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

Nghi Vo is one of my favourite authors and this book only solidified that. It was very different from the Singing Hills Cycle-- the series that introduced me to Vo and will forever be my favourite-- but it was spectacular all the same. Siren Queen is definitely character driven, the plot being a bit slow to start, but I am a fan of character driven stories so it worked for me. Nghi Vo is a master at painting a vivid image, making a book feel like a movie in your mind. I felt like I was swept away to the dark Hollywood underbelly myself as I read about these characters. Siren Queen balances darkness and tenderness perfectly in a way that had me biting my fingernails and feeling comforted at the same time. I will definitely recommend this to anyone who likes Vo's work, fans of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and anyone looking for an excellent historical fantasy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy for review. I want to know more about the world in which this book is set and would devour a series if it was available. I personally prefer more fantasy and less romance in my reads but will recommend this book freely.. This book was beautifully written and deserves all of the accolades it has received.

If I could I would rate this 3.5. It was beautifully written and the world was fascinating, but it all felt like window dressing. I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did.

This one was long and rambling it could have definitely been shortened. I couldn’t really connect with the character I didn’t understand why she wanted to make it in Hollywood.

An interesting novel that tells us what a woman of Chinese descent must do in order to succeed in the world of entertainment in the United States.

I couldn't fully connect with the story even though each chapter told us interesting moments that had great weight. I just couldn't. I don't know if it was the way it was written, the characters, or that it wasn't the ideal time to read it.

I can't say it's a bad book, it's not at all because it tells us the harsh truth of what Hollywood is (and how many other things must be left behind) for an Asian woman. How much you have to fight to achieve your dreams if a person is a woman and even more if they are a woman and lesbian, and how much more if a person is a woman, lesbian and Asian. Sometimes you don't realize this, but it is a path full of sticks, stones and uphill.

That's why I think this story is interesting in that aspect.

Thank you Tor Publishing Group for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

thank you to netgalley for the advancing reading copy of Siren Queen. This was so good, mysterious and gripping.

This book just didn’t wow me like I hoped it would. It was a little too slow-paced for me. I had trouble getting into the story.

Siren Queen is Hollywood filled with actual monsters, not just men that act like them. It’s confusion in a swirl of smoke then fog then mist. For someone who reads quite a bit of weird and fantastical books, I was lost in the dark with this one. I didn’t know what the hell was happening and for about a third I didn’t really care. But, when things clicked into place and the clouds parted and these characters shone like stars come down? It was worth the effort. The end justified the means. I wish the world building was clearer and neater. It felt a lot like how I felt trying to read Wicked back in the day. But this time I persevered. I’m a Virgo—I don’t love being in a world I don’t know the rules and boundaries of. This felt messy.

Sometimes, the writing felt beautifully gorgeously done and I was rapt. Other times I was bored to tears and didn’t know why I was hanging in there. Most of it was somewhere in the middle.

Siren Queen is about a Chinese American girl that will do anything to experience the magic of the movies and become a star. And in this Hollywood, that’s like selling your soul to the devil, or worse. Along the way she falls in love with another actress and that threatens both their dreams. Sadly, the industry in this version is no more tolerant than our own. Lots of interesting parallels and ways of making movies feel truly magical.

I’m really torn on how I feel about this one. I think I like the idea of it more than the execution. But I’m definitely glad I read it, and I think it will stick with me.

Extremely readable, easy to follow, easy three stars and four to five for the right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC.

Siren Queen reimagines the golden age of Hollywood as one full of dark and dangerous magic. The studio heads and other men in positions of power are literal monsters, exploiting the dreams of the desperate. They trade in literal souls, having already sacrificed their own for more and more power.

Nghi Vo introduces this magic system early on; however, like in her previous work, The Chosen and the Beautiful, she doesn’t fully explain everything. In fact, both books may take place in the same world, with similar small details shining through. Vo’s signature worldbuilding style combines a familiar setting with cruel, dark magic, giving every event and interaction a mesmerizing but disconcerting haze.

As for Luli herself, she’s a tough, cold-hearted heroine; she’s resourceful, smart and more than a little ruthless. Vo tells her story with Luli looking back on her life and career, narrating from the future. She’s jaded by the trials of being a queer, Chinese-American woman. Many of her choices for fame are shocking, but Luli recounts them with a fascinating level of detachment. Luli is one of those characters readers want to root for despite the fact that she’s not necessarily a good person.

Before she reinvents herself, Luli is the child of immigrants, helping at their laundry and sneaking away to the cinema. Without money for tickets, admission costs her an inch of hair for each film she sees. When she signs with a studio, the executives own her and control everything from her name to her face to her love life. Luli meets a former actress languishing in a nursing home, her feet the price for her fame. One of the girls she lives with at the studio was even stolen from her home due to her strange, wild beauty. The #MeToo metaphors and nods to our present are unsubtle but still compelling, and it’s satisfying to see Luli go head to head with the powerful men around her.

Once again, Vo creates an entire world full of incredible and unique characters in such a small number of pages. If you enjoy stories of dark bargains and ruthless heroines, Siren Queen is perfect for you.

I heard fantastic things about this novel, and thus was very intrigued to pick it up. I found the narrative difficult to get into at first despite appreciating the writing. Towards the later part of the book I was very interested to see where Vo would lead us. I loved the queer elements of this and the discussions around monsters. I would love to see a mini series based on this book because it would translate so well to a visual medium.

“What else are we doing here but looking for our little bit of forever? Otherwise, what’s the point?”

