Summary:
"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 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 woman 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.
My Thoughts:
As soon as I saw this book, I knew I had to read it.
Luli, unlike the summery paints her to be, is actually a nice person. She stands up for her friends, even if it means risking her own film career. Luli ends up falling for another actress hoping to make it - Emmaline. They end up in a secret relationship for a short time. But when Luli risks her career by protecting her pregnant and in-love friend Greta, Emmaline leaves, not wanting to lose her own career. Luli ends up befriending Harry Long, a young and handsome actor who plays opposite her in a series of films. She also happens across a bar during an "only women" night and meets Tara, a script writer who has to pretend to be a male writer.
While on set filming one of her films, the set catches fire for an unknown reason. Most people get out. But Harry Long has disappeared, and we don't know if he escaped or simply wanted to end his life. Since he is unable to play his role in the film, it is rewritten for an actress - who turns out to be Emmaline. Luli confronts Emmaline for disappearing and not talking to her.
The ending is pretty odd. There's a time skip where Luli is an older woman who sees the beginning of the acceptance of gay people, and that she had a wife named Jane. It felt rushed, and a few important plot points were never tied up. We still don't know if Harry Long is alive or dead, and we don't really see Luli grieving over him. Emmaline was such an important person to Luli in the beginning of her career, but there is no conflict resolution.
On one hand, I love this book. On the other hand, I can't stand how messy the ending is. The author supposedly did a lot of revisions for this book, as it was originally a novella but now it is a novel. Since she was working on this for years, you would think that there would be a satisfying ending, but there isn't.
My Rating: 3 stars
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