2.5 stars
I am so, so heartbroken this book wasn't for me. I think I read it in the wrong time but anyways I'm heartbroken because this was one of my most expected books of the year. But it just didn't work out.
When I read the synopsis and the first chapter I thought this was going to be something like TSHOEH but with fantasy and monsters in the mix, and it kinda was but not in a great way. However, I really liked the discussion of racism in the Hollywood industry in that time and well, racism in general. It's also pretty interesting to see the great difference that there was in all characters lives.
I think that I'm going to reread this in the future because I firmly believe I read it in the wrong time. If I do this, I'll try to change my review here.

Siren Queen is a novel following Luli Wei, a Chinese American girl who wants to become big in Hollywood. It’s set in pre-code Hollywood, in the 1930s, and when she gets to a studio she knows the opportunities will be limited, but she knows who she doesn’t want to be. “No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers.” Luli would rather play a monster by choice, and there is little she wouldn’t be willing to give for success. There are, however, real monsters in Hollywood, real magic interwoven through ‘regular’ monstrous humans’ actions. She is no stranger to magic, as the book’s second chapter opens with "You might say my family is in the business of immortality.” This story follows the rise of Luli in a world that’s set to tear her down and her building her path with whatever it takes.

I immensely enjoyed this book. This is such an interesting take on Hollywood, and while I think the idea of its monsters being real monsters is not a new one, this book does a fantastic job with it. I really enjoyed Nghi Vo’s writing, the prose in this book is absolutely beautiful and the entire novel has a very atmospheric feel. That being said, the magic is what made me lower my rating, as I found myself quite confused through some parts of it. It is established early on that Luli is no stranger to it, but without specifying how prevalent it is I didn’t know what to expect. I do think that it fits the book in a way, so I’m not faulting it as much for it, this air of mystery and questioning what’s real and what’s not seems strangely fitting after a while. I think the author did a fantastic job with the characters, I really enjoyed all of them, how different they were, how their lives, motivations, and actions brought them together or tore them apart. How almost everyone in the industry was fighting to survive, in a way, and how for everyone that meant something different.

This is a difficult book to review and to explain, not because it has a convoluted plot, but simply because the more you say the more you give away. In terms of the plot, this book is definitely more quiet. There is plot, don’t get me wrong, but this is for sure more character-driven. So if you like your book action-packed, maybe this is not for you. The story is told by Luli herself, after a number of years, and after she’d become successful. She starts the story with her childhood, family, how she became enthralled with the movies, and how she got into the industry.

Luli is, of course, the central figure of the book, and the character we follow. She is an amazing, interesting character, and while she seems quite detached while she tells the story, there is a certain ferocity and urgency you sense in her earlier years. There is rage and strength and desire for stardom that’s just palpable through the pages as you read. She is a person who is willing to succeed. no matter what it takes. She is willing to bargain, and give parts of herself, years of her life if it gets her where she wants to be. But she is not ‘the villain’ of this story, in no way. We see how loving and caring she is with her friend Greta, Harry, with Emmaline. But when it comes to her career, the industry is cutthroat, and she has shaped herself into someone who can survive it.

In terms of Hollywood, it paints a picture of a community, of sorts, of people willing to do many bad things for fame and recognition. Here I am talking about the directors and producers and such people. There is, as I mentioned, both the supernatural and human monstrosity, with all of them willing to exploit and hurt the young actors looking for success. It definitely paints a recognizable picture, even with the magical elements, and I feel like it is, sadly, still a relevant one.

Luli’s place in Hollywood is a precarious one. She comes into this ‘universe’ that is both willing to completely overlook her but also pigeonhole her and exploit her. She knows she has fewer options than someone like Emmaline, for example. Emmaline, who is blonde and pretty and who can be molded into a perfect star to write about. Luli knows she cannot be that, but she is not willing to just accept the cards she’s been dealt by the racist, misogynistic, bigoted system but to pave her own path any way she can. She is characterized as ‘cold as Atlantic’, and she decides to create herself around that, use that as she can.
...and I would much rather be a monster than a victim.


