Kill Her Twice
Kill Her Twice
By: Stacey Lee
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2024]
[Fulfilled ‘Book you would recommend to your grandma’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
“‘You think keeping us safe means walking inside the lines. But I have news for you. The lines aren’t keeping us safe. They're keeping us locked up.’”
Kill Her Twice is a murder mystery set in Los Angeles circa 1930s. It’s not a book you pick up just for the mystery, but it has a unique offering of mystery, Chinese culture and their struggles in America, family dynamics, and an Old Time Hollywood setting.
These things converge in an enjoyable, albeit a little slow, read that gives a lot of avenues for discussion.
The basic premise is this:
A rising Hollywood star, Lulu Wong, is found dead in the horse stables of Chinatown. Cause of death is unknown but many signs point to murder.
“Lulu had been the pride of Chinatown. And now she was its deepest sorrow.”
Chinatown is on the verge of being dozed for a new rail station and this kind of publicity is sure to turn the tides further out of their favor.
“A whole world of sights, smells, and sounds would vanish, and who would miss us? No one. They’d just be glad to see us go.”
Sisters May and Gemma, afraid the police won’t do the work to find the truth because of social perception of Chinese Americans, decide to take the investigation into their own hands to find justice for their friend and clear Chinatown of this stain on their name.
“Lulu’s wealth and fame would give the investigation a push. But for how long and how far? In the end, she was just a dead Chinese woman, without even a father to speak for her. Would she matter enough?”
A big part of the story is the family dynamics of the Wong family. The story is told in alternating POVs of May (the oldest sister) and Gemma (the middle sister), but there is also a third sister, Peony, and another baby on the way.
The sisters’ bond reminded me a little bit of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. They still have both parents but because their dad is at a sanatorium, the home is currently a one-parent home, causing the sisters to be bonded in a close way and to be picking up extra responsibilities for their family and taking care of their mom.
There is a decent amount of character development with May and Gemma. They both have the stereotypical personalities of a first born and a middle child. May is the responsible, sensible, rule-follower and people-pleaser. Gemma is the outspoken, bold do-what-you-gotta-do-even-if-it-breaks-some-rules action-taker: “Life gave us plenty of opportunities to be afraid, and an equal number of chances to punch those fears in the nose.”
“If the family was a dragon, Ba was the head, providing direction; Ma, the body, connecting all the parts; and May, the wings, helping us fly the course. I was the tail. Though the wings thought they were in control, it was really the tail that steered. The tail was also capable of striking on its own.”
In their attempt to find Lulu’s killer they need both personalities to navigate this dangerous unknown territory, still occupied by the killer. But they also learn from their mistakes and channel the other sister’s tendencies at various times to pursue justice.
I liked the family bond and that even though their dad was away, he was still leading their family and his family still loved and respected him, wanting to honor him and help take care of their family.
If you’re wondering why the title is ‘Kill Her Twice’ here is a quote from the book:
“It was bad enough that someone had killed her… A second death would come in the form of scandal, her twisted body held up for viewing like some circus sideshow, her fame recast as a cautionary tale. They would kill her twice.”
Another theme in the book is the exploration of the perception of the Chinese people during this time in the United States, particularly LA and Chinatown and Hollywood.
Her second death was the perpetuation of the negativity surrounding Chinese Americans and prejudice against their culture.
In the 1840s, the Chinese immigrants came to the US— the first Asian immigrants. They took on a lot of labor jobs, including helping build the transcontinental railroad. Perception of them in America turned negative and many laws were created out of that prejudice making life in America more challenging for them.
The 1930s was actually a turning point for the Chinese in a lot of areas of the US as they made considerable effort to become more involved in politics and wanting to vote and pushing for change.
Lee says Lulu’s character is loosely inspired by Anna Mae Wong (1905-1961): “considered the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star, whose career, spanning forty years in silent film, talkies, radio, stage, and television, had been largely unrecognized until recently.”
We know the influence Hollywood has on shaping cultural perception of any number of topics, ideas, and people for better or worse. Their portrayal of Chinese Americans in the 30s was usually negative. They were the villains, the cheats, the thieves, and Hollywood played up the Chinese stereotypes. Often white people played Asian characters and taped their eyes to be slanted. This portrayal is mentioned in Kill Her Twice.
Lulu’s fame came on the villainous roles she took, but what might have played into her murder was her newest film in which she would be the heroine and pushed for scenes and dialogue that was generally outlawed.
Just as Hollywood can shape perception negatively, it can shift and shine a positive light and Lulu was striking out, trying to show America the values, principles, and skills of the Chinese people from the stage.
I learned a lot about the Chinese culture and about the struggles they faced during that time period. It is not something I have read much about so I enjoyed the insights into that.
I will say that this story took place during the Great Depression, but I didn’t really get any sense of that while reading. There was some talk of needing to make money, but it was very different vibe than what I’ve read with other Great Depression era stories.
I don’t know enough about the Great Depression to know if Hollywood was hit differently than other parts of the country.
It seems weird that people were still able to buy flowers during this time or host big parties— even for the wealthy. Weren’t they experiencing financial strain as well?
I’m also not sure how the Wong family was able to afford to send their dad to a sanatorium for so long! I don’t know how those things work or what it costs, but it seems like a big expense and not one that would be waived for Chinese people at that time.
I suppose Lee was more trying to focus on the Chinese American struggle rather than the Great Depression struggle, but it would have been interesting to see more interaction between both with that of the Chinese community and the Hollywood elite.
I have not read any other Stacey Lee books, but I would look into them after reading this one. It was written more for YA, which was fine because that meant it was a cleaner read.
I thought it was a bit too slow-going. It seemed like it took forever to develop clues and lines of investigating. We didn’t really make much significant progress until about the last 20% of the book and then all of a sudden things came together and it was solved pretty abruptly.
I didn’t guess who the killer was because Lee did a good job of creating suspicious characters and red herrings along the way. However, the downside of that is that it didn’t really feel like a case that the reader really could have figured out very early because we got so few clues and even the ones we did get we weren’t sure of their significance.
I think it would have been better with a more aggressive handling of the investigation throughout the story. But that’s me who tends to read stories more for the thrills and mysteries than the other aspects.
Because of the abrupt ending and quick wrap-up, I feel like there were several things that didn’t really get resolved!
Like: what about the script-stealing and the ‘You’re next!’ that was written on May’s script? Did we ever really find out who did those things and why?
Or Lulu’s Cadillac? We know who got ownership of it, but it seemed a bit shady and we never really found out if that was proper or not.
And then several reviewers have lamented the lack of romantic resolution at the end as well. I can see their disappointment. The romance areas of the book fleshed out the character development a little bit and provided new avenues to take the plot, but it felt like that thread of story fizzled out a bit by the end and didn’t give us much to go on.
Recommendation:
If you only like to read stories for the mystery or the thrill of it, this book may be a little disappointing or slow for you.
But if you enjoy the historical fiction aspect of the book and diving into new cultures, the combination of themes provided in this book is a nice mix for a reader who doesn’t need constant action.
There were a few things I would change with the pacing and the ending, but overall I enjoyed this book and would be interested in reading more from Stacey Lee.
[Content Advisory: no swearing or sexual content]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
This book just released April 23, 2024. You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.
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