This book is creepy and emotional, and I loved it! Hollywood star Vivian Yin has just died, and her family gathers at her sprawling California estate for the reading of her will. Much to daughters Lucille and Rennie's surprise, Vivian has left the house to Elaine, the daughter of Vivian's former housekeeper. The two families decide to stay in the house for a week to settle the issue, but before long, weird things start to happen, and secrets begin to unravel.

This book sucked me in from the beginning and didn't let go. I just adore complicated family dynamics with a side of mystery, and this book slowly unravels every thread in a way that is compulsively readable. The parallel timelines are distinct enough to both be interesting and not pull too much focus from each other, but also are clearly in conversation with each other, and every chapter gives more context and nuance to the other timeline. The characters are complicated and interesting, and the love stories are sprinkled in with a light and deft touch. The thriller/horror/mystery elements are done really well, and things move fast without feeling under-developed. It's also a really interesting exploration of class and race and gender - I loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

I thoroughly enjoyed this ARC — I've read both of Christina Li's middle grades and have loved how she writes grief in such a complex manner. I wish the storyline between Nora and Madeline were developed a little more though!

Absolutely incredible! One of my favorite reads of the year so far. This is more a family drama than a straight up horror book and that’s exactly why it works. The horror is in the tragedy that’s impacted these families. It’s brutal and tragic and has a perfect horror ending and I ate it up from page 1. Li’s writing is tense and her characters here are so complicated. It’ll be easy to say they’re “unlikable” but that would be missing the point of the story being told here. I loved this.

Christina Li’s Manor of Dreams as a twisty, turns modern gothic tale, with multiple POV, veering from glitzy 1970’s Hollywood to an earthy, rusty, crumbling estate.

Li builds wonderful sympathetic characters in a bunch of gloriously different Chinese American women, struggling with generational trauma, secrets, lies, jealousies and love.

This is real modern gothic horror, with slowly building, tense and silent inhalations and explosive and dramatic exhalations. Li breathes life and intent into this crumbling manor and the families that interact there.

This novel may lean a little YA but there is meaningful skill and adult themes that keep a lover of gothic horror engaged.

Yin Manor was built as a labor of love for actress Vivian Yin by her husband Richard. Both used to the glamor of Hollywood their home reflected their fortune. Vivian wanted the best for her daughters andthought that she had found it.


At the reading of Vivians will her daughters Renata and Lucille who is there with her daughter Madeline are expecting to have their troubles erased by their mothers vast fortune. At least until Elaine Deng and her daughter Nora show up to the reading as well and that is when thigns get complicated. Vivins daughters are left 40,000 to split between the two of them but Yin Manor in aits decrepit glory is left to Elaine. Right away Lucille is determined to find a way to get her home back, not believing that her mother died of natural causes after finding out that the will was changed two weeks before her death she and Elaine come to an agreement. The daughers have one week to find proof of any wrong doing, after that they must leave and never return to Yin Manor. Once people enter this home though things start to change. Renata locks herself into her room too scared to really come out and too scared to stand up to Lucille who as usual goes after things like a shark scenting blood in the water. Madeline swears that she sees vines growing in the house, there one minute and gone the next. She finds herself drawn to the garden out back that she has been told to stay out of.

Elaine and Nora begin dreaming of all the ways this house could change their lives. The money they could get from selling it would pay for Nora's medical school. Abruptly though Elaine seems to change her mind and starts planning on all the ways that they can make the house new and turn it into the perfect home. Nora sees her mother less and less as Elaine starts sleep walking and behaving erratically. Soon Elaine won't even leave her room and Nora can hear her in there pacing the floor and muttering to herself.

Things are not what they seem here in Yin Manor, where your dreams become warped, the smell of rust and earth is everywhere and the ghosts of the past make themselves known. Something is lurking in the walls, the very foundation of Yin Manor and it is very angry.

#TheManorofDreams by #ChristineaLi is told in alternate views with a nonlinear timeline. We get to see things from Vivians point of view as she makes her big break in Hollywood and we get to take a crushing dive into her life with Richard. We get to see things from the view of Nora and Madeline both who are very aware that secrets are being kept from them by the ones that they are meant to trust the most.