I really enjoyed the cast of characters we follow, and I thought their relationships were very interesting. I really loved Greta and Luli’s friendship (here would be a good place to mention that Greta is skogsrå, a Swedish mythical creature - which I found super interesting), and I enjoyed how quickly they became friends and how they had each other's backs. I liked Emmaline as well, she was an interesting character. The difference between how Hollywood treated them is shown very well in their relationship. Emmaline is Luli’s first love, but their relationship is short-lived. Emmaline has a ‘golden’ reputation to uphold, and Luli, being ‘the monster’, gives herself more freedom at times. I liked how even though their relationship ends, no one is portrayed as the villain - it was a bigoted time and this just highlighted it.

"You’ll be the heroine, of course. And I’ll be the monster. And it’ll be a hit."

I also really loved Harry as a character, he was one of my favorites, and I wish we’d gotten more about him, and his backstory. I enjoyed her relationship with Tara, it was Luli living on her own terms more as their relationship is more ‘visible’ than what she had before. I also liked that Luli tried to reconnect with her sister. I feel like her and her sister’s relationship was a good example of what she had to give up on when she started pursuing acting, but also reaching out was her reestablishing her life as her own.

All in all, I really did enjoy this book a lot. I thought it was interesting, thought-provoking and just lovely to read with its prose. I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you want to read about a strong character forming their own way in a world that wants to stop them at every turn.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book is vibes, masterfully done vibes and if you like them you will probably have a great time with this book. This is set in a more magical, dream like golden age of holiday America with our main character who wants to become a star no matter the cost and makes a name for herself as the villainous siren in several movies. This is her story that she is telling us from her childhood, how she fell in love with movies, to how she obtained her stardom. Siren Queen is a fantasy but its a very soft magic system, which dream like qualities, and what I mean by that is the magic makes sense like how everything makes sense in a dream. There are blood deals made for contracts and supernatural creatures behind the scene but all of these vibes and aesthetic also come with a thematically rich story about a woman trying to keep her agency and do what she loves in a Hollywood full of literal monsters. I personally really enjoyed this story even though it took me longer than I expected for such a short work. Its just a very lush and vibrant experience where I just went with the flow and enjoyed the story I was told.

I am a huge fan of Nghi Vo's work, and Siren Queen is a stellar example of everything I love about her writing and her storytelling. The atmosphere she crafts of the 1920s Hollywood studio machine, the life of an immigrant family, and the general hopes and fears of the Roaring Twenties is immediate and engrossing. The magical realism only adds to the mix.

BY: JENNY HAMILTON
ISSUE: 4 JULY 2022

After blazing onto the SFF scene in 2020 with The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo has gone from strength to strength. An animating concern of all her work is the question of how to navigate power from its sidelines. The titular empress of Vo’s debut novella rises to her ruling position by making canny use of people and objects considered beneath the notice of the ruling class. In The Chosen and the Beautiful, Jordan Baker runs up against the limits of the belonging, and even the identity, afforded to her by the white, wealthy Daisys and Gatsbys of the world, including the woman she has known as her adoptive mother.

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/reviews/siren-queen-by-nghi-vo/

I couldn't finish this. I just wasn't into the story at all. I got the ARC months ago and gave up. I don't even remember what I read, or what made me put it down. Maybe the exploitative nature of that industry was something I couldn't stand reading at the time. Who knows.

Enter the glittering world of Old Hollywood, where the very fabric of stardom is rife with dark bargains and sacrifice. To those that dare attempt fame, they must navigate a complicated system, competing for the limelight, and inevitably paying the ultimate price. For Luli Wei, a young Chinese American coming of age in this tumultuous time and desperately seeking stardom, the dark truth to the movie industry is inconsequential. She is more than willing to offer up her soul for the chance to shine and burn, even if it means becoming someone else entirely. In a system where the studio heads have all the power, and blood and ancient ritual is second nature, to yield is to begin. The silver screen beckons her forth, and to succeed in an industry determined to push her to the sidelines she may have to take on the role of the monster itself.

