Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
“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.
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This book has an excellent premise. Old Hollywood AND ancient, dark magic? Sign. Me. Up. This book was enthralling and I can certainly see why this author comes so highly recommended. Her writing style is enchanting and she definitely knows how to weave a tale. I really enjoyed the first hand POV of the trials and tribulations of old Hollywood especially for women…. especially for women who weren’t white. I don’t like comparing this book to Evelyn Hugo as it couldn’t be more different so please, look past the few era similarities and judge this book for it’s own work of art. Luli’s story and her tenacity made me love her as a character. Vo’s ambiguous fantasy world, however, had me knocking my head against the steering wheel a few times during my audiobook listen. The story was great, the characterization was great, yet there were just some parts of this novel I had trouble keeping up with due to the ambiguity of it all. I’m a person who needs extremely intricate fantasy worlds if fantasy is to be involved so this may not have been the exact right fit for me, but I enjoyed the story all the same.
We start off with Luli and her sister when they are young girls and see the world, and Hollywood, through the naive eyes of children. You begin to connect the dots early on that the glitz and glam isn’t all that it seems and you see small snippets of the struggles of that era. As Luli get’s older, the picture comes more into focus. It reminded me almost of a black and white movie slowly transitioning into colour. Luli is a child star, and becomes a young woman on the Hollywood scene long before she is emotionally or mentally prepared for that kind of attention. Things she had seen as a child and brushed off she now realizes directly affect her. The only way to rectify this is to gain all the power and she will give anything to have it all. So she starts making deals. I found it extremely upsetting how cavalier people were in this book with dealing away bits of their life yet in retrospect, if you have nothing to lose in your mission to gain it all, what wouldn’t you give up even if it meant your own life?
Luli’s cleverness is what won me over. At first I thought she was too naive but as we got more into her characterization I realized how ruthless she could be and I absolutely loved it. Somewhat reflecting the roles she played, we got to see the villainous, cunning side to Luli. I liked that focus on the more ugly aspects of humanity. Luli wasn’t some Mary Sue who everyone fell in love with, nor was she a poor urchin who people took pity on. She was a ruthless woman who had a craving for power and she took what she could, when she could and demanded nothing but respect. A true leading lady even though all she got to play was monsters. (Although I LOVED that she only played monsters!!)
The only thing that held me back from absolutely loving this book was the fantasy elements and the romantic relationships. All of Luli’s familial relationships felt real and layered, yet out of all her romantic entanglements, only one felt true and honest… and it was one that didn’t get a whole lot of focus in my opinion. I felt like the author shied away from having Luli open herself up enough to truly let the readers themselves be able to feel that all-consuming love throughout the book. I was a bit disappointed in that seeing as I went into this expecting an epic romance to be part of the plot. I also LOATHED how little we knew about this “world”. Some elements of the “fire nights’ felt like a fever dream and the next chapter would continue on like that had never happened. I felt so confused trying to piece together what was happening in the fantasy side of things that I didn’t feel fully present for the character building side of things. I think unexplained fantasy worlds do have their place, but in this case, the ambiguity did the book itself an injustice.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I’m glad my bookclub picked it for this month as it had great Asian representation as well as LGBTQ representation. It was fun revisiting a historic setting and Old Hollywood as well as getting to meet a leading lady as fierce as Luli, but I just wish the fantasy element didn’t disappoint me as much as it did. 3 stars on this one as, I enjoyed it, but I don’t think I’d reread it.