This was just okay. I just wanted more. I wanted more depth in the atmosphere, I didn’t get the Hollywood noir vibes I was hoping for. The sisters themselves were well written but I couldn’t seem to connect with them. The one bright spot was the mystery was fun to follow and kept me interested. Overall an average book, but it was a quick, easy read.

A YA historical fiction murder mystery by @staceyleeauthor that kept me riveted throughout.
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Hollywood, 1932. Lulu Wong, star of the silver screen with roots in Chinatown, grew up with the Chow sisters—May and Gemma. When they find her body in the stables one morning, they know it’s murder. The police aren’t convinced since the victim is a Chinese actress so the girls decide to take the case into their own hands. The more they investigate, however, the closer they seem to get to the killer who doesn’t want them digging.
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I love that Lee can take important issues set in our nation’s past and make them interesting stories that keep me engaged. I find that’s my struggle with the genre of historical fiction. A lot of times it feels like fact dumping, but this book has me turning pages quickly. It’s my favorite of hers so far!

CW: death, murder, illness, racism, hate crime, misogyny, gun violence, injury, blood, smoking, grief, pregnancy, sexism, xenophobia, cultural appropriation

4.25 pacing seemed slow in some places

“‘You think keeping us safe means walking inside the lines. But I have news for you. The lines aren’t keeping us safe. They're keeping us locked up.’”


Kill Her Twice is a murder mystery set in Los Angeles circa 1930s. It’s not a book you pick up just for the mystery, but it has a unique offering of mystery, Chinese culture and their struggles in America, family dynamics, and an Old Time Hollywood setting.

These things converge in an enjoyable, albeit a little slow, read that gives a lot of avenues for discussion.



The basic premise is this:

A rising Hollywood star, Lulu Wong, is found dead in the horse stables of Chinatown. Cause of death is unknown but many signs point to murder.

“Lulu had been the pride of Chinatown. And now she was its deepest sorrow.”

Chinatown is on the verge of being dozed for a new rail station and this kind of publicity is sure to turn the tides further out of their favor.

“A whole world of sights, smells, and sounds would vanish, and who would miss us? No one. They’d just be glad to see us go.”

Sisters May and Gemma, afraid the police won’t do the work to find the truth because of social perception of Chinese Americans, decide to take the investigation into their own hands to find justice for their friend and clear Chinatown of this stain on their name.

“Lulu’s wealth and fame would give the investigation a push. But for how long and how far? In the end, she was just a dead Chinese woman, without even a father to speak for her. Would she matter enough?”



A big part of the story is the family dynamics of the Wong family. The story is told in alternating POVs of May (the oldest sister) and Gemma (the middle sister), but there is also a third sister, Peony, and another baby on the way.

The sisters’ bond reminded me a little bit of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. They still have both parents but because their dad is at a sanatorium, the home is currently a one-parent home, causing the sisters to be bonded in a close way and to be picking up extra responsibilities for their family and taking care of their mom.

There is a decent amount of character development with May and Gemma. They both have the stereotypical personalities of a first born and a middle child. May is the responsible, sensible, rule-follower and people-pleaser. Gemma is the outspoken, bold do-what-you-gotta-do-even-if-it-breaks-some-rules action-taker: “Life gave us plenty of opportunities to be afraid, and an equal number of chances to punch those fears in the nose.”

“If the family was a dragon, Ba was the head, providing direction; Ma, the body, connecting all the parts; and May, the wings, helping us fly the course. I was the tail. Though the wings thought they were in control, it was really the tail that steered. The tail was also capable of striking on its own.”

In their attempt to find Lulu’s killer they need both personalities to navigate this dangerous unknown territory, still occupied by the killer. But they also learn from their mistakes and channel the other sister’s tendencies at various times to pursue justice.

I liked the family bond and that even though their dad was away, he was still leading their family and his family still loved and respected him, wanting to honor him and help take care of their family.



If you’re wondering why the title is ‘Kill Her Twice’ here is a quote from the book:

“It was bad enough that someone had killed her… A second death would come in the form of scandal, her twisted body held up for viewing like some circus sideshow, her fame recast as a cautionary tale. They would kill her twice.”

Another theme in the book is the exploration of the perception of the Chinese people during this time in the United States, particularly LA and Chinatown and Hollywood.

Her second death was the perpetuation of the negativity surrounding Chinese Americans and prejudice against their culture.

