Nghi Vo paints a fascinating and unique portrait of Old Hollywood— effortlessly exposing a world that presents as glittering and lavish while harbouring a dark underbelly of ruthless competition and sacrifice. The story follows a young Chinese American woman, Luli Wei, as she embarks on her pursuit of fame, while being all too willing to sacrifice anything to get it.

On one hand, while I would recommend this book to readers who loved Evelyn Hugo with all the sapphic romance and Old Hollywood aesthetic; these are very different books. Comparisons can be drawn in the storytelling method (looking back at the past and forming conclusions from there), The Siren Queen offers an incredibly nuanced and unflinching account of marginalisation, growing up, and the realities of fame. The metaphors, plot devices and pacing are evidence of Vo’s craft and ability to tell a story that is both smart and riveting. I greatly enjoyed The Siren Queen and would recommend it to anyone who is already a fan of Vo’s writing or who are interested in queer stories, a touch of fantasy in a historical setting, and morally grey characters.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this book through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: This story follows a young Chinese girl who ends up being called Luli Wei. We follow her as she starts first as a child extra in scenes and then as she makes a deal to try for a spot on the big screen. Luli is driven by her love of the big screen beyond anything else but she has standards…she won’t play a maid, won’t do funny talking Chinese side characters, and will not be a fainting flower. That ends up leaving only one thing for her; she starts playing a monster in the films.

This was mostly fantastic with amazing imagery and characters. It captures the Hollywood glamor perfectly but weaves a dark tint into all the shine and glory. I loved this imagery and the strange portrayal of Old Hollywood but with a darkness of demons and possibly dark fae involved. This was an entrancing and enchanting read and I really loved it. I had trouble putting it down and really felt like the time and setting came alive.

This would have been a 5 star read for me but I found the ending really confusing. I re-read it a few times and still am not exactly sure what happened in the last few scenes with Luli on the set. This also has more of a magical realism feel to it…you are never sure if the demons and dark fae are real or if they are metaphors for something else. While the magical realism aspect didn’t really bother me but I would have liked a bit more closure at the end.

My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I really enjoyed this a lot. It’s not as good as Vo’s “Singing Hill Cycle” but I liked it better than “The Chosen and the Beautiful”. I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a dark and magical read about Old Hollywood. I look forward to reading more of Vo’s books in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC copy.

I struggled a little to connect with this book. It feels like kind of a lyrical, performance/status-admiration plot about a Chinese 2nd gen immigrant yearning to be a movie star in a magical, mystical version of historical Hollywood.

I was fond of the main character but not exactly in love with her. I admired her sticking to her goals and putting her dreams above all else, but I found the middle to later parts of this book a little bit of a struggle--I guess I was expecting a bit more actual movie-making, or galas and parties, perhaps?

The main character is sapphic and there is some sapphic romance, but it's not a focus.

I think if you loved the kind of slice-of-life with magical elements of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, you might enjoy this book.

i'm sure this book will be a huge hit. sadly, it just so happens that at this point in time, siren queen is not really reeling me in. i really liked vo's last novel so i was counting on siren queen being my kind of read but i am finding the historical setting gimmicky and the protagonist reminds me a bit too much of Evelyn Hugo. additionaly, we have a character whose stage name is Verde saying "Santo Christo"...which makes me pause and question why authors don't double-check things on google or whatever...
i will probably give this another shot in the future, hopefully then it will win me over.

(4.5 stars rounded down to a 4)

Siren Queen is an urban fantasy novel by Nghi Vo that is set in pre-Code Hollywood. The eBook version is 288 pages. We follow our main character with a first-person point-of-view.

Luli Wei grew up working in her Chinese American family's laundry business in Los Angeles, blocks away from Hollywood directors filming on-location. She works her way up from bit part to bit part, clawing her way to the top through hard work and a sharp mind. This version of Hollywood runs on a system of bargains and blood magic, where stars are sacrificed as needed to keep the industry going. Luli refuses to let them own her face, her name, or the women she loves.