Siren Queen is an alluring novel, laced with a ferocity that reverberates throughout every page. In typical fashion Nghi Vo creates a vivid picture, ingeniously depicting the glamorous world of Old Hollywood and its frightening underbelly. Through the eyes of a young woman looking back upon her journey to the limelight, this golden age of Hollywood is given new voice – one that dwells in the bottomless deep, luring you from the shore before dragging you down into its murky undertow. It's been awhile since I read a book that left me as epically stranded and desperate as this one and I’m sure I won't find anything like it again. Throughout the narrative, there is a luminosity that shines through even the darkest moments. Existing as a queer, Chinese American woman during the time of pre-code Hollywood is a poignant center for the entirety of Luli’s story. This landscape breeds a unique sort of desperation and a drive to break free from the predetermined roles set by these studios and the world at large. Luli Wei is such an incredible representation of that and a person willing to be flawed to get where she wanted. Knowing that Siren Queen was also giving a slice of Evelyn Hugo energy only led me further into the deep end of this novel. While I would have liked more with Luli and her future partner, there is a staggering beauty in this narrative being a kind of open letter penned to her past self and future relationships. For those looking for something in the vein of Evelyn Hugo, this is right up there thematically, but don't expect an exact comparison between the two. In her sophomore novel, Nghi Vo explores the realities of fame, what it means to pursue it on your own terms, and who you have to become in order to succeed. With razor-sharp teeth, Siren Queen shines like a beacon in the storm, bringing to light a truth far deadlier when realized.

SIREN QUEEN is such an interesting take on Hollywood. Incorporating real magic, monsters, and the big screen, Vo takes readers on a fantastical ride.

I was so captivated by this story and Vo’s writing throughout. I appreciated how Vo added fantasy and magic into the story, but also incorporated topics such as xenophobia, gender inequality, and LGBTQ characters. It all came together to form a unique story about the magic, and dangers, of Hollywood.

At times I did want more explanation about the magic and immortality mentioned throughout the book. Part of this was because I was so fascinated by the story itself that I kept wanting more. Overall though I really enjoyed SIREN QUEEN and the characters that Vo created.

I had really high hopes for this book. I was intrigued by the premise of an old Hollywood type story with a dark and vampiric twist. This book was a little too slow burn for me and I struggled to keep my attention. I would love to come back to this book for a reread as I think the premise and plot have a lot of promise.

I loved this book so much. It was such a unique and fascinating story, with beautiful writing and plenty of allure. I absolutely loved everything about this book, especially Luli herself. As an Asian American girl with a love of old hollywood, seeing Luli, a gay Asian American women navigate through old Hollwyood with the addition of monstors and magic was so cool. Luli was the kind of character that would do anything to get what she wants, and would fight to the bone to reach her dreams. Seeing how she was able to navigate through a very racist, mysogonist, and homophobic environment was amazing and very relevant to our current time. I loved the element of fantasy here, and it gave the story some more depth and mystery which I loved. I also really appreciated the Sapphic relationship depicted here, and it overall just had so much amazing representation. This was a five star read for me, and I can't wait to read Nghi Vo's other works!

An etherial and mysterious Fantasy seemingly inspired by Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American Hollywood movie star.
Rating: 4 stars
Genre(s): Fantasy/Magical Realism
Representation: Chinese-American, Sapphic
Content Warnings: Racism, Sexism, Sexual Assault (mentioned), Coercion

One thing I love about Nghi Vo's writing is the way she creates a sort-of dreamy yet mysterious atmosphere. This book has that quality layered onto the old hollywood setting. This book is described as Sci-Fi/Fantasy on Netgalley but I would also add Magical Realism. I was immediately captivated by Vo's writing and the Luli's story. Much of the book was uncanny. Especially Luli's father and her experiences with the filmmakers.

I was disappointed by the lack of development with the immortality part of the storyline. It was mentioned often throughout the book but I felt like it didn't really come to anything in the end.

Regardless, I enjoyed this book and think that folx who love enigmatic stories will, too.

Siren Queen is stunningly brilliant and I did not expect it to bowl me over in the way that it did. Set in an alternate Golden Age Hollywood, the novel literalizes the predatory practices of Hollywood studios at the time, especially toward women and marginalized groups with fae magic and monsters.

