Fantasy & Frens | Siren Queen

Siren Queen

Nghi Vo

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“Lyrical, mesmerizing, and otherworldly. . . stunning proof that Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today. A beautiful, brutal, monstrous Hollywood fantasy.”

—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Immortality is just a casting call away.

World Fantasy Award Finalist

Locus Award Finalist

Ignyte Award Finalist

An Amazon Best Book of 2022

One of NPR’s Best Books of 2022

Vulture’s #1 Fantasy Novel of 2022

Indie Next List Reading Group Book of 2023.

An Indie Next and LibraryReads Pick

A Brooklyn Library Prize Finalist

Includes a Reading Group Guide.

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.

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Posts about this title from Fantasy & Frens

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Dec 27 2022

the barnes & noble sale is the best day of the year!! what did you get at the sale?! \ \ #barnesandnoblesale #bookhauls #booksbooksbooks #bookishreel #bookhaulvideo #lessonsinchemistry #thelostmetal

the barnes & noble sale is the best day of the year!! what did you get at the sale?!

#barnesandnoblesale #bookhauls #booksbooksbooks #bookishreel #bookhaulvideo #lessonsinchemistry #thelostmetal

6 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Dec 27 2022

the b&n sale is the best day of the year!! ☺️ what did you get?! #barnesandnoble #bookhaul #fantasybooktok #litficbooks

6 books

Posts about this book from across Bindery

Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Oct 24 2025

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You read sapphic historical romance for the gowns and the glances. You stay for the subversive joy. The genre looks soft on the surface, yet it smuggles big truths past the velvet ropes of history. It asks a simple question. What if we center queer women in places where the record tried to exclude them?\ \ What you get beyond pretty dresses\ \ • Proof that we have always been here. Even when archives went quiet.\ \ • A workable script for intimacy, consent, and community in restrictive settings.\ \ • A reminder that desire is not a modern invention. It survived laws, gossip, and bad lighting.\ \ What makes these books feel so good? Timing and tension do a lot of heavy lifting. Doors close. Chaperones hover. Letters get misdelivered because someone folded them like a tiny origami tragedy. You watch two people build trust under pressure. That pressure makes communication sharper. Boundaries get named. Risks get weighed. The result feels romantic, but it also feels like a clinic on relational skills.\ \ You want the wink with the weight. A slow burn through parlors and libraries works best when it has a little chaos. Ridiculous rules demand creative workarounds. Readers laugh at the rules, then cheer when characters refuse to shrink to fit them. The humor keeps you breathing while the book quietly rewrites who gets the happy ending.\ \ These stories live in the gap between safety and truth. Class, race, and colonial power shape who gets seen and who pays the bill for being seen. When a book admits that, the kiss lands harder. It is not a fantasy of perfect times. It is a practice round for courage.\ \ How to read these books like a therapist, without turning it into homework\ \ • Track consent, not only spice. Do characters check in. Do they adjust when comfort shifts.\ \ • Notice repair. Lovers stumble. Healthy stories show apology, accountability, and a next step.\ \ • Look for community care. Friends, aunties, staff, and found family often protect what the law will not.\ \ • Name the system. The villain is not desire. The villain is the structure that tries to criminalize it.\ \ A Starter Stack\ \ The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Olivia Waite. Regency art, competence kink, and patient consent.\ \ Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo. 1950s San Francisco, queer joy under surveillance, tender first love.\ \ The Confessions of Frannie Langton, Sara Collins. Gothic pulse, race and class laid bare, desire that refuses the script.\ \ The Mercies, Kiran Millwood Hargrave. Witch trials, hunger for autonomy, intimacy as solidarity.\ \ Passing Strange, Ellen Klages. Jazz-age San Francisco, artists and outsiders, a quiet miracle of an ending.\ \ Daughters of the Deer, Danielle Daniel. Colonial violence in 17th century Canada, gender and tradition in conflict, love as memory.\ \ The Color Purple, Alice Walker. Epistolary healing, survival into selfhood, romance that reclaims the body and voice.\ \ The Lady’s Guide to Scandal, Sophie Irwin. Queer subplot potential and Regency hijinks for readers who want lighter fare while still spotting coded signals.\ \ Micro myths to retire while you read\ \ Myth 1. Queer love did not exist back then.\ \ Reality. It did. Records failed, not people.\ \ Myth 2. All historical endings must be tragic to feel “real.”\ \ Reality. Realism includes joy. Erasure is not accuracy.\ \ Myth 3. Romance cannot be educational.\ \ Reality. Romance models skills many of us never learned. Boundary setting. Repair. Mutual decision making. That is education.\ \ Questions to ask yourself while reading\ \ • Where do you see informed consent. Point to the exact lines.\ \ • Who protects the lovers when the law does not. How does that map to modern support systems.\ \ • What risk feels most honest. Social risk. Financial risk. Physical risk. How do the characters share the load.\ \ • How does class or race change the path to a happy ending. Name the tradeoffs on the page.\ \ Look for mentions of state violence, homophobia, racism, misogyny, conversion practices, and medical abuse. Many of these books name harm plainly. That clarity helps readers stay oriented. You set the safety rails, then enjoy the romance.\ \ Representation functions like relational modeling. When you watch two women negotiate desire and power with care, you learn how to do it. When you watch a Black or Asian or Indigenous sapphic lead claim public space in 1910 or 1955, you see a blueprint for present-tense courage. When a narrative refuses shame, your nervous system takes notes. That is not abstract. That is practice for real life.\ \ Where to go Next\ \ If you want more tenderness with strong consent, reach for Olivia Waite. If you want sharper sociopolitical edges, pick Sara Collins or Danielle Daniel. If you want YA that still hits hard, start with Malinda Lo. Mix heavy with light to keep your audience engaged and resourced.\ \ Sapphic historical romance is not an escape from history. It is a way to face it with humor and hope. You turn the last page a little taller. You see how love survives, not by hiding, but by refusing to apologize for existing.\ \ \ \ Join for free or login