SIREN QUEEN is a luminous, deliciously monstrous book about a young, queer Chinese-American woman seeking stardom in a pre-code 1930s Hollywood laced with magic. And it’s as utterly amazing as it sounds! Think the hidden queer Hollywood aspect of THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO, the exploration of Chinese-American identity and queer history in LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB, and the raw ambition and delicate fantasy elements of SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN, all written with Vo’s signature, captivating style.

I absolutely love the world Vo has created here: it’s rooted in historical reality, with period-typical film styles, infamous personalities, and rampant prejudices, while also enriched with magic throughout. Names are imbued with power, young girls can be turned into changlings, contracts hold more than just legal force, cameras can leech pigment from human skin, women can have tails, and once you become famous, your actual star can rise into the sky. The world-building is both subtle and dramatic, dropped throughout the story in ways consequential and not, creating incredible vibes without getting held up in explanations. Paired with Vo’s beautiful, engrossing language and certain tropes that lend a fairytale-like quality, it’s the kind of story that’s a delight to give yourself over to.

What really sold me on this book, though, is the main character. Luli Wei has a fierce, burning drive to achieve stardom, to break out of the place assigned to her in life at her parents’ laundry in Hungarian Hill and not just act, but play the kinds of roles she wants to play - in her own words, “No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers.” She’s brash and smart, figuring out how to navigate Hollywood with her wits, talent, and beauty, the relationships she builds and the men she manipulates, and sheer determination. Her story illuminates what it’s like for a queer Asian American woman in an industry that is dominated by straight white men.

Vo also shows us how secrets were passed between those on the fringes of Hollywood, everything from which men to avoid and where to get an illegal abortion, to how to trade years of your life for fame and save your love from a sacrificial hunt. This story has a nuanced portrayal of how oppressive structures create and exacerbate tensions between marginalized people operating within those spaces, with discrimination and tokenism leading to manufactured competition and fear fostering policing of expression. The queer representation is fantastic - Luli is a lesbian (though she doesn’t use that word) and has multiple relationships with other queer women and friendships with queer men. I really enjoyed the romance subplots (it’s actually quite steamy in parts!) and this window into the hidden queer culture of the era. And I loved, loved the reclaiming of what is seen as monstrous.

Vo is one of my favorite authors and this book is a definite standout for me. Thanks to Tordotcom and Macmillan Audio for the review copies! The audiobook narrator is Natalie Naudus and she, as usual, does a fantastic job.

Content warnings: sexual harassment, racism/xenophobia, homophobia, violence, animal attack, suicidal ideation, fires

I received this novel as an E-ARC via NetGalley. I’ve read Nghi Vo’s short stories, but this is the first longer work of hers I’ve read.

This novel blew me away. The plot is straightforward: Luli Wei enters a version of the early Hollywood studio system, and becomes a film star. The system that she enters, however, is explicitly, overtly monstrous. This novel is about how we survive and find some happiness or satisfaction in monstrous systems. Elegantly crafted prose and emotionally truthful moments on Luli’s journey make this an absolutely breathtaking novel about finding your way in a system that is literally designed to chew you up and spit you out, if it even lets you enter in the first place.

Highly, highly recommended.

I loved this one - the old Hollywood setting, the unsettling vibes of the fantasy elements, the relationships and how Luli’s decisions shape the lives around her. This isn’t a book for people who need certainty in their fictional worlds; it’s being told by a Luli in the far future, with many references to events that won’t happen in the book and characters we won’t meet. For me this just added to the biographic feeling and the world building; there is more to this story and this word than the glimpse we get to see.

What a ride! I read the first twi novellas of the Singing Hill Cycle and after Siren Queen I can confirm that Nghi Vo is now one of my favorite authors!

This short book is full of magic, mystery and intersectional feminism - and I love it. It is great how Nghi Vo is able to tell a story of a young chinese-american girl that falls in love with movie and becomes a star herself, but has to maneuver a world of opaque tricks, courtesies and bargains. We never now excactly if Luli Wei has a boon of her own but we follow her on a route of difficult decisions.

It is awesome how small details like the telling of her sisters name makes a huge impact on the lives of her family and herself. How she manifests roles and scenes and is as an seemingly outsider on her own. But she is able to find allies and stands up for them even if it means possible disadvantages for herself. I really liked how Nghi Vo used different styles of magic and myths to create a Hollywood that feels familiar and strange at the same moment.

What I liked most is the unapologetic queerness of the book. Even in the face of monsters Luli is not willing to give up herself for some story of convenient love for Oberlin Wolfes studio to become even richer. She knows what she wants and tries everything to achieve it. I really liked how at the end there is a bow to her first entry of the studios and how dense the writing is because a lot of details from the beginning of the story gets picked up again and nothing is missed.

The only thing that I didn't like is that it felt a little bit slow in the middle of the books. But I guess on a reread with my own copy I won't feel that way because I will read it again when it is *not* way to hot outside! :D

I. Loved. This. Book! I didn't really have any idea of what to expect when I started it, but I've heard lots of good things about Nghi Vo, so I was excited to give it a try! I thought the way that fantasy elements were included in this historic old Hollywood setting was incredibly well done and just the right amount of sinister. I thought the writing was spectacular and very atmospheric and I LOVED the protagonist (I like them a little rough around the edges).

3.5 stars
While the writing was well done and the setting quite atmospheric, I’m not sure the story itself was for me. It’s a well done magical realism story set in early Hollywood. I guess I was hoping for a bit more suspense and horror. I did enjoy reading it, and again the writing was wonderful, it’s just not my particular cup of tea.

Siren queen is a brilliant book based on a Chinese-American girl who becomes the only one to break into Hollywood in the 1930s.
Vo turns the tables on the monsters in Hollywood and brings the story around to real monsters and the horrors that they bring.
It is worth it to become such a monster herself to become successful?

Well written, brilliant characters and plot, this book is a must read