Thursday, May 5, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

 




 Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on May 10, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Siren Queen is the latest book by author Nghi Vo, known for her Hugo Award winning The Empress of Salt and Fortune, as well as last year's The Chosen and the Beautiful - a Queer Fantasy retelling of the Great Gatsby featuring an Asian American Heroine.  Like The Chosen and the Beautiful, Siren Queen is historical fantasy featuring a queer Asian-American protagonist, although it's not a direct retelling of a classic novel, but rather a story based on 1930s-1940s era Hollywood....only a Hollywood that is far more magical....and magically monstrous....than the one we know.  And there are familiar elements of all of Vo's prior works in this one - the story is a retelling by the protagonist from some point in the future ala The Empress of Salt and Fortune (and its sequel), its the story of an Asian American protagonist in a world that tries to restrict them to certain places and roles in society (or in this case Hollywood), and the mundane parts of the world made magical in dark dark ways - this time with Hollywood being a place ruled by monsters who force others to make literal sacrifices, with stars literally ascending into the heavens (kinda) on their own breakthroughs.  

Familiar though its themes may be, Siren Queen is another clear winner, thanks to its strong protagonist, queer Chinese-American girl Luli Wei, as she attempts to work away into stardom without limiting herself to the restrictions imposed on Asian girls before her.  The real world monstrousness and exploiting of the studio heads and directors, now made magical and literal, works incredibly well, and the story will keep you entranced and curious how things will turn out until its explosive finale as Luli comes into her own, and tries to keep moving forward, even as she keeps facing challenges, sees friends and others fall and leave her, and has her own past keep coming back to the forefront of her mind.  I'm not quite sure the ending fully works given the setting, but I don't really care to be honest, it makes sense and makes everything here satisfying.  

-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
The girl who would be known to the world as "Luli Wei" knew from the first time she was invited to see a movie that she wanted to be on that screen.  And from the time she got herself invited to be an extra in a single scene, she knew she wanted more.  But Luli was no fool - she knew there was only one Asian actress of note in Hollywood works, and that Asians tended to be cast into only certain roles.  And she knew that the monsters in charge at Hollywood were especially eager to devour the souls of aspiring starlets - often literally, as they made the girls and boys desperate for fame sacrifice even the unimaginable.  And so Luli set out to arm herself with as much knowledge as possible as she leaves home and makes a deal with a Devil in charge of a studio - with the only conditions she sets being that her roles will involve "No maids, No Funny Talking, and No Fainting Flowers"

But Luli could never have anticipated what she found behind the gates of Hollywood - where she will find other aspiring actors and actresses making their own devils' bargains, and stars who might invite one to their fires for Love and Touch, and others who might invite one back to their house but not....as one might fear....for a night of pressured passion.  And even after Luli seems to find success in a single role, in the role of a monster, she finds herself realizing that the monsters of Hollywood, and the monsters of her past, are not going to go away and will stop at nothing to ground her under their heel....
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Siren Queen is told from the perspective of "Luli Wei", as if she is writing a memoir from the future (with occasional interjections by another woman in conversation with her), sort of ala Vo's The Empire of Salt and Fortune - the story is written as if the reader should know who Luli is from living in their world.  It's a style that works really well to give things a matter of fact tone and feeling of inevitability, even as you're never quite sure what exactly is going to happen to get Luli to her eventual mysterious future.  Also like The Chosen and the Beautiful, this is a world in which magic's existence is something hardly notable to Luli or - seemingly - to anyone else: so a ticket taker to a movie theater taking locks of hair for magical purposes, or a former actress getting out of Hollywood alive by literally offering her legs from ankle on down to pay the price - and then giving out information at the cost of 20 years of life....all that is just part of how things are and just accepted straight out as ordinary.  It's not always clear to Luli how or what the magic being used works - so the fact that the head of the Hollywood studio Luli gets herself into goes on Wild Hunts (ala Fae) is something that Luli understands...but what exactly is being hunted is another question.  

And Luli is a hell of a protagonist, as a bright young girl and then young woman who knows that she wants to be a star and to ascend into Immortality on the screen (both literally and metaphorically), is willing to do almost anything to achieve it....and yet at the same time, absolutely insistent upon not lowering herself the way others want her to.  She will not lower herself to the stereotypical roles for Asian Actresses; she will not allow men (or women) to take take advantage of her sexually in exchange for positions; nor will she allow men/women to hold on to her coattails and take advantage of her potential rise for their own gain.  And in this Hollywood, the system is absolutely setup to exploit and take advantage - from the Directors who offer people years of success if only they'll sacrifice themselves as the subject of a Fae Hunt, or who will demand sacrifices of literal flesh - one's face, one's ankles, etc. in exchange for even the possibility of getting out; and of course, there's the fact that aspiring starlets are thrown into this system without guidance, even where horrible monsters lurk in the shadows and pretend to be victims themselves.  Vo makes this world one that should be very familiar to the real one, except here the monsters and exploitation are real.  

Then there's the homophobia of this world and Luli's growing realization of her interest in women - and her struggle to assert that part of herself.  This is a world where a gay star sort of takes Luli on as a beard, and would rather fake his own death than - like many other starlets - get show married off to a person of the opposite sex.  Then there's the female star who encourages Luli's first romantic attraction, who will comfort women on the side and at her Friday Fires, but on the set of a movie must act like the perfect white woman role model for men, despite her inner desires.  But for Luli, she grows to realize that she can't do that, and as the story goes on she grows bolder and bolder until the story's epic climax, despite the potential harm it could do to her growing career.  

This transformation is all apace with Luli's growing story in general, as Luli begins as exploitative in many ways as the monsters who run Hollywood, willing to take whatever steps, such as blackmail, stealing a name, or more in order to get ahead towards the stardom she craves.  But as the story grows on, Luli - and the others around her in similar but very different situations - come to realize that the sacrifices they've made, both literal and metaphorical, may haunt them forever, and may not be something they're willing to live with.  Getting fame while tearing out one's heart only leads them each to hurt each other, and to cause more damage to themselves, and this path leads Luli almost to her destruction.....until again a climax I don't want to spoil has Luli and others make an opposite choice instead, changing everything.  

I'm really badly explaining this, because this is a not long novel that I don't want to spoil, but it's a hell of a one in how it uses the fantasy elements to accentuate what is only metaphorical in our real life, of a Queer Asian American woman learning to assert those aspects of her in a world that refuses to let her do that, and of others around her doing the same, leading to a surprisingly happy finale.  And Vo does it in a way that is really strong and very well done, such that even the side characters feel like they have lives outside of Luli's, which is a great sign of a great work - hell one character hinted at throughout the book actually never appears in person on page, which is a shock and yet actually works in the end.  Like if I had a complaint, I might say that's that the climax relies upon a magical impact that doesn't quite fit the way homophobia is rampant in the setting....and yet I don't really care because that impact is so....well, magical. 

 

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