I knew very little of this book, other than I've been hearing a lot about Nghi Vo from other work. This is a reimagining of old time Hollywood, with monsters at its core. Think Harvey Weinstein with demonic powers, eating up young girls with dreams of stardom. The main character, a Chinese-American woman, navigates the perilous industry, avoiding getting type cast in the stereotypical roles for Asian actresses at the time, and also avoiding being devoured by the monster. Very dark imagery, disturbing and anxiety inducing. . And yet the scariest monsters are the real ones.

This was a wonderfully written book with magic and fantasy so well ingrained in the story it felt like the monsters and ghosts of Vo's book inhabited our world as well, and in a way, they do.

It's Hollywood in the 1930's. But it is not the glamorous, enchanting Hollywood we have all heard and dream of...Instead, it's the seedier dark side of glamor, filled with actual monsters posing as producers and directors. In this case, we are not talking about metaphorical monsters, although that's the underlying theme of the novel, there are ACTUAL Monsters in this piece of speculative fiction.

Lulie Weis is a young Asian woman who falls into the movie business and smartly demands to be taken seriously She says to directors, "No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers.” Again, this isn't a fairy tale, so Lulie basically makes a deal with the devil. She decides
she is willing to do whatever it takes—even if that means becoming the monster herself.

We follow Lulie as she battles to keep her self and still succeed in a very white world. There are threads of gender, race and sexuality discussed throughout this utterly thrilling novel. You will be continually amazed by the complex plot, characterization and of course the monsters -both real and metaphorical. If you love Hollywood, or are endlessly looking for a Chinese heroine, or ANY strong female heroine, #SirenQueens is for you! #Tordotcom #tor.com #TorForge #macmillan #netgalley #netgalleyreads

SIREN QUEEN is a masterclass in female relationships, overcoming the odds, and magical realism. Nghi Vo just gets better and better with each novel she puts out. SIREN QUEEN is a must read.

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo is full of the unexpected. With rich prose that weaves storytelling, mystic elements and hard truths, Siren Queen pulled me deep into an ethereal world where the deals of movie making were done.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tordotcom for this advanced readers copy.
Nghi Vo became an instant must buy author for me after reading Empress of salt and fortune by them and to receive this arc was a dream come true. We are following the life of a young aspiring Asian American actress and what she sacrifices to become a star in 1930's Hollywood. However, what makes this book a star in itself is the insidious dark and magical world that it is set in with monsters running the studios, blood magic creating unbreakable ties and even the Wild hunt running around looking for the next sacrifice. This book tackles various topics such as racism, sexism and being LGBTQIA+ in ways both blaring and subtle which comment on times both past and present. Did I mention it's gay? Our MC is a lesbian and has a couple of intimate relationships that were well developed and very heart-wrenching, we even got a couple of sex scenes too which I'm glad the author included, it needs to be normalised in fiction. One criticism of mine is that although the story was well fleshed out and explored it felt as if we were always running towards something and when that something did happen, the story ended. There were a lot of elements to this story I didn't fully understand and I think a reread will help me love this story even more. I recommend this with my whole soul, despite my small criticisms it truly was an amazing book I won't forget. 4.5 stars.

3.5 stars

Nghi Vo's writing is always so poetic and beautiful, I love how she interweaves contemporary setting with fantastic and whimsical elements, it always makes her story magical.

The writing definitely was my favourite part of the book but I wasn't as sold on the plot. Maybe I'm used to books that are more action oriented, but I was expecting more from the story. We have hints of the heroine's present love interest through out the book but we don't meet her at all, which disappointed me. I think I had hoped for something more à la Evelyn Hugo where the book would switch between past and present. The ending was nice but I felt it was a little too rushed, I would have liked to see more of 'present time' Luli.

I still recommend this book if you like Nghi Vo's writing, whimsical historical fiction, and dark and atmospheric novels.

What an interesting and unique story set during the 1930s Hollywood, where Hollywood is controlled by monsters and magic. Nghi Vo's magic system and world building in this book were excellent! This was a really neat story!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

Siren Queen lives up to its name, as Vo casts an enchanting spell over you. This is the type of book that bewitches and utterly ensnares you.

I adored The Chosen and the Beautiful when I read it last year, with Vo’s magical and ethereal writing completely immersing me in this gorgeously created world. Vo brings that same intangible magic to Siren Queen, with gorgeously evocative and cinematic writing. It is a short book, but it is jam-packed full of lush descriptions and layers. This type of writing for me is like smoke, with the vagueness and enshrouded nature creating a stream of consciousness style at times. I loved the romantic glamour we encounter occasionally. The central relationships are tangled and fragmentary, often with a mercenary glint of ambition. Yet you still want them to succeed and get caught up in the heady atmosphere.

