Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜
Title: Siren Queen
Author: Nghi Vo
Genre: Fantasy / Magical Realism
Setting: Hollywood, CA, USA
Month Read: May 2022
Book Type: Hardcover
Publication: 2022
Publisher: Tor
Pages:280
*Book of the Month Selection
TRIGGER WARNING-
Sexual Content / Violence / Murder / Homo-Lesbophobia / Alcohol / Racism
"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."
No Spoiler Summary (Goodreads):
“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.
Review:
I'm not sure I've ever read a book quite like this, and I'm honestly not sure (days later) if I liked it or not. I'm leaning towards liking it, but I was not prepared for how weird it was going to be, or how confused I was going to end up. I think the thing I liked least was how rushed it felt, and how thrown together and unfinished the ending felt to me. (I'd LOVE to hear someone else's thoughts on this!)
I loved the characters, and I think they were really well written, and you got everyone's modus operandi, and a good sense for what they wanted. I loved that our main character is a lesbian! I love that she had multiple love interests throughout the novel. I love that this happened during a time where it shouldn't have been happening, and with leading ladies from multi-million dollar films. It gave me Evelyn Hugo vibes, and that's a super high compliment.
Pacing, Pacing, Pacing. You are constantly (after maybe the first third of the novel) being thrown around and I found it hard to get my bearings, and know where I was, when I was there, and what was going on. I think the world-building with the magic could have been done better, and maybe been explained more. I still don't know how people got their powers. I kept checking to see if I missed something and I don't think I did. The ending also just sort of... ends, but also tries to throw in a bow tie ending? It was really forced and I had spent this book thinking we'd be leading up to a sequel- but I don't think we're getting one after the actual ending.
What do you think about Siren Queen?
Recommendation:
I'm honestly not sure I've read anything quite like this- but here are a few books that I think fit how I felt reading it.
Books Set In or Around Hollywood:
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
How to Fake it in Hollywood by Ava Wilder
Stranger than Fiction by Chris Colpher
This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith (YA)
Books with Magic:
The Caraval Series by Stephanie Garber (YA)
The Once Upon a Broken Heart Series by Stephanie Garber (YA)
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Lore by Alexandra Bracken (YA)
"I'm curious, though, and my father said that if I could be curious instead of afraid, things would probably work out some kind of right."