In the 1840s, the Chinese immigrants came to the US— the first Asian immigrants. They took on a lot of labor jobs, including helping build the transcontinental railroad. Perception of them in America turned negative and many laws were created out of that prejudice making life in America more challenging for them.

The 1930s was actually a turning point for the Chinese in a lot of areas of the US as they made considerable effort to become more involved in politics and wanting to vote and pushing for change.

Lee says Lulu’s character is loosely inspired by Anna Mae Wong (1905-1961): “considered the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star, whose career, spanning forty years in silent film, talkies, radio, stage, and television, had been largely unrecognized until recently.”

We know the influence Hollywood has on shaping cultural perception of any number of topics, ideas, and people for better or worse. Their portrayal of Chinese Americans in the 30s was usually negative. They were the villains, the cheats, the thieves, and Hollywood played up the Chinese stereotypes. Often white people played Asian characters and taped their eyes to be slanted. This portrayal is mentioned in Kill Her Twice.

Lulu’s fame came on the villainous roles she took, but what might have played into her murder was her newest film in which she would be the heroine and pushed for scenes and dialogue that was generally outlawed.

Just as Hollywood can shape perception negatively, it can shift and shine a positive light and Lulu was striking out, trying to show America the values, principles, and skills of the Chinese people from the stage.



I learned a lot about the Chinese culture and about the struggles they faced during that time period. It is not something I have read much about so I enjoyed the insights into that.


I will say that this story took place during the Great Depression, but I didn’t really get any sense of that while reading. There was some talk of needing to make money, but it was very different vibe than what I’ve read with other Great Depression era stories.

I don’t know enough about the Great Depression to know if Hollywood was hit differently than other parts of the country.

It seems weird that people were still able to buy flowers during this time or host big parties— even for the wealthy. Weren’t they experiencing financial strain as well?

I’m also not sure how the Wong family was able to afford to send their dad to a sanatorium for so long! I don’t know how those things work or what it costs, but it seems like a big expense and not one that would be waived for Chinese people at that time.

I suppose Lee was more trying to focus on the Chinese American struggle rather than the Great Depression struggle, but it would have been interesting to see more interaction between both with that of the Chinese community and the Hollywood elite.



I have not read any other Stacey Lee books, but I would look into them after reading this one. It was written more for YA, which was fine because that meant it was a cleaner read.

I thought it was a bit too slow-going. It seemed like it took forever to develop clues and lines of investigating. We didn’t really make much significant progress until about the last 20% of the book and then all of a sudden things came together and it was solved pretty abruptly.

I didn’t guess who the killer was because Lee did a good job of creating suspicious characters and red herrings along the way. However, the downside of that is that it didn’t really feel like a case that the reader really could have figured out very early because we got so few clues and even the ones we did get we weren’t sure of their significance.

I think it would have been better with a more aggressive handling of the investigation throughout the story. But that’s me who tends to read stories more for the thrills and mysteries than the other aspects.



Because of the abrupt ending and quick wrap-up, I feel like there were several things that didn’t really get resolved!

Like: what about the script-stealing and the ‘You’re next!’ that was written on May’s script? Did we ever really find out who did those things and why?

Or Lulu’s Cadillac? We know who got ownership of it, but it seemed a bit shady and we never really found out if that was proper or not.

And then several reviewers have lamented the lack of romantic resolution at the end as well. I can see their disappointment. The romance areas of the book fleshed out the character development a little bit and provided new avenues to take the plot, but it felt like that thread of story fizzled out a bit by the end and didn’t give us much to go on.



Recommendation:

If you only like to read stories for the mystery or the thrill of it, this book may be a little disappointing or slow for you.

But if you enjoy the historical fiction aspect of the book and diving into new cultures, the combination of themes provided in this book is a nice mix for a reader who doesn’t need constant action.

There were a few things I would change with the pacing and the ending, but overall I enjoyed this book and would be interested in reading more from Stacey Lee.


[Content Advisory: no swearing or sexual content]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

The novel excels in creating an atmospheric depiction of 1930s Los Angeles, highlighting the tension between the burgeoning film industry and the marginalized communities. The Chow sisters' determination to seek justice for Lulu, despite the significant risks, is portrayed with nuance and emotional depth. Each sister brings her unique strengths to the investigation, making their dynamics engaging and relatable.

