Siren Queen by Nghi Vo [Review]

Summary 💬

“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.

Goodreads

Review ✍🏻

Nghi Vo, my beloved author of historical fantasy 🤩 Perhaps best known for the fantasy novella The Empress of Salt and Fortune, I have somehow only read her two historical novels – and I have absolutely adored them. I consider myself a Gatsby fan, so of course The Chosen and the Beautiful caught my eye last year. (And how can it not, with that stunning cover?). It’s actually on my Christmas wishlist… but I digress.

Siren Queen and The Chosen and the Beautiful have a few significant commonalities. One is the historical time period, with Siren Queen taking place about 5-10 years after when The Chosen and the Beautiful was set. (The books are not obviously set in the same universe, but I feel like they could be.*) The fantasy element is more prominent in Siren Queen, but in both, it’s intricately woven into the plot, subtle at most points yet crucial to the story. The final major similarity between the two novels is that they star ‘unlikable’ protagonists – forced to act a certain way because of the (racist, sexist) expectations of the world around them.

I encountered a hiccup early on, when I started reading and then got stuck around 25%. I didn’t pick the book up for two months. But when I finally returned to it, I finished it in three days. I became totally absorbed by lines like “Love threw a darkness out of her, but to me it was only a warm sweetness, desert honey poured down my throat.” (loc 1486)

What the jacket copy doesn’t reveal but quickly becomes evident is that this is a fairy story. The kind of fairy story where fae terrorize and bargain with humans and hold the true power in Hollywood. I didn’t quite fully understand what was going on; I felt a step or two behind at times (but not as behind as when I’m reading a Helen Oyeyemi novel, lol). Let me reread it once or twice more and then I’m sure I’ll have it.

The captivating writing style kept me on my toes, enamoured with the world that Vo created. The story’s quite dark and moody. I’m inclined, for the first time ever in my book blogging life, to describe the writing as ‘intoxicating’.

Michel de Winter was a relic from another time, a silent actor who came from the French stage. Just a few years ago, I had seen him haunting the smoky, shadowed streets of Bucharest, followin ga mysterious woman who dropped white flowers in her wake. It turned out in the end that he had been chasing Death’s consort, and he had died, face twisted with agony, only to be resurrected in front of me now in a gray suit and green silk tie, the white strip of hair that had shown so bright in the old films gleaming in the afternoon light.

“You are late,” he whispered, because the silent films had finally consumed his voice, leaving him only a shred to use.

“Darling, I am sorry, but look, I am here now, aren’t I?”

When she spoke to me, the woman had had an easy way about her, pleasant but entirely unremarkable. Nw there was a grandness to her voice, the sound of it bell-like, and people around us turned their heads,curious and unsure why they were curious.

Loc 239

*Ohoh! I’ve just read an interview where Vo states “Siren Queen stands alone, but if you read carefully, it does have a few tiny things that link it to my first novel, The Chosen And The Beautiful.” 👀

The Bottom Line 💭

A rich and dark historical tale infused with fae and fantasy, I recommend Siren Queen for any fan of historical fantasy who doesn’t mind their tales a little obscure.

Further Reading 📰

🍂 Read an excerpt
🍂 Author website
🍂 Interview @ Paul Semel
🍂 Reviews: Lili @ Utopia State of Mind, Lia @ An Ode to Fiction, Annemieke @ A Dance with Books,
🍂 Related: Earlier this year I reviewed The Chosen and the Beautiful alongside Comfort Me With Apples, which is not historical fantasy but is another short novel which you might enjoy if you like Vo’s work!

In which time period would you like to read a historical fantasy?