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by Christina Li
Mexican Gothic meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in Christina Li's haunting novel about the secrets that lie in wait in the crumbling mansion of a former Hollywood starlet, and the intertwined fates of the two Chinese American families fighting to inherit it.
Vivian Yin is dead. The first Chinese actress to win an Oscar, the trailblazing ingénue rose to fame in the eighties, only to disappear from the spotlight at the height of her career to live out the rest of her life as a recluse.
Now her remaining family members are gathered for the reading of her will, and her daughters expect to inherit their childhood home: Vivian's grand, sprawling, Southern California garden estate. But due to a last-minute change to the will, the house is passed on to another family instead—one that has suddenly returned after decades of estrangement.
In hopes of staking their claim, both families move into the mansion. As Vivian's daughters race to piece together what happened in the last weeks of their mother's life, disturbing visions and bizarre behaviors start to take hold of everyone in the house, forcing them to realize they are being haunted by something far more sinister and vengeful than their regrets. After so many years of silence, will the families finally confront the painful truth behind the house's origins and the last, tragic summer they spent there—or will they cling to their secrets until it's too late?
Told in dual timelines, spanning three generations, and brimming with romance, betrayal, ambition, and sacrifice, The Manor of Dreams is a thrilling family gothic that examines the true cost of the American Dream—and what happens when the roots we set down in this country turn to rot.
"Is there too much stuffed into this novel? Are there a number of dubious plot elements? Are there any truly credible characters? Picky, picky, picky. Packed with gothic plot, gushing blood, choking clods of dirt, and angry ghosts—a smorgasbord for devotees." —Kirkus Reviews
"[R]ichly imagined...Fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic ought to take note of this beautiful and haunting novel." —Publishers Weekly
"An atmospheric thriller that tackles what some people must pay for the great American dream." —Reader's Digest
"Li's adult debut beautifully intertwines historical fiction, mystery, and romance, including an LGBTQ love story, in this multigenerational saga. A bewitching Chinese American gothic for fans of female-centric thrillers and ghost stories." —Booklist
"A true modern classic. The Manor of Dreams is beautiful, eerie, and woven with enough intrigue to hold all who enter captive. Christina Li remains unmatched in breathing characters to life—and the hauntings thereafter." —Chloe Gong, New York Times bestselling author of Immortal Longings
"The Manor of Dreams peels back the promises of the American Dream to reveal something more painful, more heartbreaking, and ultimately, more true. An ambitious, evocative meditation on the hurts passed down across generations—and how we heal." —Grace D. Li, New York Times bestselling author of Portrait of a Thief
This information about The Manor of Dreams was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Christina Li is the award-winning author of children's and young adult books Clues to the Universe, Ruby Lost and Found, and True Love and Other Impossible Odds, which have been selected as a Washington Post summer book club pick, one of the NPR and New York Public Library Best Books of the Year, and recognized for the Asian Pacific American Librarians' Award for Best Children's Literature. She graduated from Stanford University with degrees in Economics and Public Policy. She grew up in the Midwest and California, but now resides in New York. The Manor of Dreams is her adult literary debut. For more information, visit her website at ChristinaLiWrites.com.
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