This book has great spooky vibes. Overall, I feel like it could have been longer! I was really interested in the world and would love to see more about it. That's mostly why I'm rounding this down to a 4 on Goodreads.

Tropes in this book include: lesbian heroine, Asian heroine

CW: racism, sexism, homophobia, death,

I won’t lie, I was a little confused by the fantasy/magical realism elements in this book at times. I think I would have just liked to have the way it all works explained a bit more, but maybe that would have ruined the mystical element.

The writing, however, was absolutely beautiful and Luli Wei was a fascinating character, lovable yet oftentimes irritating in her flaws, but that just made her feel more rich and real.

I adored the old Hollywood setting and the way monsters and magic were used to allude to the real life expectations of Hollywood, especially for people who are ‘different’.

The relationships were lovely, too, but more than anything, I found myself wanting to know more about Luli’s relationship with Jane, who’s referenced in parenthesis a few times throughout the narrative, and then again touched on at the end, but the relationship isn’t explored in the text.

Overall a really interesting, dark sapphic historical fantasy. Definitely recommend.

My brain officially has exploded due to an overload of greatness from reading this book. The vibes were so freaking impeccable. Set in the golden age of Hollywood, showing the glamour of the stars as well as the darkness that lurks around them. I love the expose of humanity this book is, showing the dark as well as the light that lurks behind our eyes.

Vo creates a world of magical realism - where names are strong and deals are stronger. Immortality can be bought or made, but only for so long. Old gods of who knows what lurk after the sun goes down. Things that should be ignored call to you in the night. The Wild Hunt rumbles through, the shiny bodywork of Ford Model Ts and the bright light of Bentleys. Sarifices are made, people disappear in the night. This is a curiously detached world, where ambition clings on tightly.

I can’t tell you her name, becuase that would give up some secrets you’d need to read to find out - we never know her name before, and it feels wrong to call her CK. We follow her from childhood, bedazzled by stories coming to life before her eyes, having a skill to posess an audience and portray a character. Racism, not just overt but institionalised racism is a theme throughout the book. She makes the best of the box that society has put her in, pretending to stay within its boundaries, but when its dark she blithley goes where her will takes her, be it good or bad.

More thoughts closer to the release date which is the 10th of May - Huge thanks to tor publishing for this arc

4.5/5

This book was dark and fascinating. It gave me a bit of Rebecca vibes. We never get to know what the main characters name is beyond her becoming Luli later in the book. It give it a strange haunting vibe of who really is the main character. Or does our name not matter it’s who we make of ourselves. I really enjoyed how this book addressed many of the old Hollywood era problems and issues that are still even present today. I very much enjoyed the added fantasy aspects and dark magic in the story. I do wish the magic was explained a bit more and I got a bit confused with how it worked exactly but I still found it enjoyable. I always enjoy historical fiction because sometimes it feels like the things happening could maybe be real.

The paranormal and shapeshifting actors and actresses were a really interesting to me. I enjoyed the reoccurring theme of how far people would go for their dreams and how many of the people did not have ownership of their own lives or decisions. I thought the inclusion of racism, prejudice, and homophobia was delivered in a way that it didn’t feel preachy but allowed us readers to digest these difficult topics while feeling for Luli. I loved that Luli’s character was flawed and real and never backed down. She knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to fight for her desires. She’s reckless but as a reader it didn’t feel like she was making stupid decisions.

I loved all of the relationships Luli formed throughout the story. Not all of the relationships are romantic and I really appreciated the friendship Luli created with Greta. The romances were also done really well and I enjoyed how natural and real they felt. They are definitely the kind of romances you want to root for.

The pacing of the book was done well and felt reasonable with the growth of Luli’s character. I found the authors writing haunting and immersive. I would definitely recommend this dark sapphic fantasy.

