Complete manuscript · Forthcoming
La Crème de la Dead
By MieMie Hsu · Nightgrave Publishing
Every year costs a life.
About the book
Hollywood, 1994. At forty-five, actress Melissa Wong can still command a room with her wit and charisma. The industry that once celebrated her beauty now studies every line on her face. When her younger lover, actor Brent Phillips, leaves her for rising star and professional rival Carmen Chew, his cruel goodbye confirms Melissa’s worst fear: everyone is ready to replace her.
Then Melissa meets Sorina, a mysterious Romanian woman who seems to know exactly what she has lost. Sorina offers her a skin cream unlike anything money can buy. Its promise is simple: every life sacrificed to its creation takes one year off Melissa’s age. What begins as a desperate bargain becomes a consuming hunger as her face grows younger, the cameras return, and Hollywood welcomes her back.
Melissa’s comeback brings new roles, renewed desire, and the chance to settle old scores. But a detective is tracing the disappearances surrounding her, and the secrets beneath her home are growing harder to hide. With her sister drawn into the danger, Melissa must confront the true cost of the beauty she has reclaimed—and how much of herself she is willing to destroy to keep it.
- Author & copyright holder
- MieMie Hsu
- Publisher
- Nightgrave Publishing
- Status
- Complete manuscript · Forthcoming
- Length
- 95,000 words
- Genre
- Supernatural horror · Hollywood noir
- Setting
- Los Angeles, California · 1994
Release date and ordering information to be announced.
Copyright © 2026 MieMie Hsu. All rights reserved.