I've have yet to be dissapointed by Nghi Vo with previous books, so I went into this one with high expectations! Reading the synopsis and others reviews, I went into thinking this would be similiar to the ever so wonderful The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. While they are both movies actresses, the two books are incomparable. That being said, I didn;t hate it, but I was not a fan. Even thought the book is fairly short, it took a long time to get through it. I would still recommend this book.

This was such a great story! I loved everything about it! It kept the pages turning the whole time. I read it in a day so I absolutely couldn’t put it down!

“You better know who you are,” she said, “because you don’t look strong enough to be me.”

It took me a little bit to feel settled into the never-fully-explained fantasy elements, but once I did….wow. They made this Old Hollywood intrigue-and-romance story so special.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review (even though I’m only now getting around to reading it!).

In this historical fantasy, through grit, persistence, and a deal that shaves twenty years off her life, a star is born. Luli Wei's a Chinese-American lesbian in a time where much is stacked against her, but her talent and razor-sharp ambition take her onto the silver screen in the 1930s. She gains enemies and friends aplenty, connects with queer people and her own identity, loses touch with her family and gets in touch with her inner monster, and goes toe-to-toe with dangerous powers that be.

Jane also has multiple romantic arcs throughout her career, one that happens off-page in the future. It is visible in parenthetical asides as Luli tells her life story. These snippets of conversation with her beloved Jane act as a kind promise of something warm and affectionate in Luli's future. We know to expect fame is coming as she narrates her own rise, but the constant danger and lurking darkness cast a sickly pallor on the endeavor. Knowing she is headed towards happiness that is separate from her ambition gave me a thread of hope that stars and spotlights couldn't inspire. That it's sapphic is decadent icing on top. Platonic friendships inspire as much emotion. Luli's friendship with her roommate and confidante, Greta, is based in mutual loyalty in the face of great struggles. Her advocate and friend, Harry, gives Luli an idea of what success may look like as a queer person, learning of the bittersweet realities in a rare safe space.

While the relationships and Luli as a character had me deeply invested in this story, the fantasy elements were another matter. I found it hard to follow the world-building. I enjoy this style of fantasy where magic slips through the cracks of history, making something new and otherworldly that still retains the flavor and power structure of a duller reality. However, it added to my confusion when I couldn't tell if I was encountering a beautifully worded metaphor or an offhand remark about a magical fact of this world. Often, I concluded it was both, but the uncertainty was an itch I couldn't ignore. While it kept the story sleek and avoided a dreaded info dump, I didn't enjoy the confusion running through my tiny brain at regular intervals. A more literary-minded reader would enjoy this very aspect that was only baffling to me, I suspect. Also, some of my questions about terms were answered later in the story but not in a way that felt worth the wait.

If you like your fantasy with a literary quality, enjoy seeing queer characters find love and success that boost their whole community, and like to read about characters as messy as they are inspiring, this would be a great read for you. Thanks to Tordotcom for my copy to read and review!

After hearing about her work for a few years now, I decided to give Nghi Vo a try. SIREN QUEEN exceeded every expectation I had of her writing. One of my favorite hyper-specific genres is Asian Americans in pivotal US history moments (think: the Wild West, the Gold Rush, the Jazz Age, etc). I didn't realize I also needed a magical realist book about Asian Americans in the Golden Age of Hollywood, but here it is and I loved it.

Nghi Vo’s Siren Queen is a novel that is ultimately about the price of fame — a subject I could tell you all about. I’ve had a little taste of fame, mostly from my days as a freelance journalist and a music critic, and I can tell you one thing about fame: it’s for empty people and it’s not worth chasing after. The thing with fame, you see, is that once you’re on a pedestal, people will try their darndest to knock you off. I suppose that’s why fame is so fleeting and isn’t really lasting. If you don’t think that’s true, go to just about any teenager and ask them to name any of the Marx Brothers. Fame lasts until people die (and perhaps not even that long), and then things fall out of memory. You must be a Shakespeare or a Mozart to have a legacy — that is, you must be so brilliant that you become a household name even when the very thing that made you famous has long fallen out of favour. So, fame? You shouldn’t chase after it. Try to have a good life instead. There’s something to be said for having those that you love intimately around you, rather than millions of people who know you but don’t really know you. “I can’t pretend a stranger is a long-awaited friend,” indeed.