Thank you Macmillan-Tor Forge for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nghi Vó Siren Queen was a fantastically good read. It was atmospheric and beautiful. The writing was better than I could have imagined and I cannot wait to read more of Nghi Vo. I think the slow pacing of the book worked great at telling the story and I was invested from the first sentence.

There are many reasons why people should pick up this book as soon as they can but if I could only give one, it would be the writing. It’s just so beautiful and decadent. I couldn’t get enough of it. It was very hard for me to put down this book. It’s a truly unique story, different from so much that is coming out lately. I just can’t get over how good it is.

I cannot wait to recommend this to literally everyone.

I posted the following review to goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4654900643) and the storygraph and will be making a TikTok for it shortly. I loved it—thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to review it!

“This book was excellent (4.5 stars)! As I read it, it was impossible not to compare it to the author’s earlier, 2021 release The Chosen and the Beautiful. They certainly have elements in common: both Siren Queen and The Chosen and the Beautiful share the same atmospheric, fantastical quality, a kind of collage of different magical elements that suits their setting in the ‘20s and ‘30s. They’re both gorgeously, lyrically written, and tell compelling stories about young women of East Asian descent who strive to define themselves at a time when mainstream American society would have preferred to push women like them to the sidelines. Luli and Jordan have similar hard-shelled, devil-may-care attitudes, but the books are not of course identical. The Chosen and the Beautiful is a Great Gatsby retelling that is better than the original (in my opinion). Siren Queen may take loose inspiration from A Midsummer Night’s Dream—the movie studios as fairy courts, the celebrities in their expensive cars as the Hunt—but it is more original and just as charming. If you liked either book, you’ll probably love the other. And if you haven’t read any of Vo’s other works, you should definitely still pick up Siren Queen—especially if you’ve ever watched a classic movie and thought it had a kind of magical quality to it, then this book is for you. I would also recommend it to fans of The Night Circus or even The Atlas Six; this book is for any reader who likes their reads to be laced thoroughly with magic and charm.”

This was such a marvelous story. Nghi Vo really outdid herself with the writing in this, as I found myself highlighting so so so many passages and lines. The storytelling itself was stellar. The pacing, although slow, was perfect for what the plot needed and was trying to do. I was addicted to every chapter, every description and glimpse into this magical world that is all too like our own. The main character was so fun to follow, and I loved how she was unabashedly herself. The queerness in this book was fantastic, and I loved how tender and yet tense the sapphic elements were. Although a mix of character driven and plot driven, I felt like each character was able to easily shine on their own. Though I would have loved to see more from the dynamic between the main character and her sister, as well as more from the dynamic between the main character and a few of her love interests. This isn't necessarily a critique, just a sure promise that if a second installment from this world is announced or a story with these same characters is released, I will be RUSHING to pick it up. Siren Queen was utterly engaging, enjoyable, and earnest. Could not recommend it more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillian-Tor/Forge for my DRC in exchange for my honest review.

Nghi Vo's "Siren Queen" gives us Classic Hollywood with the fae world transplanted onto every bit of it. Our star is Luli Wei and her ascent into stardom from a humble laundry shop. That's the short of it all and I highly HIGHLY recommend that you read this when it is out because my god, it's so good and so cinematic. Vo does a brilliant job of bringing life to her characters and world (as she typically does!).

Vo uses a lot of fae court traditions like the power in real names, glamours, and changelings. I was surprised at how seamlessly Vo blended the stories of the old Hollywood Studio systems and fae creatures and myths. They used international myths as well in the form of characters like Greta and her people in I think the Alps (I could be wrong though I remember her coming from a Nordic country). While showing us the beauty of the magic in Hollywood, Vo also illustrated the darker side of it with scenes of the Hunt, Oberlin, and even very early on in showing us how Luli got her name.

