A review by mitskacir
Delayed Rays of a Star by Amanda Lee Koe

4.0

This book was not exactly what I thought it would be - it did tell (parts of) the stories of Anna May Wong, Leni Riefenstahl, and Marlene Dietrich, but it also told the stories of many other characters, fleshing out the portraits of these three women and of the time. The other characters' stories also added much needed perspectives on war, coming of age, race relations, and class that would have been very different if only the perspectives of these movie stars were given. I did feel that narrative concerning Anna May Wong was slight in comparison to Leni and Marlene, which grieved me particularly because much of Marlene's story in particular as an aged hermit was rather dull, and Anna May's story had the most interesting commentary on race. Additionally, Leni's storyline did not seem to be very relevant to the other two (we do not see her interacting with Anna May, and Marlene is primarily a long distance rival, with little real interaction between the women). It seemed she was included more because of the time period of their prominence, rather than her relationships with the other women. (According to my skim through Wikipedia) Anna May and Leni had a friendship that was not explored in this book, which I think could have helped bring Leni's story more in line with the other two. Overall, a interesting and well written book, I learned a lot about figures I knew very little about, and the audiobook narrator was quite good.