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A review by stormlightreader
The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
5.0
The Seventh Veil of Salome showcases the golden age of Hollywood through a range of POVs which all bring something different to the story. Something that Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes really well is women who are complex to the point of becoming villains.
Nancy is a character who I found so easy to despise and while you can argue that she is also so pitiable, I could not bring myself to care about her. Whereas, Vera is a protagonist to root for. She is 'discovered' and thrust from her simpler life as a receptionist in Mexico into the lead role of Salome in The Seventh Veil of Salome, and as a result she becomes the focus of Nancy's envy. Despite Nancy's own decisions causing her problems, she fails to see this and instead she believes that Vera has “stolen” her role of Salome. The anger she directs at Vera is detestable and nearly every comment she makes about/towards Vera is racially driven, calling Vera things like a 'beaner' and saying Vera "has a face like a tortilla, all flat". This anger is clearly driven by the fact that Nancy has no power whatsoever in Hollywood and has no means to fight the people who are actually preventing her from being successful. Vera is also on the receiving end of verbal assaults from her own family along with the imposed rules of gender coming from both her relatives and from Hollywood, she also has to put up with men who feel entitled to her, who then try to smear her name when she says no. What's really interesting to me is that SMG wrote this story about a character from the bible and I didn't even realise until I got to the author's note.
The range of POVs is really good and includes the main characters as well as intermittent snippets from other characters who bring in alternative perspectives on events happening in the main POVs. If you're an audiobook person, these POVs are narrated in a full cast audiobook, which is really good. The book has scenes from The Seventh Veil of Salome interspersed into the story. As a whole, this story felt like a 4.5* the whole way through but due to how invested I was, the great audio narration and the author's note, I had to give it a 5*. This is possibly my favourite SMG book so far.
Thank you NetGalley for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.
Nancy is a character who I found so easy to despise and while you can argue that she is also so pitiable, I could not bring myself to care about her. Whereas, Vera is a protagonist to root for. She is 'discovered' and thrust from her simpler life as a receptionist in Mexico into the lead role of Salome in The Seventh Veil of Salome, and as a result she becomes the focus of Nancy's envy. Despite Nancy's own decisions causing her problems, she fails to see this and instead she believes that Vera has “stolen” her role of Salome. The anger she directs at Vera is detestable and nearly every comment she makes about/towards Vera is racially driven, calling Vera things like a 'beaner' and saying Vera "has a face like a tortilla, all flat". This anger is clearly driven by the fact that Nancy has no power whatsoever in Hollywood and has no means to fight the people who are actually preventing her from being successful. Vera is also on the receiving end of verbal assaults from her own family along with the imposed rules of gender coming from both her relatives and from Hollywood, she also has to put up with men who feel entitled to her, who then try to smear her name when she says no. What's really interesting to me is that SMG wrote this story about a character from the bible and I didn't even realise until I got to the author's note.
The range of POVs is really good and includes the main characters as well as intermittent snippets from other characters who bring in alternative perspectives on events happening in the main POVs. If you're an audiobook person, these POVs are narrated in a full cast audiobook, which is really good. The book has scenes from The Seventh Veil of Salome interspersed into the story. As a whole, this story felt like a 4.5* the whole way through but due to how invested I was, the great audio narration and the author's note, I had to give it a 5*. This is possibly my favourite SMG book so far.
Thank you NetGalley for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.