However, my main obsession with the writing comes from the seamless way Vo interweaves elements of fantasy into an otherwise highly realistic story. We encounter moments that seem plucked straight from fairytales, myth and legend. There’s always a sense of something just beyond human comprehension running through and it’s dark, cruel and often gory. Nothing comes without a price and Vo exposes the abhorrent racism, homophobia and sexism running through the industry through creative metaphors and touches of horror.

Luli was a phenomenal protagonist. She was brave, determined and overwhelmingly loyal, but also had a hardened heart against the world desperate to break her. In order to achieve her fame, she will go to any lengths. She is a woman perfectly aware of what society and industry thinks and wants from her. The way she navigates the world is endlessly fascinating and I really enjoyed her narrative voice. Vo keeps the narrative ever so out of joint, moving across time and place enough to disturb you and force you to really pay attention. It’s so dream-like and almost hallucinatory, evoking an incredibly toxic and claustrophobic atmosphere.

Siren Queen is a haunting, enchanting and darkly edged story that exemplifies Vo’s unique and stunning writing.

This book is a clever and fantastic look at the golden age of 1930s Hollywood, and the monsters and magic that ran it. Written like a memoir, the story follows the life of an actress named Luli Wei, from when she was first discovered as a girl to the point she achieves stardom. For a Asian American hopeful, the movie industry is difficult for Luli to break into, until she makes a deal with a former actress to find a way in on her own terms. What really makes this book great is Nghi Vo's magic system and world building. The movie industry works on an almost fae-like system that pulls in various mythologies and magic realism to create an industry where names have power, the studio executives run with the Wild Hunt, and the most successful ones are not completely human. This book also fixed a major complaint I had with The Chosen and the Beautiful, where the really neat magic system rarely featured. Here, the movie industry is full of magic, and seems to only survive thanks to it. This is a must read for fans if Vo's work and anyone looking for a unique story.

Siren Queen is a really fun & seductive read. the story has fantasy/magical realism elements it can be a greatly enjoyable book for those who prefer fiction over fantasy. Luli's story is set in the golden age of Hollywood and we follow her story from her childhood to adulthood and stardom filled with magic, secrets, and danger. The writing is beautiful and the story will suck you in from page one.

“Siren Queen” is a dark fairytale set in old Hollywood, where movie studios are run like fairy courts, the wild hunt roams the studio lot every Friday night, and movie stars literally shine from the heavens. Enter Luli Wei, an ambitious Chinese-American girl who grows up entranced by the magic of the movies. Luli refuses to let the studio pigeonhole by casting her as a maid, so they don’t know what to do with her at first … until she finds her niche playing the monstrous Siren Queen. But the real monsters are the ones working behind the scenes, preying on young actresses and turning on anyone who dares to stand out. Nghi Vo’s latest offering is easily one of the best fantasies of the year, with lush prose, a clever mythology, and an utterly unforgettable narrator.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Hollywood’s golden age always has a strange, compelling magic and drama, which Nghi Vo dials up to 11 with this magic realism take on one Chinese-American’s woman journey to become a star.

Luli Wei won’t play a maid, but she’s happy to be a monster - she has to be, given the real monsters prowling around the movie set. This is a glorious novel, illuminating, sharp and so so clever. I was enthralled from the start.

I honestly don't know how to describe the plot of this book, so I would say read the blurb instead lol.

I really really loved the atmosphere of this book, the old hollywood setting was so so interesting and the criticism of it was very Evelyn-Hugo. I really appreciated the way the book approached themes such as race and queerness. It's so so easy to read, Nghi Vo is such a talented writer, she writes in such a natural but still beautiful way.

I loved Lulu's character, I think she was complex and flawed and that's what made her so appealing. There were some characters that weren't as fleshed out as I would've liked, and this is where I think the book could've benefitted from being longer.

The magical elements were interesting to me, but I honestly think that the book could've done without them? The messages of the book are so strong, and the fantasy parts felt as though they didn't add anything. I don't know, I'm conflicted because I did enjoy the magic but I think it either needed to be explained in more detail, or didn't need to be there at all.

Overall, I really really enjoyed this book and I will be recommending it to a lot of people.

Such a lovely, dreamlike book. As we float through the life of the "Siren Queen" and her career in the early talkies, we can see the everyday magic at the edges of her life. Dark shapes move in the shadows as they shape the careers and lives of the movie stars. Moving and hypnotic.

This was a really intriguing concept, and the book was certainly readable with great pose, but the execution of the concept was a missed opportunity and the denouement all too quick.