I also felt very affected by the storyline of Luli and her sister. Their storyline, aside from the magic aspect, was similar to my sister and I's relationship so I felt very affected by it. Vo again did a great job of showing two very different women coming together and finding a common ground. It felt very real and grounded amidst all of the magic surrounding them. In relation to them, I love how Vo went about showing that both sisters are creatives but it manifested differently in them (Luli becoming an actress and her sister being an artist) and how despite both being children of Chinese American immigrants, they pushed back against the idea of taking over the family business. I was once again struck by the relatability here although my family didn't own a business but more wanted to push for my sister and I to go into medicine rather than what we both ended up doing.

And then Vo gets into the closeted community of Hollywood and I love how they presented it. It kind of reminded me of the closeted community illustrated in "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo". Like the rest of the story, it's tinged in darkness and there's a bit of sinisterness underlying it. But I loved how Vo presented it as being a small community where everyone kind of has to work to protect its existence and how Luli rebelled against that because she wanted to be responsible for herself and herself only. I don't know, I just love it.

This book was such a fun read and if you're familiar with Vo's works, this is everything that is amazing about their writing but times ten. It's so good and like I said before, I HIGHLY recommend it.

CONTENT WARNING: racial slurs, violence, blood

I read this as part of my monthly buddy read of books we own with Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog, and it wound up being one of the best ones we’ve read so far!

I was absolutely thrilled by the premise of a young Chinese American girl who is enthralled by Hollywood and becomes incredibly focused on making her dream into reality. And it doesn’t glamorize the industry—Hollywood in this book is a terrifying place, where becoming a star can cost you everything.

Luli is well aware of her place in the world. She grew up in a household that wasn’t well-off, and spent all her free time taking care of her younger sister and working in her parents’ laundry. But after seeing a movie at the cinema, she was hooked. When she stumbled onto a movie set and got a tiny part in the film, it set the tone for the rest of her life.

“I needed a silver screen to give me a dream, but she had painted her own out of nothing at all.”

But Luli faces some major hurdles to becoming a movie star. Although she is beautiful, she’s Chinese American, and that’s not a good thing in 1920s Hollywood. She’s smart, stubborn, and ambitious, not to mention a lesbian. And while we see those things as just who people are, they were all impediments to her progress.

“She might have had the words for it, but I didn’t. They locked up in my throat, about being invisible, about being alien and foreign and strange even in the place where I was born, and about the immortality that wove through my parents’ lives but ultimately would fail them. Their immortality belonged to other people, and I hated that. I couldn’t say that, so instead I simply struck.”

She’s willing to toss out a lot to achieve her dream, and only realizes the costs later. When she signs up with a studio, she’s locked into a contract that basically owns her, body and soul. She’s aware of the people who haven’t made it, and what happened to them, as well as the consequences of fame for others. But it doesn’t stop her from pressing on to meet her goal. The closer she gets, the more she realizes what she’s passing up on.

“I was alone, but as I stood in the eye of my own private hurricane, untouched by any of the people around me, I wondered if I had ever been anything but.”

Luli starts her career with some demands: no maids, no funny talking, and no fainting flowers. This reduces her prospects, and she’s finally cast as a monster. Which is the thing that propels her to stardom, and reflects who she is better than any other role ever could. She’s not exactly one of those women that you fall in love with right away, but her character was so honest and true to herself about who and what she is, that I couldn’t help but love her and want to see her succeed in film, life, and love.

“I would never be adorable and bubbling over with praise for myself and others. Instead, I was still and cold, and I had to hope that was enough.”

The story is set in the 1920s, although it still touches on relevant topics in today’s society and Hollywood. Luli is tenacious and has a great sense of who she is right from the start, so she fights against getting lost in the industry. The portrayal of various people as literal monsters had me incredibly intrigued right from the start, and all I wanted was for Lulu to overcome her challenges and succeed. However, I couldn’t help but notice that there was one error in factual information, about a character having a growing dependence to benzodiazepines, which wouldn’t be invented for at least 3 more decades. Even so, it didn’t affect my enjoyment of this book, because this was probably one of the most amazing books that I’ve read this year, and it’s definitely motivating me to read Vo’s other books that have been on my TBR for far too long.

