The Seventh Veil of Salome

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of my favorite authors, and despite how diversely she writes, she never misses. Her latest novel, The Seventh Veil of Salome, is one of her few works that isn’t speculative fiction. Instead, this a historical fiction novel set in 1950s Hollywood, about two women vying for the same leading role in a film about Salome, as well as the story of Salome herself. There is so much tension building between Vera and Nancy in the 1950s, while Salome faces hard choices in terms of love and power.

Tropes & Narrative Devices:

• Mix of third-person and first-person POVs: Three main characters (Vera; Nancy; Salome) are in third-person; other minor characters give brief first-person accounts
• Unlikable character
• Dual timeline

What I Liked:

• There are three main characters here: Vera, the unknown Mexican woman cast as the lead in the film about Salome; Nancy, the bitter actress who still hasn’t had her big break; and Salome herself, grappling with hard decisions in the Roman Empire.
• Vera is a captivating character who is so talented and smart. Sadly, she faces unfair scrutiny from her mother, sexism and racism in her career, and a lack of support for what she really wants to do.
• Nancy is an unlikable character: bitter, entitled, selfish, violent. She’s fun to read, but not someone I’d want to know in real life!
• The love story between Vera and Jay. I like these two together, even if they have a complicated road ahead of them.
• Discussions of music. Vera and Jay love music, from opera to jazz. I enjoyed their deeper analyses of music and their passion for creating music of their own.
• The random first-person people: It feels like they’re being interviewed, decades after the fact, about what went down in 1950s Hollywood—like an oral history. It gives this novel a fresh perspective and a faster pace. Although the main story is all in the third person, and we never get to hear directly from our three protagonists, I enjoyed getting these outsiders’ glimpses into what they thought about everything.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• The ending was too sudden and fast! It was well done, with rapidly shifting and brief scenes, but I wanted a bit more.

Final Thoughts

The Seventh Veil of Salome is a book that will appeal to fans of historical fiction and Old Hollywood. The main characters are women fighting for more and facing unfair scrutiny, restrictions, and prejudices. It’s an engrossing novel, especially with all the extra perspectives thrown in. The book ends rather suddenly, perhaps allowing the reader to imagine an ending as they will… much like how the secondary characters fill in their own blanks.

Special thanks to Del Rey and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy The Seventh Veil of Salome here – it’s available as a hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Audience	Adult
Genre	Historical Fiction
Setting	Hollywood
Number of Pages	336
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	August 6, 2024
Publisher	Del Rey

Official Summary

A young woman wins the role of a lifetime in a film about a legendary heroine—but the real drama is behind the scenes in this sumptuous historical epic from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.

“Whenever I want to read a book I know will be good, I go to Silvia Moreno-Garcia.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

1950s Hollywood: Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary woman whose story has inspired artists since ancient times.

So when the film’s mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingenue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.

Two actresses, both determined to make it to the top in Golden Age Hollywood—a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue—make for a sizzling combination.

But this is the tale of three women, for it is also the story of the princess Salome herself, consumed with desire for the fiery prophet who foretells the doom of her stepfather, Herod: a woman torn between the decree of duty and the yearning of her heart.

Before the curtain comes down, there will be tears and tragedy aplenty in this sexy Technicolor saga.