I want to thank #Netgalley and #Simon&Schuster for the eArc of #TheManor ofDreams by #ChristinaLi in return for a fair and honest review.

A QUEER ASIAN FANTASY DO YOU HEAR ME SCREAMING??? this seemed absolutely perfect but alas i was not able to read and review it by pub date! my endless tbr got the best of me but if this sounds up your alley, i implore you read it!!

Mexican Gothic meets Evelyn Hugo is pretty accurate, and putting a gothic horror wrapper on historical fiction definitely made The Manor of Dreams more compelling, At the beginning it's more unsettling than scary, but it ratchets up-up-up over the course of the book. I just wish there was a stronger, clearer payoff on the source of Yin Manor's evil and why everyone experiences it differently. It wasn't totally clear to me why it came to a head when it did, after building for generations.

I typically find myself looking for a message in gothic horror and here I guess it's about generational trauma and how no one escapes it.

One final note - although I'm not a Mandarin speaker/reader, I appreciated seeing some Mandarin characters/words un-Romanized in the text. I think it's the first time I've seen that in fiction.

This was such an interesting read that was multigenerational and cultural and filled with blended families, horror, and gothic themes. This book was largely atmospheric and I was so invested in seeing how the ghost/supernatural elements would function in this story. There is also a slight (low-stakes) mystery element to the story that aided in driving the story forward and maintain pacing while allowing for the characters to really dive into their personal histories and discover (and uncover) truths about themselves and the past.
I thought the flashbacks were stronger elements to the story and I really enjoyed the blunt reality and how it was in stark contrast to the present day perceptions. Seeing the entirety of Vivian's story and how much she fought for the life she wanted and how she grew trapped by the end was so emotionally compelling. I find it so interesting that, in a ghost story, the real horror is at the hand of those around us and the consequences of our own actions and choices.

I did struggle to connect with the present story and characters. I didn't really get a good feel/understanding as to why certain "secrets" and I think we really could have built up more of the trauma and interconnected histories between the two families.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a digital review copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for the ARC of "The Manor of Dreams" in exchange for an honest review.

Where do I even begin here trying to describe this incredibly ambitious multi-genre book. A sprawling, family saga, filled with high emotion and terrible tragedies......a brutal portrait of Hollywood life and all its jealousies, conniving and dashed dreams.......a telling portrait of several generations of Asian women pursuing the American dream, struggling for opportunities often denied to them. And finally, an all out tale of horror set in a crumbling, forbidding mansion infected and haunted by an unforgiving entity out for bloody revenge.

Yes, all of the above and more has been crammed into this one book. That makes for never less then a compelling read but prepare for a book with a lengthy, lopsided structure that wanders from past drama to current horror and back again.

An untypical assortment of women have gathered at the now decrepit mansion of the late Chinese movie star Vivian YIn, including her surviving daughters Lucille and Rennie, as well as Lucille's twenty-something daughter Madeline. But also there for the reading of Vivian's will are Elaine Deng, the daughter of Vivien's longtime nanny and gardener, along with Elaine's daughter Nora, who's Madeline's age.

To everyone's astonishment, Vivien's will, changed just before her death, contains stunning surprises, which pits Elaine and the two Yin sisters into a hateful rivalry. Caught in the middle of their families bitter war, Nora and Madeline form an unlikely bond to combat a horrific threat to all of them......the house itself, with its constant growing vines that seem poised to engulf anything they come near......or comes near them.

Author Christina Li whips up a frightening depiction of a haunted house that's every bit the equal of any other fictional gothic abode, a nightmarish place whose soul sucking rot literally clogs the pipes. And not a good idea to go plucking flowers in the garden either.. But after that chilling set-up, the book launches into an extended flashback that lays out the misery filled life and times of Vivien Yin. We see how her groundbreaking Academy Award win leads to a descent into a series of unspeakable events that will come back to torment her heirs.