This is my first by Nghi Vo, and I can tell that ours is going to be a long author-reader relationship! This book landed in my lap while I was struggling through piles of unsatisfying fantasy, and I absolutely adored it.

Siren Queen is at once a historical fiction piece set in old Hollywood, and a fairy tale-esque high fantasy. The magical system is whimiscal — there’s immortality, old gods, fae and demons and the contracts they make, and the very real threat of witchcraft in the air. The magic system(s) are never fully explained, which means that the reader never fully grasps them, and that’s a beautiful thing. Vo sparks your imagination and leaves room for it to grow. We see the world through the eyes of Luli Wei, a native to this world, and as a result, we’re never given trailing exposition or dumps of information. Despite that, the world is easy to pick up on and easily understood.

Vo certaintly doesn’t hold back on the dark reality of Hollywood’s ugly history of racism, misogyny, homophobia, abuse, et al. If anything, the magic in place amplifies it. Luli is a sapphic woman of color, and her character arc very much bears both of those traits in mind. (Side note: the sapphic and lesbian representation in this book are gorgeous — and I swear, I’m not even biased in my love of this book because of it.)

My favorite piece of Siren Queen, though: the prose. My God, it’s beautiful. One page breezes into the next. I just the storytelling here.

If I have any less-than-glowing marks to give, it’s that I struggled to emotionally connect to any of the characters. I was definitely interested in Luli’s story, but I wasn’t wrapped up in worrying over her fate, despite the high stakes throughout the book. I also felt that the ending was a bit abrupt, but both of these points are easily overlooked by the narrative and world-building.

Overall, a really really solid read with beautiful writing. I’m sure comparisons will be drawn to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and in many ways, that isn’t unfair. The main character and setting, apart from magic, have very much in common with T.J Reid’s world. However, whereas Hugo’s strength lies in its characters (particularly the titular Evelyn), Siren Queen thrives in world building and whimsicality.

(Thank you to NetGalley and Tor/Macmillan for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback!)

Growing up a child of immigrants, helping her mother in the launderette she runs and doing her best to stay out of her fathers way, she has always dreamed of more, and one day she gets it. She becomes Luli Wei and inserts herself into the magical and dangerous world of pre-code Hollywood, filled with monsters both human and magical. But Luli is not stupid, and not someone to be messed with, she refuses to play maids and fainting flowers, bit parts, but monsters, monsters she is happy to play. The studios want to own everything from her name to who she loves, but Luli is determined, she will not become some helpless girl in over her head, she knows how to play the game, and she will play it until she becomes the star she so deserves.

I buddy read this book with Leah over at Leah's Books & that is the only reason that I managed to stop reading and not devour this book in one setting. There was something about Vo's writing and the overall story that just drags you in and makes it nearly impossible to stop reading, and a large part of why I enjoyed this book so much was Luli. Luli has always wanted more than the life she was given, and when she gets the chance, she jumps at becoming a Hollywood starlet, but she will not go in naive and unknowing. Instead she rises like a phoenix from the ashes, making sure that the studios and Wolfe himself know that as much as she needs them, they need her more. But being needed is just as dangerous as being wanted, and before long she finds herself in over he head in this world of magical pacts and beings. I just loved her absolute determination that she would play the game her way, only playing the parts she wanted, and never loosing herself in the process like so many others had. She plays monsters because she is one herself, ferocious and not afraid of a fight and I was enthralled seeing her take on the studio big wigs and win.

There are a whole host of side characters in this story, some you will love and some you will fear. Everyone from the studio exec's, to Luli's co stars and fellow actresses jump off the page as effortlessly as Luli does herself, and though them Vo shows not only the danger of life in Hollywood back then, but also the loneliness, the ferocity, the bleakness of the most glamorous place on earth. My favourite of the side characters without a doubt was Greta, Luli's roommate who was kidnapped from her home and brought to work for Wolfe studios. She is protective of Luli and the only true friend she has throughout the book. Vo does an excellent job of, though her different characters, showing the ways in which Hollywood could trap it's artists, making them feel like their only option was to submit, for fear of loosing not only themselves, but also those they love.