Sapphic Historical Romance: corsets, coded letters, and why it matters

9 books

Bookish AfroLatina's Library\ \ Gabby\ \ • Mar 3 2025

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30 Book Recommendations for Women’s History Month & Beyond!

💜I’ve got 30 book recommendations for Women’s History Month & beyond!💜

Activism: How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

An Abolitionist's Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World by Patrisse Cullors

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by Jesmyn Ward

Be A Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, Too by Ijeoma Oluo

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and The Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

Historical Romance: Women Who Dare Series by Beverly Jenkins (& the rest of her books) Rebel Wild Rain To Catch a Raven

Las Leonas series by Adriana Herrera A Caribbean Heiress in Paris An Island Princess Starts a Scandal A Tropical Rebel Gets The Duke

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

The Luna Sisters Series by Liana De La Rosa Ana María and The Fox Isabel and The Rogue Gabriela and His Grace

History: Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi

A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister

Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall

A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiya Hartman

Girl in Black and White: The Story of Mary Mildred Williams and the Abolition Movement by Jessie Morgan-Owens

The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family by Kerri K Greenidge (REVIEW COMING SOON)

Historical Fiction: 'Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe

The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vera

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

#WomensHistoryMonth #BookRecommendations #History #HistoricalFiction #SocialJustice #HistoricalRomance #BlackBooks #LatinxBooks #QueerBooks

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30 books

Sapph-Lit\ \ Nina\ \ • Jun 28 2024

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\ \ Upgrade for $5 or login](https://sapphlit.binderybooks.com/item/PidH66I2xcItPKNuv8Cb/)

Pride Month Reading List: FANTASY

Sharing the slide I forgot to include in my IG carousel, now expanded to 10 incredible sapphic fantasy reads.

10 books

Paws, Pages and Brews\ \ Sammie\ \ • Jun 24 2024

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July book club pick!

The pick for July is in! We will be reading Siren Queen by Nghi Vo starting July 1st.

1 book

sunny thoughts\ \ Sunny\ \ • May 22 2023

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Recommending All My Books by Asian Authors for Asian American Heritage Month

sorry I've been off the grid for so long, it's been such a wild, wild year so far and will only get wilder from here on out, probably. but here's some book recommendations of novels, short story collections, poetry and nonfiction etc, by East and Southeast Asian authors since it's nearly the end of AAPI Heritage Month!!! books in translation from writers in Asian countries and Asian American writers, I have them all. the "book looks" I refer to are on my Instagram grid

Find me: Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/asunnybooknook Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sunnyboxhouse Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/asunnybooknook Business contact - asunnybooknook@gmail.com

🍑🍊🕊🌸🍓🍒🍇 Listen to me and my best friend's lesbian comedy media & pop culture commentary podcast, The Lavender Menace! Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6KoWHeYT8M0svZhvTsOUgt?si=LzGU-55zSOmbanf7-vlTMg&dl\_branch=1 Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/agmaoiRQRy?amp=1 https://www.patreon.com/TheLavenderMenace

Us, elsewhere: Twitter - https://twitter.com/TheLavenderPod Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thelavendermenacepod/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiuLKSL75Tcd5Zu7DMnC5vQ Letterboxd - https://letterboxd.com/thelavenderpod/ Substack - https://thelavendermenace.substack.com/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thelavendermenacepod?\_t=8V5Ee2joahq&\_r=1

18 books

sunny thoughts\ \ Sunny\ \ • Jan 29 2023

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tackling my physical TBR: reading vlog #1 of 2023

my January of reading books on my TBR shelf before I leave for Boston!!

Find me: Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/asunnybooknook Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/asunnybooknook Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/asunnybooknook Business email - asunnybooknook@gmail.com

11 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Dec 27 2022

the barnes & noble sale is the best day of the year!! what did you get at the sale?!

#barnesandnoblesale #bookhauls #booksbooksbooks #bookishreel #bookhaulvideo #lessonsinchemistry #thelostmetal

6 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Dec 27 2022

the b&n sale is the best day of the year!! ☺️ what did you get?! #barnesandnoble #bookhaul #fantasybooktok #litficbooks

6 books