For hardcore horror fans, this part of book might test your patience, as you wonder 'when do we get to the good stuff.". Hang on because 'The Manor of Dreams' finally does deliver the creepy good stuff in quite a spectacular, cinematic finale.

As much as I admire the huge swing-for-the-fences that this book takes, I couldn't help wondering if all the genres it samples wouldn't have been better served (and more effective) if presented in three separate books. Or at least the Grand Opera family drama and the horror hauntings could have been blended together more smoothly. instead of existing in separate sections.

There's great stories told here for both readers of generational sagas and bone shaking scares......but fair warning - you'll have to wait your turn til the author gets around to each one at a time.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Christina Li, and Avid Reader Press for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

What if I told you that I stopped reading Emily Henry’s new novel in order to finish The Manor of Dreams first? And what if I told you I liked it more?! Totally wasn’t expecting that as EmHen’s was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but I’m so not mad about it because this was literally jaw-dropping!! Huge thank you to TikTok for promoting me Li’s page several months ago and introducing me to this book through the author’s promo. I adore gothic horror books, and this was a fantastic story. Add in the fact that it was sapphic and I was so sold! I thought Li did an incredible job with the setting. I truly did not know what was real in the house, which made me feel like I was hallucinating as well! The garden was so creepy, and I loved hearing all the history around the house in the book. I also enjoyed the dual storyline about the two families in the present and the life of Vivian in the past. It was a great twist on the “reclusive actress tells her story” plot line and the merging of the two stories with the gothic horror unfolding in the house helped to make this a really original story. My one critique is that I would have liked to see more about why the person controlling the house was so angry, and I did think the romance felt a bit rushed at times. But I loved all the parallels with the families in the past and present, and I was thoroughly engaged throughout the entire story. I definitely see myself returning to this read, and I can’t wait to check out more of Li’s works!

The Manor of Dreams
by Christina Li
Pub Date: May 06 2025

The Manor of Dreams is a combination of Mexican Gothic suspense with family drama full of secrets and lies. A compelling novel that will keep you turning the pages from the beginning until the very end full of mysteries and family sagas. A definite must read in literary fiction!

Synopsis: Mexican Gothic meets Everything I Never Told You 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. 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.

Many thanks to #NetGalley #AvidReaderPress and #TheManorOfDreams for providing me an E-Arc of this fantastic book!

Film star Vivian Yin is found dead in her lavish California mansion; the circumstances haven't raised any questions of foul play until the recent changes to her will cut out her adult daughters. These events pull the reader back and forth through time to examine Vivian's past and her daughters' present, all circling around the manor house that creeps menacingly into the dreams of those who reside within the walls. The Manor of Dreams is a slow-burning, gothic nightmare that refuses to pull its punches as it documents the slow destruction of Vivian's family.

I cannot stress enough that this is a slow-paced gothic novel. It offers some terrifying imagery throughout the text, but for the most part it relies on a claustrophobic atmosphere that makes the reader feel as trapped as the characters are. Christina Li does a nice job building both character and suspense. At times the jumps between past and present can be a bit jarring, but she gives equal attention to both timelines and is able to make both engaging to read, though I personally found Vivian's story in the past far most interesting.

I do think that this reads more like a YA or new adult novel, which I don't think is a bad thing, but there are some very heavy topics that might be difficult for sensitive readers, definitely check trigger warnings. Though I would say this was an enjoyable read, I did find myself feeling as though certain characters were punished far too harshly. I have not read Dream of the Red Chamber, which is often referenced throughout, so I am not sure if there are aspects that Li is pulling from, but I did think that Vivian got a raw deal at the end of the book considering what she had to endure and her motivations for her actions. I would have preferred more justice for Vivian and Rennie at the close of the book.