Vo creates a magical Hollywood filled with monsters and magic, but also managed to feel incredibly realistic. It's not hard to believe that people sometimes sold their souls to get their five minutes of fame, changed their names to become someone else entirely, had their lives owned by the studios down to who they ended up marrying. It's a dark and sometimes enticing world, but one that takes a strong and resilient kind of person to get through it intact, someone who knew they never truly fit, so created somewhere that they did. The magic system was intricate and even after finishing I still don't know the rules, don't fully understand it, but that in itself lends a kind of magic and mystery to the novel, especially when we realise it's not just us, but the characters in the story who don't fully understand it & it's limits. The magic adds an extra danger and depth to a story that, without it, would already be dangerous, and some of the scenes where it was used were so beautifully depicted as well as being eerily creepy.

Siren Queen is a story that lives up to it's name in more ways than one. Thanks to Vo's lush writing style, Luli's story and the magical Hollywood she inhabits drags you in almost like a Siren song until you are in too deep to escape. But it's also relevant to Luli's journey throughout the book, how she becomes this beautiful monster more likely to wreck you than save you, a creature she had to become to survive in a world where she was looked down on for her heritage, deemed a monster because of who she loved, a world where she feared becoming just another actress with no lasting legacy, a world where she was quite happy to become a monster if it meant she would be a star.

If you want to know how much I loved this book, just know that my Amazon basket is currently filled with Vo's backlist of books. She has a unique writing style that just draws me into the story, as well as unforgiving and incredibly realistic characters. Siren Queen is a story that lured me in until I was in too deep to let go, with an intriguing magic system and a magical Hollywood that was so well written it seemed real.

This book made me so happy. This story follows Luli Wei from girlhood to womanhood as she eliminates barriers to agency and power, and she does it in the most deliberate and beautiful way.

This is set in a magical Pre-Code Hollywood (1920s to mid-1930s). On the magic side, you have Hollywood elites in human bodies harboring monsters beneath their skin, agreements sealed with blood tea, and intangible things (names, first kisses) that have the properties of material objects. On the history side, this is an era when women can vote but their rights aren’t anywhere equal to men’s rights, segregation is going strong, it’s both socially unacceptable and illegal to be queer, and a massive economic depression is underway.

It’s all around hard times for someone like Luli Wei who is a poor, queer, Chinese-American girl. Her parents own a laundry where she and each of her family members work their fingers raw every day. By anybody’s guess, Luli Wei should be destined for a similar life. Instead, she wants better, and piece-by-piece, she challenges power at every level until she is at the top of the Hollywood hierarchy. It’s brilliant.

These challenges start early and small. As a kid, she sells inches of her hair to pay admission to movies she didn’t have the money to see. Then she earns money by taking small roles on movie sets. When she wants to go to the next level—to work for the studios directly—there’s a gatekeeper, Jacko, in the way. There’s always a gatekeeper, actually, between Luli and something better. And as she grows in her career, she finds ways around or over or through every obstacle or gatekeeper until she gets what she set out to get. That isn’t to say she’s looking for any favors or shortcuts. So works hard and sacrifices what she must in order to reach her objectives, but she is not willing to give others unchecked power over her life. She knows what’s important to her—no fucking the men in charge, no playing the stereotypical roles assigned to women and people of color—and those values are always central to her objectives.

There is a fascinating dynamic here between wanting and power. Luli’s roommate Greta is one of the few people at the studio who doesn’t want to be there. By Luli’s observation, this is the source of Greta’s power. It gives her an untouchable quality that reaches its peak when she faces down a tantrum-throwing monster with impeccable, cool control. Luli, on the other hand, manages to both care and channel Greta’s strength. In the scenes where Luli is looking monsters in the face and challenging their authority, she is formidable. At the same time, there’s a cool elegance about her, even as she acknowledges her underlying vulnerability and fear. Luli Wei is one of my new all time favorite fictional heroes.