This is a new author for me, but she has four previous books out, one of them a New York Times bestseller, so I gave it a shot. It’s a Young Adult novel, and also a murder mystery, and also a historical -- a combination of genres that can be difficult to pull off. I’ve lived all up and down California in my earlier life, and I’m also a history major, and I read a lot of mystery yarns, so I really wanted to like this one. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work well, at least not for me.

The Chow sisters, May, Gemma, and Peony, together with their very pregnant mother, are struggling had to get by in their small walk-up apartment. Their father has gone off to a sanitarium in the desert with tuberculosis, and the two older sisters have quit school to try to help bring in some money by selling flowers, but they’re not succeeding very well. Mom is very much “old country” in her attitudes, which also makes things even more difficult for her daughters -- especially May, for whom a young, respectable suitor is being lined up -- a newly graduated entomologist, so at least he will be able to support her. And May sighs dutifully.

The sister are former classmates and neighbors in Chinatown of Lulu Wong, newly famous movie star and the pride of the city’s Chinese population, and the sisters discover Lulu’s body one morning in an out of the way stable a long way from her fancy new home in Beverly Hills. It’s clearly a murder, but the police just shrug it off. The victim is only Chinese, after all, regardless of her fame. In addition to that, the powerful Anglos who control the LA city council are planning to tear down all of Chinatown and build the new Union Station in its place -- they want to “clean up” the non-white areas of the city -- and they’re now presenting the killing to the public as further evidence of what a vicious and barbaric bunch the Chinese are. (All of that is historically accurate, of course.) So the sisters decide they will have to solve the murder themselves, and off they go.

So that’s the setup, . . . but I had to struggle to get that far, only a quarter of the way into the narrative. The author has a tendency to overwrite, very dramatically, in describing out all the nasty ways Asians were treated only a couple of generations ago. Yes, widespread racism and injustice was very much the case in California then, and yes, it ll needs to be talked about, especially for the benefit of younger readers, who will tend to see the 1930s as ancient history. But Lee could have been a lot more subtle about it and not not made -- and re-made -- her points so very hard. She also does things like calling the girls by both their English and their Mandarin names, switching from to the other depending on who’s speaking, which I found very confusing in the earlier chapters. I put the book aside for a while, thinking I’d come back to it after a few weeks of reading something else -- sometimes yo just have to be in the right frame of mind for a particular book -- but that really didn’t help. So I finally gave it up. I did it regretfully because It has now been published and a number of strongly positive reviews have appeared, so maybe it’s just me. Too bad, but it happens.

**Thank you so much Penguin Group/Penguin Young Readers Group and Stacey Lee for the arc! All words and thoughts in this review are my own honest opinion!**
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph
Posted on: 11 May 2024

3.4 (rounded down to 3) out of 5 stars.

Kind of struggling to write this review because I’m still on the fence of how I feel about this. I loved the theme, the plot, and the setting so so so much. The writing was a little lacking in some areas for me though. I didn’t feel as drawn towards the characters throughout the whole time I read, just during some scenes/parts. I think that if there was a little more depth to them, I’d have found ways to love them each a little more? They were just.. flat, with very redeeming qualities! Each of them, especially how May has her bits of growth or Gemma too! I also feel like Peony was kind of cast out too much? There was a bit of a struggle, it seemed, in deciding how important the little sister’s role would be in this too- or that’s what I felt anyways as I read.
What I liked was their cunning though. The sisters are given chances to grow, to see how they sway with the way the world is changing around them. There’s a certain kind of heart to be found in reading along, waiting to see how the mystery unfolds and just what might happen to our protagonists. I feel like that was the redeeming factor for me? Just the desire to see how the Chow Sisters will move next, how they’ll decide what’s best to do when it feels like things are wholly against them.

All of this back and forth to say that it was still an enjoyable read! I absolutely loved the era we are thrown in to, the challenges that the characters are battling, and the things they do for justice. In the heart of it all, it’s about friendship, it’s about family, and it’s about three sister clouds fighting against the perils thrown their way so they can stay together.

The murder of rising star Lulu Wong breaks hearts in Chinatown, but the rest of the world seems content to blame it on the wrong man. The Chow sisters, Gemma and May are determined to get justice for Lulu and try to save Chinatown from the railroad takeover. But can two Chinese girls really make a difference?
I liked the mystery of this book and the time period. It shed light on a prejudice against Asian Americans that I was not overly familiar with. The Chinese people being forced out of Chinatown by the railroad did not even have the right to vote. The sisters are very resourceful and though they have unique personalities, it was sometimes hard to remember which POV the chapter was from without looking back. I would recommend this book to teens with an interest in mystery and historical fiction.