The premise of this book hits all my buzzwords but i just didn't vibe for me and I am heartbroken over it. Nghi Vo's prose is flowery to the point of ambiguity. I need less beautiful language and more story. The fantasy elements of this world are never really elaborated on which makes the story seem hollow. I know this is Vo's writing style but it's just not for me. I need more backstory and detail in my fantasy. I'm not able to feel connected to the characters or the world.

I did enjoy the way Vo took Hollywood metaphors and made them real and tangible: Hollywood stars get real stars in the sky, sleezeball executives get their skin stripped off, beaten, and washed of their nastiness. I think this book has an audience that will love it dearly, I'm just not part of it.

Rich, atmospheric, and immersive, Siren Queen plunges you in the the glamor of old Hollywood. We meet our Asian American unnamed narrator at a young age, completely enamored with the silver screen. When she's discovered by a slimy filmmaker, she's immediately put into pictures. As an adult she's bound for Hollywood, but she's got conditions: no maids, no funny accents. When it's time for her to pick a name, she unwittingly gives her sister's name and thus is christened Luli Wei. This book follows her rise to stardom not as a maid or a stereotypical character with a funny accent, but as the monster she was destined to play.

Reading this book felt a lot like walking through a dream, and I loved every second of it. This is my first read by Nghi Vo, and it won't be my last. In Luli, she created such a powerful character who refuses to back down in even the most difficult of circumstances and who also refuses to be placed in any sort of box.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. I loved, loved, loved this book!

A star is born in this story of Luli Wei, an ambitious girl who becomes enthralled by cinema. Vo's writing is amazing, somehow the fantastic elements make the truth of the history of the Hollywood studios even more clear. Every word is well chosen, the language descriptive but always true to her characters. A coming of age story that encompasses race, sexuality and the danger and sacrifices necessary to ambition, but with what may be another of Vo's trademarks, a silver lining. Highly recommend.

“The magic of movie-making”: we’ve all heard people say and write things about Hollywood that sprinkle stardust and the otherworldly metaphors onto filmmaking. In Siren Queen, Nghi Vo asks readers to consider what if it wasn’t actually metaphorical? A clever novel that follows the career of screen star Luli Wei, I enjoyed this.

We meet Luli Wei as a child, and at roughly the same time as when she discovers and falls in love with the idea of becoming a Hollywood star. After a series of fortuitous events, she is taken under the wing of a director, and slowly introduced to the world of movie-making: glamour, hard work, the magical, and also the lurking horror underneath. This horror is acknowledged by everyone involved, albeit in veiled comments. Herein lies of one of the best things about Siren Queen: Vo’s taken so many of the traditional metaphors we use to discuss, describe and admire the business, but made it so that they’re not metaphors. Sell your soul for success? Sure. Suck the life out of you? Quite possibly. It’s a fantastic element, and the author does a great job of weaving into the setting that is a few degrees from our own.

The otherworldly is not overbearing, and often only manifests in small ways (a lot happens off-screen, as it were). It is not, however, the primary thrust of the story. That is Luli and her experiences: her life, her loves, her work, and more. There’s plenty of commentary on the hypocrisies and prejudices of the movie industry (many of which continue to manifest and/or echo today).

… we understood immortality as a thing for men. Men lived forever in their bodies, in their statues, in the words they guarded jealously and the countries they would never let you claim. The immortality of women was a sideways thing, haphazard and contained in footnotes, as muses or silent helpers.

Luli has a number of obstacles in the way of her becoming the star she wants to become: she’s a woman, she’s of Asian descent, and she’s not straight. Nevertheless, she knows what she wants, and manages to chip away at these as obstacles, forging her own path towards success. It’s a difficult and rocky road, to be sure. Luli is determined to break the mould for actors like her, to not conform to the tired and limited stereotypes and typecasting that she might have been destined to suffer. Interestingly, it takes her down an unexpected path to monster and horror pictures.

“No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers,” I said. “That’s the deal I struck with Wolfe, and so I guess monster was what was left.”

Over the course of the story, Luli meets a number of people, some in the same predicament, others unwitting or indifferent members of the Hollywood ecosystem. Vo shows readers the camaraderie that can form between those who aren’t at the top of the heap; similarly, the petty jealousies and sometimes manufactured fights that can trip up the unwary. It’s all told in a fluid, engaging style — the novel is well-balanced, and aside from some minor moments that dipped in momentum, I always looked forward to picking up and continuing to follow Luli’s story.

Siren Queen is a fantastic blend of a novel: a classic story of Golden Age Hollywood ambition, told through an urban fantasy/horror lens. If you’re looking for something a little different, then I’d certainly recommend checking this out.