This book was a struggle for me to finish. The problem was the story was slow and trying to be too many things; horror, forgiveness, a long lost romance. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

i love mystery/thriller/horror novels that center around generation stories; there's so much opportunity there, and i think that the manor of dreams is a very good generational horror/mystery. however, if you're looking for an edge of your seat, jump-scare filled horror, that is not what this is. this has a slow build horror that i really enjoyed. i loved the dual timelines and how the story unfolded and truths were revealed, however, some aspects did feel a little slow (though was this a book problem or a me problem because i think i'm in a reading slump?). there was a lot that i enjoyed about this one, and while i didn't find myself itching to pick it up or reading lots of chapters at a time, i still recommend checking it out, especially for the descriptive writing and family secrets

Thoroughly enjoyed this very dark and reality bending story about two Chinese-American families.

Things I loved:
- The inclusion of Chinese written characters and phrases without explicit translations all the time made my Chinese-American heart happy. Often that not, I feel Asian Americans are reluctant to take up space with our stories and our languages and this novel was unapologetic about it.
- The gothic horror was done exceptionally well. Oftentimes, I find myself a little uncomfortable with too much gore because as much as I'd like to tell myself I can stomach it, most of the time I can't.
- The timeline shifts were also done well and felt seamless while moving the story forward elegantly.

This was an interesting family drama mixed with bits of creepy spooky horror! 🙌

It definitely has a slower pace to it up until the ending. I really enjoyed Vivian’s timeline the most! I did feel like I was left with some unanswered questions though. But overall I really enjoyed this one and recommend checking it out, particularly if you love family drama and only want a touch of horror! 👏

Thank you to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press, and Christina Li for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

This part haunted house, part family saga, part generational tragedy, is an emotional and scary tale following two families flung together by an inheritance dispute after being torn apart decades earlier. Told through the modern day, where sisters Lucille and Rennie are trying to reclaim their recently deceased mother's home from Elaine, whose parents used to work for the family and was suspiciously listed last minute as the sole inheritor. The women are haunted by bitterness as well as the past, all while the house is being overrun by mysterious vines and they are all being plagued by nightmares and visions. And in the past, we see the story of the mother, Vivian Yin, the first Chinese American to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, whose picture perfect life was hiding despair and darkness. With two powerful storylines, a look at generational trauma, and the ever present realities of racism and prejudice shaping their fates. This is scary and tragic and it should be added to the lists of anyone who likes a haunted house story.

Two families with a complicated history are brought back together by the death of matriarch Vivian Yin. Lucille and Elaine, once like sisters, are battling it out for their family home, Yin Manor, and everyone is staying there while they work through it. But something sinister lurks in the garden - will they make it out before the garden destroys them, or will they destroy each other?

Mostly a family drama with a thread of horror throughout, generational trauma is taken to the next level, with this family’s history full of death and abuse. I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters, and most of them were flawed to the point of unlikable - I was sort of rooting for the garden in the end, a character in itself.

The story kept me engaged and I was frequently flipping back to see if I’d missed a hint. The horror element here is really just the house doing weird stuff and people having strange dreams, nothing too scary or gory.

The Manor of Dreams is a winner! The beginning sucked me in with 2 Chinese families at a lawyer's office to hear the reading of Vivian Yin's will. Vivian is the first Chinese American to win an Oscar. Her daughters thought the estate and any money would go to them, but the massive house was willed to Elaine, the daughter of "the help" at the house. This doesn't sit well with Lucille, Vivian's eldest daughter. What happens next is the past being ripped open. Secrets buried for years and the hurt and angst passed down generations.

I loved the gothic feel of the house. It became a living, angry character which mirrored the dynamics of the remaining families. In contrast is the high society in which Vivian and her husband, Richard, live. How is it that these two different worlds coexist? With the mounting pressure and secrets exposed, something has to give. It does in a huge, explosive way. Revenge, family. acceptance, and finally forgiveness plays out in this gothic, sapphic thriller.

I thought this was going to be a quick read, but instead it took longer as I savored every event that was unfolding. This is a fantastic gothic read with a splash of glamour. Don't miss The Manor of Dreams!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an early copy.

Sounded completely beautiful but for some reason I just couldn't connect. It was like reading a dream, and maybe that was the point. I think I was expecting something completely different and that got in the way.