The Manor of Dreams
Christina Li
(Author)
This title will be released on:
May 6, 2025
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Description
“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
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.
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.
Product Details
| Publisher | Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster |
| Publish Date | May 06, 2025 |
| Pages | 352 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Hardback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781668051726 |
| Dimensions | 228.6 X 152.4 X 30.5 mm | 498.9 g |
About the Author
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.You can follow her on Instagram @ChristinaLiWrites, X @CLiWrites, and TikTok @CLiWrites. For more information, visit her website at ChristinaLiWrites.com.
Reviews
"Christina Li has woven together the struggles of immigration, the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, the resentments between upstairs-downstairs “friends,” and the glitz and disappointments of Hollywood to create a clever, unexpected, and lush ghost story. I curled up with The Manor of Dreams and read it over a single weekend."—Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of Lady Tan's Circle of Women
"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
“You know that feeling when you watch the first episode of a streaming series and instantly know you’re going to binge the whole thing? That’s exactly how you’ll feel after reading the first chapter of The Manor of Dreams. A part of you—a very delighted part—will immediately think, ‘Cancel all my plans; I’m devouring this in one sitting.’ And that’s exactly what I did. Deliciously eerie, culturally vibrant, and historically profound—The Manor of Dreams is a dark pleasure.” —Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
"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
"Haunting, tender, and intoxicating. Written with gorgeous prose and unforgettable characters, Li's gothic adult debut will leave you devastated until the very end, and then long after you've put the book down."—Carolyn Huynh, author of The Family Recipe and The Fortunes of Jaded Women
“Richly imagined… Fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic ought to take note of this beautiful and haunting novel." —Publishers Weekly
“Packed with gothic plot, gushing blood, choking clods of dirt, and angry ghosts—a smorgasbord for devotees.” —Kirkus Reviews
“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 lushly crafted haunted house gothic, full of family secrets and forbidden romance and grounded in Hollywood’s long history of racism and patriarchy.” —CrimeReads
"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
“You know that feeling when you watch the first episode of a streaming series and instantly know you’re going to binge the whole thing? That’s exactly how you’ll feel after reading the first chapter of The Manor of Dreams. A part of you—a very delighted part—will immediately think, ‘Cancel all my plans; I’m devouring this in one sitting.’ And that’s exactly what I did. Deliciously eerie, culturally vibrant, and historically profound—The Manor of Dreams is a dark pleasure.” —Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
"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
"Haunting, tender, and intoxicating. Written with gorgeous prose and unforgettable characters, Li's gothic adult debut will leave you devastated until the very end, and then long after you've put the book down."—Carolyn Huynh, author of The Family Recipe and The Fortunes of Jaded Women
“Richly imagined… Fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic ought to take note of this beautiful and haunting novel." —Publishers Weekly
“Packed with gothic plot, gushing blood, choking clods of dirt, and angry ghosts—a smorgasbord for devotees.” —Kirkus Reviews
“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 lushly crafted haunted house gothic, full of family secrets and forbidden romance and grounded in Hollywood’s long history of racism and patriarchy.” —CrimeReads
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