Join Nghi Vo live and online to celebrate the release of her book Siren Queen.
“Vo’s spellbinding latest solidifies her position as a force to be reckoned with in speculative fiction. [Her] hypnotic prose blends metaphor with magic so seamlessly that reality itself becomes slippery. Her dazzling voice, evocative scene setting, and ambitious protagonist make this a knockout.”
“Movie magic is made manifest, beguiling, and deadly in Vo’s tale about Luli, a Chinese American girl who is determined to realize her dreams of movie stardom. . . . Luli is a compelling character both on and off the screen in this story that takes the mythmaking of Hollywood and transforms it and her into something transcendent. Highly recommended.”
From award-winning author Nghi Vo comes a dazzling new novel where immortality is just a casting call away
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 page.
Nghi Vo photo courtesy C.J. Foeckler; Rebecca Roanhorse photo courtesy of the author
