Siren Queen

By: Nghi Vo

Narrated by: Natalie Naudus

Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR NGHI VO COMES A DAZZLING NEW NOVEL WHERE IMMORTALITY IS JUST A CASTING CALL AWAY

"Natalie Naudus's skilled narration adds to the luminous and otherworldly qualities of Vo's historical fantasy." -AudioFile on Siren Queen

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 moment.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com Books.

©2022 Nghi Vo (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

2022 Buzzfeed Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 Ignyte Award, Short-listed
2023 Wisconsin Library Association Literary Awards, Short-listed
2022 Audible.com Best of the Year, Long-listed
2022 NPR Best Book of the Year, Long-listed
2022 Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022 Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022 Hudson Booksellers Best of the Year, Long-listed
Locus Awards - Nominee, Short-listed
World Fantasy Award - Finalist, Short-listed
2022 NYPL Best Books of the Year, Long-listed

Truly Lovely

I highly recommend this one! The world she gives us is lush and strange and beautiful.

Meh

There was some beautiful scene building but overall the story was lacking. I did like the characters and the themes. I struggled to get into the story, it felt like it was building up to something that just never came to be. I really wanted to like this book but ultimately would not recommend.

Amazing concept, but didn't quite land for me

I think I liked this book?
The writing was delicious, every sentence lulling you in with its beauty. But when I think about the actual content, I’m left a bit confused and underwhelmed. I would have liked for the magic system to get a bit more explanation, there’s a whole lot that’s thrown at you and you never really quite know why or how, but you just kind of have to roll with it the whole way through.
I thought it was beautiful and charming, but I wonder if the book would read just as well if all of the magic was taken out. It certainly makes for interesting symbols and comparisons, but I don’t think it landed quite right with me.

Dark magic masterpiece

This book. Where do I even begin?

“No maids. No funny talking. No fainting flowers.” Chinese American Luli Wei has strict criteria for the roles she will take. She knows the roles for a girl like her are limited but she doesn’t care. She’d rather play a monster than a maid. Luli is a rising starlet in Old Hollywood, a place where monsters are real and not in a metaphorical sense. There’s a dark underbelly to the glamor here, blood magic and old gods and sacrifices made to devils.

This book was a revelation. A glittering dark fantasy story with just the right blend of real world glitz and fantastic horror. This book blurred the lines between reality and fiction in the best possible way. This was a magical queer racially charged horrific fairytale…

Naudus’s narration powerfully brings this story to life, the richness of the story playing against the innocence and power of Wei’s experiences.

This was yet another Nghi Vo masterpiece.

Needed more depth

I love the idea of this story and this world: Movies are literally created from magic with stars achieving immortality while trading in their souls.
But it all lacked depth. I wanted more world building. It was clear all of the characters involved were aware of the existence of the magic in this world, but it was never fully realized or harnessed. For most of the story it simply sat in the background existing with little actual impact on the world or the characters. The characters suffered from a similar lack of background and depth, most of them flitting in and out of the story with little to make them more than props. I wish the writer would have spent the same sort of time with the details of character development and world building as she did with the romantic scenes.

I wanted to love this but couldn’t….

The idea of combining all the glamour of old Hollywood in the golden age of film with magic, monsters and immortality had me intrigued immediately. I loved the way the author approached LGBTQ+ characters with ease. While this is not a Romance novel by any means, but it was refreshing to see a story where there was no need for forced coming outs or long explanations as to why the characters wanted who and what they did.

Unfortunately the world building in this book was just way too vague, the magic in the world lacking explanation. Immortality was mentioned several times but it was never clear who was immortal or if they really were at all. Old Hollywood was easy enough to imagine, but throwing in magical lifelike dolls, changelings, and creatures that can remove their own skin lost me completely. I found myself at many points going back to re-read pages to see what I was missing. I struggled with the way the “monsters” were described and what exactly they were (Greta had a cow tail?). These monsters were far from the classic vampires, werewolves, witches, etc. that I was expecting. I also just did not connect with our main character/narrator Luli. It felt like she lacked motivation; it was never really explained why she wanted to be a film star at all. It also bothered me we never learned her real name.

Overall, I wanted to love this book so badly and it just did not land for me. The prose was honestly great, despite how confused I was for much of this story. I would definitely give this author another try in the future.

It was definitely a head turner

I was very excited and on the edge of my seat. I didn’t want her story to end. I need more on the mother and her powers. The sister and her lover etc. please ne a sequel

a bit of world-building would have gone a long way

Not explaining everything can be a wonderful thing in a book...truly! In fact, I'm not a huge fan of over-exposition or excessively-detailed world-building. But to not explain ANYTHING? That's just a bit odd. It felt like a lack of connective tissue if that makes sense. As if you've been dropped into a loose sequel that really does require reading the first book. The basic story and a good reader kept me going. Glad I spent the credit because the ideas and concepts were super cool. Just wish they'd been fleshed out a bit more.

Thank the gods!

Fiction is alive! This book proves it. Fantastic story told incredibly well. Thank you anyhow Vo!

A great listen if you like the surreal

I did not have any idea what this book was about….but I liked it. It had Night Circus type vibes. Hollywood as a playground for the immortal and damned in the 30s. Excellently read and performed!!