The thing is, in Siren Queen, the main protagonist chases after fame. Luli Wei is a Chinese American young girl living in Los Angeles during the transition from silent movies to Hollywood’s Golden Age of talkies when she’s discovered by a director on the street and he casts her as an extra on the spot. This leads to more roles and, eventually, Wei selling her soul of sorts to become a bona fide movie star. However, Siren Queen is no ordinary novel. It’s equal parts horror fiction meets magic realism, for the Hollywood that Vo paints is not your typical tinsel town. This is a land where mechanical wolves guard a studio’s gates, where magic gets doled out behind the scenes, and people of different ethnicities get a chance to become leading men and women — which was not the case in the true Hollywood of the 1930s. That’s what makes Siren Queen so majestic and marvellous. In many ways, it is a book unlike any others that you might have read because it vaults between genres with aplomb while keeping the straightest of faces.

And because this is a revisionist history of sorts, Siren Queen is stuffed to the gills with lesbian sex scenes. There’s an explicit one that comes about halfway through the read that may make readers wet with delight (even for us straight cis-gendered male readers). This is a novel that doesn’t play it straight at all, and there’s no pun really intended there (unless you want there to be one). That makes Siren Queen even more admirable. There’s so much going on with this novel that you might have to read it twice to really capture all the nuances. However, that all said, the book can be a bit confusing at times. For instance, at the start of the novel, Wei and her sister sneak off to go to the movies at the nearest nickelodeon. The problem is that they have no money to pay to see the films. The ticket taker at the entrance allows them in, so long as they give her an inch of their hair as payment. The significance of this was lost on me and didn’t make much sense. Was their hair somehow magical? The book never reveals this. Other things just go on unexplained, which can make Siren Queen baffling to read and experience at times.

As far as the experience goes, though, I found the first act of Siren Queen to be the best, as we watch young Wei make her mark in the pictures business. The rest of the novel, for all its inventiveness, doesn’t measure up. It’s the coming-of-age part of the story that’s the most fascinating. The rest I could take or leave, especially because Hollywood — even a completely overhauled and reimagined Hollywood — is all surface and no depth. (I suppose there are the Oscars if you’re looking for artistic merit, but they’re strangely absent from this read.) Still, readers with a keen sense of adventure will appreciate the ride and will keep flipping the pages to find out how all this ends. Siren Queen is not a bad read, and is at times terrific, but it’s not as great as it could have been. It needed a tad bit more world-building because it’s hard to plumb any significance to this without it. However, for what it does in terms of giving voice to actors of non-white descent and those whose sexuality belongs to the multi-coloured spectrum, Siren Queen is an important read and a genuinely engaging slice of genre-bending fiction. As for the price of fame, well, in its own way, Siren Queen does show what one has to pay if they want to leave the fame machine of their own volition. It doesn’t have so much to say about the world trying to pull you down — unless, of course, you count the directors and studio executives who want to keep a piece of your soul to be famous. In the end, I’m not sure what Siren Queen really means to say, but one thing is for certain: Nghi Vo is destined to become an important figure in the fantasy realm of fiction if she isn’t one already. With Siren Queen, even as it sometimes troubles the reader with its lack of explanations for strange happenings, Vo has earned something here, even if I cannot quite put a finger on what it might be.

DNF @ 20%. Cannot really follow where the story will go and can’t really connect with the MC. The writing style was also confusing for me.

Siren Queen was my first read from Nghi Vo and now I cannot wait to read her backlog. While mainly historical fiction, the nonsensical magical and fantastical moments really elevated the story of Luli – a Chinese American with dreams of being a movie star in Old Hollywood. It took me sometime to get my bearings in the story, but once I did, I was impressed with Vo’s prose and weaving Luli story with elements of monsters (real and imaginative), her friends, her enemies, and everyone in between.
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an unbiased review!