The Cleric Chih accompanies a beautiful young bride to her wedding to the aging ruler of a crumbling estate situated at the crossroads of dead empires. The bride's party is welcomed with elaborate courtesies and extravagant banquets, but between the frightened servants and the cryptic warnings of the lord's mad son, they quickly realize that something is haunting the shadowed halls.
As Chih and the bride-to-be explore empty rooms and desolate courtyards, they are drawn into the mystery of what became of Lord Guo's previous wives and the dark history of Doi Cao itself. But as the wedding night draws to its close, Chih will learn at their peril that not all monsters are to be found in the shadows; some monsters hide in plain sight.
The Singing Hills Cycle has been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award, and the Ignyte Award, and has won the Crawford Award and the Hugo Award.
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
The Singing Hills Cycle
4 books in catalog
Speculative fiction novella series like The Singing Hills Cycle and fantasy reimagining novels have earned broad recognition across the fantasy and LGBTQ literary landscapes. Nghi Vo, an American author of short stories, novellas, and novels born in Peoria, Illinois, made her debut publication in 2007 with Strange Horizons before achieving wide acclaim for her debut novella, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, which won the Hugo Award for Best Novella and the IAFA Crawford Award.
Her published body of work spans atmospheric historical fantasy, re-imagined literary classics, and intricate short fiction, connecting personal identity with epic mythology.
Born on December 4, 1981, in Peoria, Illinois, Nghi Vo began publishing speculative fiction in 2007, with early short stories appearing in magazines such as Strange Horizons. Over the following decade, she developed a distinct voice in short-form fiction, culminating in the 2020 release of The Empress of Salt and Fortune. The novella launched The Singing Hills Cycle, following the cleric Chih as they collect stories, oral histories, and folk memories across a rich fictional empire. This debut novella earned the Hugo Award for Best Novella and the IAFA Crawford Award, establishing Vo's prominent position in modern speculative fiction.
Vo expanded into full-length novels with the 2021 release of The Chosen and the Beautiful, a queer fantasy reimagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. She followed this with the 2022 pre-code Hollywood fantasy novel Siren Queen and the 2024 novel The City in Glass. Alongside her novels, she continued expanding The Singing Hills Cycle with installments including When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, Into the Riverlands, Mammoths at the Gates, and The Brides at High Hill. Her short works have received critical distinction, including the Shirley Jackson Award for her 2022 novelette What the Dead Know and a Hugo Award nomination for On the Fox Roads, alongside short fiction such as Stitched to Skin Like Family Is published in Uncanny Magazine.
Vo's writing frequently centers on the power of storytelling, memory, ritual, and marginalized identities within speculative settings. Her works integrate LGBTQ themes, intricate worldbuilding, and historical or mythic structures to explore how history is recorded, altered, or remembered. Whether reshaping familiar literary traditions or crafting standalone fantasy worlds, her prose relies on vivid sensory detail, deliberate narrative framing, and deep character psychology.
