Siren Queen
By
Nghi Vo
2022 • 288 pages
Ratings24
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings24
Average rating3.6
From award-winning author Nghi Vo comes a dazzling new novel where immortality is just a casting call away An Indie Next Pick! A LibraryReads Top Ten Pick! A Best of May Pick by Amazon | Apple Books | B&N Booksellers | LibraryReads | TIME Magazine | The Philadelphia Inquirer | Publishers Weekly | Buzzfeed | Chicago Review of Books | LitHub | BookRiot | Paste Magazine | Bookish | The Mary Sue A Most Anticipated in 2022 Pick for The Washington Post | Polygon | PopSugar | Bustle | Ms Magazine | Autostraddle It was magic. In every world, it was a kind of magic. “No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers.” Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, she knows how dangerous the movie business is and how limited the roles are for a Chinese American girl from Hungarian Hill—but she doesn't care. She’d rather play a monster than a maid. But in Luli's world, the worst monsters in Hollywood are not the ones on screen. The studios want to own everything from her face to her name to the women she loves, and they run on a system of bargains made in blood and ancient magic, powered by the endless sacrifice of unlucky starlets like her. For those who do survive to earn their fame, success comes with a steep price. Luli is willing to do whatever it takes—even if that means becoming the monster herself. Siren Queen offers up an enthralling exploration of an outsider achieving stardom on her own terms, in a fantastical Hollywood where the monsters are real and the magic of the silver screen illuminates every page. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Reviews with the most likes.
Gorgeous.
I really love this haunting and dark kind of magic. Especially when delivered in Nghi Vo's prose.
This was perfectly fine, I suppose. But nothing really stood out to me. A “meh.”
Luli Wei was overlooked by the masses until she made it impossible to look away. After striking a brutal bargain to achieve her dreams, Wei finds her home on the silver screen. What follows is a mesmerizing (and hair-raising) coming of age tale about Luli's rise into the spotlight.
Nghi Vo's Old Hollywood is painted with a dreamlike brush. There's a phantasmagoric haze over every event and every interaction. It's mesmerizing and disturbing in equal measure. And, as impressed as I was with the tone and prose – I struggled to stay invested in Luli's story as I found it a bit overstuffed and all over the place. Others will surely love this, but it was not quite my cup of tea when all was said and done.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
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