes with the introduction of darker entities more powerful than the studio heads. This fizzles out into nothing more than a few brief mentions, and two out of three of the big studios are largely irrelevant, which was disappointing.

Hidden in the second act is a trope I really, really dislike: instalove. Luli’s first love interest, Emmaline, doesn’t do much besides be pretty before Luli risks it all for her, and she remains a rather flat character thereafter. Luli’s second love interest, Tara, is little more than the skeleton of an interesting character. I much preferred spending time with Luli’s roommate, Greta, and her co-star, Harry. There are also plenty of interesting secondary characters, including Luli’s sister, Mrs Wiley and Oberlin Wolfe, who aren’t given enough room in the story to reach their full potential.

A perfect setting and a fierce coming-of-age:

Overall, I definitely don’t regret my time in the world of Siren Queen, and I rate it 3.5 stars (rounded down for NetGalley). Vo’s magical Hollywood studios are worth a dip into this book, as is Luli’s ascension to a version of herself that she fashions on her own terms, captured forever on the silver screen.

I could not put this amazing book down!
Wonderful multi-layered characters. And an extremely original story world, with an earned and beautifully written character journey.
This was the first book I read by this author but I’ll be reading more in the future surely!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

By this point, I’ve firmly decided that Nghi Vo cannot write a bad book. Or even a just alright book. Siren Queen was all I wanted and more., Literary and luscious, dripping with Old Hollywood glamor underlying the menacing seductiveness of a fae bargain to stardom gone wrong.

Siren Queen follows Luli Wang from her start as a young Chinese-American chasing stardom at every nook and cranny. The plot is relatively straightfoward (see previous sentence), but where this book shines is the magical quality to the world that Luli exists within. The reader is slowly introduced to the idea that bargains may hold just a little more power than in real life, and slowly we’re unveiled a world fueled by devil’s bargains, seductive nightime fires, and possibly supernatural beings, with a nonplussed magical realism quality.

Luli, I will imagine, will not be a particularly likable character to most readers. She lies and she cheats, manipulates where she needs, and cuts throats to her way to the top. But like all top actors and celebrities, Vo has given Luli that it factor that makes it impossible for a reader to turn away. It’s those unlikable actions, that pragmatic determinism in such a brutal environment, that really drives her towards the success she chases and Vo is unrelenting in exposing all aspects.

One thing I love about Vo’s writing, in both Siren Queen and her previous work, The Chosen and the Beautiful, is how she approaches anti-Asian racism. Namely, the way her characters are able to carve out that little space of existence to be comfortable enough.. 1930s Hollywood (granted, even modern Hollywood) is rife with racism, and Luli is forced to confront this from her first day on set. But there is no great climax, no one moment of triumph upon which The Racism Is Banished Forever. Because real life does not work like that. We watch Luli fight tooth and nail for roles, play into stereotypes when it benefits her position, struggle and fail, like Asian Americans every day are forced to do. Vo writes with a beautiful nuance to her characters that I have yet to see matched in the SFF canon.

Overall, I rate this book a 5/5. Vo has delivered yet a gain, with the whimsy and glamor of Old Hollywood at its peak, yet exposed the dark underbelly of loaded fae bargains and devil’s deals. The writing, as always, is literary and lush, and I’m just in awe with the nuance Vo incorporates in Luli’s approach to the racism she faces.

It took me exactly two months to finish this book- maybe that speaks for itself, it should.
I despised this book, up until I was 95% finished and I'm not sure whether I began enjoying the story or was just thrilled to untangle from it. Perhaps its more of that feeling when you guzzle vodka and at first you can barely handle the taste of it, and your stomach tightens, threatening to retch it all up. And its not until you're properly wasted that you can't even begin to taste the alcohol anymore and everything begins to taste good, and it's not that it actually does, but your minds too meddled to distinguish the difference. Siren Queen almost drove me mad.
I read fifty percent of this story in one day, I choked it down, painfully. I hated it. I hate it the same way that I hate The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I struggle to find the novelty associated with early Hollywood, or even present, or Hollywood at all. I simply do not care enough about it. I do believe if you enjoyed Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel, you'll love this one more. The writing is astounding.
Nghi Vo certainly knows how to write, that is something I can't ignore and that is why Siren Queen gets three stars instead of two. If Hollywood entrances you, if a loose plot with no real purpose but sounding good appeases to you, invest in Siren Queen. Regard this book in terms of fantasy, lightly, and I mean very lightly. All aspects of magic or fantasy are few and far in between, subtle especially. So subtle that I found it almost under-developed. Vo could have removed all slight mention of magic and the story would flow all the same.
I will not, ever, recommend Siren Queen to anyone but Evelyn Hugo fanatics. I will in fact continuing reading Nghi Vo's novels, and I have her exceptional diction to thank for that.