"I wanted to change the world simply because I could," says the protagonist of Siren Queen, who charts her journey from a child extra to a Hollywood phenomenon, if not exactly a leading lady, known as Luli Wei. Nothing about Luli's identity, including her name, comes without complication. This is partly because she's a queer, Chinese American actress in author Nghi Vo's alternate-reality version of the Golden Age (1920s-30s) movie business. But as we soon find out, she's not the only one in the industry who has difficulty conforming to its standards. All performers are expected to present a certain image to the world, both on screen and in highly publicized projections of their private lives.

Siren Queen could be said to be based loosely on the life of actress Anna May Wong, similarly to how the world Luli inhabits appears to be based loosely on the world of classic Hollywood that we ...