What’s remarkable to me about this world is how even in the cutthroat environment of Hollywood—where failure means the studio heads suck the self out of you and turn you into a hollowed out, nodding bobble head—those who are not in power do not attempt to destroy one another in their desperation to survive or thrive in the industry. Even the jealous, yearning Emmaline opts to protect Luli. And Luli, when she gets her own Friday night fire in the end, turns it into a safe space for people who need it. For all the difficulty in making it in the industry, Luli’s conflict is always with the power structure, not with people who are as vulnerable as she is. Even in this fearsome magical world, there is a reassuring sense at least that the threat isn’t coming from beside you.

In the end, Luli overcomes all the obstacles to agency and power, and she does it without destroying anyone. While the studio heads play at being men when they're actually monsters beneath the surface, she plays a monster on the screen while being a decent human in reality. Once she becomes a star, she is simply beyond their reach. She plays the parts she wants. She has economic power. She has love. By all appearances, she goes on to live fulfilled and happily ever after.

I only wish I knew film better because I sense that there are a gazillion brilliant film references here, and I’ve missed most of them.

Every single element of Siren Queen is so beautifully crafted I am in real awe. I'll definitely be looking for more books by Nghi Vo.

This was such a refreshing read. Even though it reminded me of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, it was a fresh, new take on the Hollywood starlit storyline, which is why I highly recommend it.!

Luli Wei (whose name has its own troubling storyline) is a young Chinese American woman who wants nothing more than to become a Hollywood star…by any means necessary. Accidentally making her debut as a child beggar in a movie, she becomes addicted to life on a movie set. Wanting nothing more than to avoid the fate of her parents (working in a laundry room) she embarks on her journey to become a star. But to make it as a woman—as a Chinese woman—in Hollywood takes more than guts and desire. She quickly learns all the sacrifices she must make, all the monsters she must battle, and all the changes she must endure, in order to make it. Can she become a star without completely losing herself in the process?

The reason this Hollywood story is unique, is because of the mythological, fantastical elements that make an old story new. The monsters are literal, the sacrifices are made to some unspoken entity, the changes are ethereal. All of these element’s weave into the story perfectly, and it never feels unbelievable. It is a fantastical Hollywood, but one that shines a light on the real dangers poisoning the Hollywood industry. In the real world: no, the producers don’t literally sacrifice you to some fire-demon for continued success (hopefully?) but they may take parts and pieces of you for their own personal gain (welcome to capitalism). The writing was so good, the story was captivating, the exploration of queer identities in a discriminatory Hollywood were significant, and the fantastical elements were spell bounding. An allegorical, magical novel about chasing dreams, battling demons, and finding yourself despite all that’s been taken from you in the process.

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan, Publishers and the author for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4.5/5

A fantasy take on the Golden Age of Hollywood, revealing the demonic underbelly of higherup studio executives, their many desperate rising stars, and the costs each of them are willing to pay for their five minutes of fame. We follow Luli Wei, a young, queer Chinese-American determinted to be a star, even if that means she’ll only play the monsters of the movie world. Her journey is long and lonely, but Luli is ruthless in her pursuit of stardom. While the magic is left open to interpretation, the story itself is a glamorous picture, fantastic for readers on the more historical-fiction-fantasy side.

Hauntingly beautiful writing that creates an atmosphere of entering a low-lit saloon. I wasn’t exactly gripped by the story but I did enjoy the mood of the story and the vibe of the characters.

Thank you for allowing me to enter the world of beautiful weirdness.

Nghi Vo manages to blend the golden age of Hollywood and magic so seamlessly. There are “monsters” and actual monsters, “magic” and actual magic, aspects of this book are a metaphor and literal at the same time. Siren Queen is a fantastic read!