Length: 288 Pages
Genres: Historical Fiction and Fantasy
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
A special thanks to NetGalley and Tordotcom for an ARC of this book!
Trigger Warnings in this book for Racism, Homophobia, Body Horror, Violence, Gore, Antisemitism and Sexism
“Like we understood to make wide circles around the drunks on the streets and how calico cats were the luckiest of all, we understood immortality as a thing for men. Men lived forever in their bodies, in their statues, in the words they guarded jealously and the countries they would never let you claim. The immortality of women was a sideways things, haphazard and contained in footnotes, as muses or silent helpers.”
Having already read some of Nghi Vo's work previously, I had very HIGH expectations for her newest work, which is inspired by Old Hollywood, only made much darker and much more magical.
Luli Wei (we never learn her real name) has always loved movies. When she was a little girl, she would trade inches off her hair for a ticket inside the theater to see Juliet kill herself over her beloved Romeo, or perhaps get a glimpse of Su Tong Lin, the only woman on the big screen who looked like her. Luck seems to be on her side when she stumbles across a movie set and is immediately chosen to be an extra for the film. The magic of movie making gets in her blood, taints it. But the world of the stars is one that will chew you up and spit you out, or worse, leave you a brainless extra that they trot out in times of need, called "nodders". Once, Luli was told she was "cold as the Atlantic", and it will be that ice in her veins that will keep her alive and famous--and grant her her most famous role as the hissing and red-tailed "siren queen". But even after fame has found her, her pride and temper might cost her more than just her next role--it might cost her her life.
This a novel that is full of a strange magic, both in the prose and the subject matter. Changelings stalk the movie sets, people drink up other people's years in teacups, and the truly famous become real life stars--hung aloft in heaven by some amazing power that also grants them immortality. Luli is a character with an amazing depth; she is bitter and strong and wise, with a surprising inner softness and loyalty. She wants to be something. But most of all, she wants to belong to herself and herself only, a hard thing in the line of work she has chosen. Told from her point of view, we get a sort of pseudo-biography that could belong to any Old Hollywood starlet, detailing her childhood spent in her family's laundry in Hungarian Hills, to her many powerful and doomed loves, if not for the whispers of monsters and magical mayhem, imps and silver kisses.
This is a book that will wrap you up in its spell, holding you fast until the very last page, and leave you gasping for more. There is no doubt that Nghi Vo is not only here to stay but a gale-force talent to be reckoned with, one that will certainly hold us captive for many more years to come.
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