I loved the setting for this book - 1930's Hollywood and Chinatown. I always love a good historical fiction mystery.

I really liked the dynamic between Gemma and May. It felt very authentic and real, their love for each other and their sisterly bickering. Little sister Peony was a great character as well, and I enjoyed how the two tried to keep her included in their investigation.

There were a few nice surprises and twists with the mystery of actress LuLu Wong's death. I thought the pace of the book was very good, and it kept me engaged throughout.

This is so atmospheric. I loved the descriptions of Chinatown, and just living there in this time period. I also enjoyed the sisters and their relationships with each other, it felt really realistic!

I’m a fan of Stacey Lee (The Downstairs Girl). Add her flair for historical fiction and a murder mystery noir, and you’ve got a recipe for an enticing read.

Kill Her Twice revolves around May and Gemma, Chinese sisters who are trying to keep the family floral business afloat while their father is sick. The two are as close as can be, but their different temperaments make for some conflict. The story unfolds from their alternating points of view.

Set against the backdrop of anti-Chinese sentiment and the move to get rid of Los Angeles’ Old Chinatown, Kill Her Twice is more than just a who-done-it. Competing interests mean the only people actively trying to solve Lulu’s murder are May and Gemma.

With lots of great banter, sticky situations and suspenseful twists, Kill Her Twice almost plays out like a film itself. At nearly 400 pages, the book reads a lot faster. That’s all down to Lee’s smooth writing and excellent pacing. Lee transports you to another place and time — one where you don’t want to leave.

Welcome to Chinatown in LA in 1932. It's rough being Chinese at a time when discrimination is high and life is tough. But May and Gemma are hardworking sisters helping their pregnant mother while their father is ill and recovering. One day, their good friend, Lulu, is discovered murdered and May and Gemma are frustrated at how little attention the case is getting. Lulu was an up and coming Hollywood Star. Who would want her dead? When the murder is pinned on an innocent Chinese man, the sisters set out to bring justice to Lulu and find the real killer.

I knew this was a historical fiction and I liked that aspect of the novel. I found the story a little slow to get into. The last third of the novel was when the pace picked up. Full disclosure: this is a YA novel and reads like a YA novel which might be why I found the characters a little naive and their ability to unexpectedly get a job on a movie set or sneak into a high class party a little unrealistic.

I ended up getting a copy of this so didn't download but read the physical copy instead. If you are looking for an historical YA mystery this author is the way to go. I've loved her other books so I knew i had to read this one. I enjoyed it very much and think others would as well!

Hard enough when you’re Chinese and a girl – let alone when you live in Chinatown in Los Angeles, 1932 and the majority of the city wants to demolish it. The Chow sisters—May, Gemma, and Peony—try their hardest to keep their father’s small business afloat and make ends meet. Then their friend, Lulu Wong, who made it as an actress and got out, is murdered. Worried Lulu won’t get justice and with Chinatown now at a higher risk of getting demolished, the girls set forth to investigate her murder themselves.

I liked the characters a lot though it took me a while to get into the book. May could be a bit trying but I understood her reasons for doing what she did and not going along with Gemma’s harebrained ideas. Gemma was a hoot, despite her recklessness or maybe because of her recklessness.

I enjoy Stacey Lee’s writing style a lot and the only reason for the 3 stars is I seem to have lost interest in the mystery genre and I get tired of too many red herrings. That said, the ending was a good one and that final plot twist was pretty clever.

This is another one that was lost to me because it was wrongly pitched smh This cover is gorgeous and because it was pitched to me as a thriller I just KNEW I was going to love this. A thriller set in the 30’s? If you know me, you know I’m not a huge historical fan. I try to read historicals that have another genre I’m a fan of included to make it a little better for me. Too bad this one wasn’t exactly pitched correctly.

Ok so I was told this was going to be a thriller, but there was nothing thrilling that happened. It was just a mystery. And normally this wouldn’t matter at all to me. I would usually love a mystery. But when I’m looking for a thriller and then nothing thrilling happens, it really makes me want to DNF it. But I will say, the fact that I didn’t shows just how entertaining it was.

