Lyrical and poetic writing in a memoir style, featuring the story of Luli Wei, a Siren Queen, recounting her rise to power on the silver screen. Hollywood execs are actual monsters, magic can be used to change your face, your voice, your body, and power both corrupts and assists.

Set in 1920s and 1930s magical Hollywood, this was both very much of that time period, from the racism, sexism, xenophobia, and queerphobia, but also timeless in that, have we actually overcome these same awful problems now in 2022? I don't think so, and that hurts my heart a bit.

Thankfully as an author, Nghi Vo handles both her character and her reader with care - while not protecting them from the harsh realities of both the scariness of racism, etc and monsters as well.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC; I am friendly with the author online, and she is a patron of my library. I interviewed Nghi Vo for the launch of SIREN QUEEN on May 11, 2022 at the Milwaukee Public Library.