Siren Queen by Nghi Vo is fantasy set in 1930s Hollywood. The nameless first person narrator, whose Chinese immigrant father owns a laundry, first sees silent films by selling an inch of her hair; later, she plays the roles of assorted children in talkie movies that are filming nearby. To join a studio as an actor, ruled by an inhumanly powerful otherworldly being, she has to make sacrifices, blackmailing a contact and bargaining away some of her life in the hope of becoming a star, which in this world includes actually appearing in the sky and possessing a kind of radiance and immortality. The world is steeped in anti-Asian racism that affects the cinema roles she will eventually play. Meanwhile, the narrator’s queerness begins to surface, and she slowly discovers community there, as well.
The story begins feeling very grounded in actual history, and only gradually (at least on first reading) becomes more and more strange, as some words and phrases that seem to mean one thing turn out to mean quite another when we see the magic in action. The fantasy elements are an accepted part of the world that may or may not follow rules the reader can understand; it is mostly based in bargaining with fae or similar beings for supernatural abilities, always at a painful cost. There’s a Wild Hunt and a version of Tam Lin. My favorite fantastical element involved the old stars of the silent films slowly leached of color and their voices, only referenced in passing but extremely evocative of what it means to be a star whose time is past.
This is an incredibly terrific book and I loved it. I don’t want to spoil too much, so I’ll stop here. I am glad it came around on the TBR!