Like I said, I’m not a fan of historicals, but when I do read them, I always get so invested in learning everything I can about the person or event its about. In this one I learned so much about the movie scene and it shined a new light on the way Chinese people were treated in the movie scene. And the murder weapon?! I wish I could say what it was, because that was pretty cool. Literally only something that I would think about being in the movies. And the Author’s Note says the movie star in this one is loosely inspired by a real life Chinese movie star Anna May Wong.

The mysetery half was also frustrating. Unfortunately I resonated with parts of this too. The police didn’t want to help figure out who did it because they felt it was just another person from Chinatown that was gone. (Basically how they treat Black people.) Them trying to figure it out was really cool tho. Being a woman and being a person of color during that time and still being able to figure out what happened to Lulu was pretty amazing. I do wish they had less connections, just that they looked alike. Idk, that would have seemed more thrilling to me lol

I listened to the audio version of this and it was full cast. (Two different narrators for the two different POVs in the story.) I thought they did a phenomenal job. They had two different voices and they hit all the right inflections and they had all types of emotion, especially when they were trying to one up the cops when they were doing things they weren’t supposed to lol I thought they did a really great job.

This book was good, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. Had I been told to expect that this was just a historical mystery, I think I would have enjoyed it more. But because I heard it was a historical thriller I spent the whole book waiting for it to get thrilling and the killed the whole vibe for me. Although some things were exciting for me, I couldn’t get over that part.

Kill Her Twice was a compelling and cultural read surrounding two sisters who discover a girl they know has been murdered and will stop at nothing to find her killer. I really enjoyed the descriptions and how cultural this story was and how the imagery just puts the reader in the world that May and Gemma lived in. It has the 1930's vibes with a bit of an L.A. Confidential feel to it. May and Gemma's determination to save Chinatown and solve their friend Lulu's murder was captivating and it was interesting to see the story unfold through the dual point of views.

A compelling Murder mystery set in the thirties about two sisters who must work together the murder of their friend.

Lulu wasn’t just any girl, she was a star in the making, she was trying to make a difference in Chinatown before she was murdered.

I loved the the duo pov of this story, and how we got to know each sister well.

There was a bit of Romance but it was more background, but still sweet. It was mainly about the sisters and trying to find out what happened to their friend.

In going on this journey they find out a little more about themselves and what they want.

I honestly thought the murder was brilliant and really took me for surprise.
I thought the way it was handled was really good.

Thank you for approving this Arc NetGalley and the publishers.

This was such a good read! All the magic and glamour of the 1930's while shining a light on the strength of those lesser known in Chinatown. So beautiful!

3.75/5.00

In this novel, we follow two sisters, May & Gemma Chow, as they try to solve their friend’s murder in 1930’s Hollywood. I didn’t grow up with sisters, but the banter between these two is something I wish I had when I was younger.

This was a great blend of historical fiction & mystery, even though historical fiction isn’t a genre I’m typically drawn to.

The mystery in this story kept going until the end, but my favorite part was getting to see how the family and community supported each other. I think a smaller cast of characters to focus on would have streamlined the plot more, but overall, I enjoyed this!

Thanks to PRH and NetGalley for the eARC.

This was my first book by Stacey Lee and I am definitely glad that I requested a copy. There’s just something alluring about Hollywood in general but old Hollywood? Sold.

I loved the extreme underdog main characters May and Gemma Chow. Their devotion to their family, culture and community is something that we see less and less of these days it seems. The three “clouds” as their ba endearingly calls them complemented each other quite well once they all started working together instead of just winging it. Surprisingly, I wanted just a little bit more from the romance aspects and I adored “bug boy” – it was comical to see them reconcile each other after so many years. I thoroughly enjoyed the vivid depiction of depression era Hollywood and Chinatown and it was also fun reading about actual actors from that time even if the interactions were obviously fictional.

How many petals can a flower lose before it stops being a flower? Before everything withers away and only the memory remains?

I do feel like the pacing of the book was a little bit slow but it made sense in a way. The girls were operating with huge disadvantages the entirety of the book but their sheer grit and willingness to see this through for one of their own is the only reason why the person responsible was found at all. The identity of Lulu’s killer was quite the twist, I didn’t figure that one out before the reveal.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the opportunity to read this gem of a tale – all opinions are my own. Rounded from 4.5 stars.

I’m so happy to have been given this book to read especially perfect for aapi heritage month. I really enjoyed this beautifully written historical mystery set in 1930 in Chinatown, please watch my full review on Instagram @ariandher.books