Overview

A dark history is unearthed amid crumbling fa ades in Lambda Literary fellow Victor Manibo's new gothic tale of family, homecoming, and postcolonial vengeance . . . A dark history is unearthed amid crumbling fa ades in Lambda Literary fellow Victor Manibo's new gothic tale of family, homecoming, and postcolonial vengeance . . . SOME LEGACIES ARE BEST LEFT BURIED . . . Villa Sepulveda is a storied relic of the Philippines' past- a Spanish colonial manor, its moldering stonework filled with centuries-old heirlooms, nestled in a remote coconut plantation. When their patriarch dies mysteriously, his far-flung family returns to their ancestral home. Filipino-American student Adrian Sepulveda invites his college girlfriend, Sophie, a transracial adoptee who knows little about her own Filipino heritage, to the funeral of a man who was entwined with the history of the country itself. Sophie soon learns that there is more to the Sepulvedas than a grand tradition of political and entrepreneurial success. Adrian's relatives clash viciously amid grief, confusion, and questions about the family curse that their matriarch refuses to answer. When a landslide traps them all in the villa, secrets begin to emerge, revealing sins both intimately personal and unthinkably public. Sifting through fact, folklore, and fiction, Sophie finds herself at the center of a reckoning. Did a mythical demon really kill Adrian's grandfather? How complicit are the Sepulvedas in the country's oppressive history? As a series of ill omens befall the villa, Sophie must decide whom to trust-and whom to flee-before the family's true legacy comes to take its revenge . . .

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9781645661382

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Reviews

Praise for The Villa, Once Beloved “For all its beauty, no saints, no heroes, no angels inhabit this villa — only ghosts and secrets. Manibo has crafted a pitch-perfect modern gothic, in which the personal is political and there is no such thing as the past: only facets of a dangerous and suffocating present.” —Premee Mohamed, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora Award-winning author “Manibo is the kind of writer who knows what's forever: the gothic, the triumph of queers, the family fable. He puts all that up against what cannot stand: colonialism, small-mindedness, the lies that keep us from ourselves. The Villa Once Beloved is a now and forever banger.” —Meg Elison, author of The Pill “The Villa, Once Beloved is a tale of eerie legacy, one branded with the mark of colonization and the haunting of family. It weighs the present against the past that paid for it. Victor Manibo steeps us deep in Filipino heritage, hierarchy, and history, crafting a tale that will keep your lights on at night.” —Markus Redmond, actor, screenwriter, and author of Blood Slaves “A harrowing tale delving into dark Filipino history, Manibo’s vintage style renews the gothic trope of haunted houses with the Sepulveda villa. A character all its own, the villa is secretive yet revealing, cursed yet still loved, frightening yet wounded. An unsettling read of horrific colonial atrocities and the aftermath of generational trauma.” —Shannon Morgan, author of Her Little Flowers and Grimdark

Praise for The Villa, Once Beloved “Manibo is the kind of writer who knows what's forever: the gothic, the triumph of queers, the family fable. He puts all that up against what cannot stand: colonialism, small-mindedness, the lies that keep us from ourselves. The Villa Once Beloved is a now and forever banger.” —Meg Elison, author of The Pill “The Villa, Once Beloved is a tale of eerie legacy, one branded with the mark of colonization and the haunting of family. It weighs the present against the past that paid for it. Victor Manibo steeps us deep in Filipino heritage, hierarchy, and history, crafting a tale that will keep your lights on at night.” —Markus Redmond, actor, screenwriter, and author of Blood Slaves “A harrowing tale delving into dark Filipino history, Manibo’s vintage style renews the gothic trope of haunted houses with the Sepulveda villa. A character all its own, the villa is secretive yet revealing, cursed yet still loved, frightening yet wounded. An unsettling read of horrific colonial atrocities and the aftermath of generational trauma.” —Shannon Morgan, author of Her Little Flowers and Grimdark

Praise for The Villa, Once Beloved “A harrowing tale delving into dark Filipino history, Manibo’s vintage style renews the gothic trope of haunted houses with the Sepulveda villa. A character all its own, the villa is secretive yet revealing, cursed yet still loved, frightening yet wounded. An unsettling read of horrific colonial atrocities and the aftermath of generational trauma.” —Shannon Morgan, author of Her Little Flowers and Grimdark

Author Information

Victor Manibo is a Filipino speculative fiction writer living in New York. A 2022 Lambda Literary Emerging Voices Fellow, he is the author of the science fiction noir novel The Sleepless. His next novel, Escape Velocity, is forthcoming from Erewhon Books in Spring 2024. Find him online at victormanibo.com or on Twitter @victormanibo.

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