From These Dark Abodes
by Lyndsie Manusos
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Pub Date Sep 17 2024 | Archive Date Not set
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Description
St. Edah’s, a house without exit: Lethe and Petunia are mortal prisoners, servants to immortal creatures who unzip from their skin each night and party as skeletons.
Lethe has no memory of how she came to be trapped in this nightmare, only that despite the tenderness she feels for Petunia, she must escape. Together, they traverse the infinite house, searching for passage while finding evidence of their former lives—lives that are not what they believed them to be.
Lethe must decide: join the immortals in their revelry or escape St. Edah’s once and for all.
Advance Praise
“twisty, complex, and rewarding speculative fiction”
—Publishers Weekly
“From These Dark Abodes is a wonderfully dark page-turner overflowing with fairytale-like dread. Much like the revelers of St. Edah's who strip themselves of flesh to unsheathe their gilded bones, this novella continually changes shape until it reveals its vulnerable center in its final pages. A tender triumph about grief, memory, and elusive self-acceptance, as well as a masterful myth-mystery you'll want to reread once you reach the end.”
—Thomas Ha, Nebula, Locus, and Shirley Jackson-Nominated Author
“For all its grandeur and size, St Edah’s is a stifling, claustrophobic prison for servants Petunia and Lethe. Horrified by the nightly skeletal revelries they’re forced to serve, the women seek escape and glimpses of their old memories, and instead stumble on the darkest secrets of the house. Manusos’ talent for building an atmospheric world around the reader—trapping them brick by brick like an authorial Cask of Amontillado—is on full display here. From These Dark Abodes blends gothic mystery with bloody body horror in unexpected ways; fans of Shirley Jackson and Silvia Moreno-Garcia will feast gluttonously here.”
—Lindz McLeod, author of Turducken and Sunbathers
“Dreamy and evocative, From These Dark Abodes is a novella suffused with longing that explores the meaning of life through the specter of death.”
—A.C. Wise, author of The Ghost Sequences
“FROM THESE DARK ABODES clawed my heart open and brought the sinew and sharp needle to sew it closed again. From Lethe's fathomless longing to Petunia's claustrophobic, crushed-down postpartum existence, this novella felt terribly human--filled with all the ways we hurt and help each other.”
—Aimee Ogden, author of Nebula Award Finalist SUN-DAUGHTERS, SEA-DAUGHTERS
"FROM THESE DARK ABODES is an intricately crafted labyrinth with hidden spaces in between that weaves together decadent body horror, complex relationships—intimate like hugging bones, exposed like peeled back skin—told through prose with an intoxicating atmospheric pull, crawling with sensory details."
—Ai Jiang, Nebula and Bram Stoker award-winning author of Linghun
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9798891160057 |
| PRICE | $13.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 130 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Books the M, Reviewer
This is a quick, horrifyingly interesting novella. It did not go as I expected in the slightest. You, too, will wonder where the main characters came from and why they can’t leave. It’s a scary mystery that unravels little by little.
Trigger warning: body horror, and lots of it. Don’t read this if you are squeamish.
Thank you to NetGalley and Psychopomp for an eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.
Maria H, Media/Journalist
A beautifully strange take on an altered afterlife/underworld where skins are shed, skeletons dance, and few things are what they seem. Manusos weaves the reality of postpartum depression and complicated feelings of grief and love and longing into the tale.
Krystelle F, Reviewer
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
This book was a beautifully atmospheric book with absolutely lilting prose. There was so much worldbuilding in here for such a short novella, and I will say the substance of my critique is that I wish this were longer. There's a lot in here to see, and there's some really prosaic descriptions of appalling body horror in here.
I really did enjoy this book, but I wished it was longer and a bit more fleshed out. The characters could have done with a bit more development, but they are described well, and what we are given of them was nicely done and felt like it was piecemeal on purpose. This one is well worth the read, particularly if you can deal with body horror without flinching.
Samantha H, Reviewer
Lethe and Petunia scour St Edah's in search of a way out. Each day, they must serve its macabre inhabitants- ethereal gods and goddesses who shed their skin and revel as skeletons.
Hannah K, Reviewer
This is an eerie novella full of longing and oppression, and, just for fun, the world lapping at the edges of a never ending party for skeletons that's totally not hiding anything sinister and wrong. The mood is exquisitely gothic, and I am absolutely intrigued for what Ms. Manusos will put out next.
Lexi D, Reviewer
At 130 pages, These Dark Abodes is the perfect one-sitting morsel to get ready for spooky season. Filled with body horror and questions of morality (and humanity,) I am already looking forward to reading this one again.
Lethe and Petunia are trapped in a never ending house without a door to the outside. They are tasked with serving the occupants of the house when they throw down and party each night. The jump scare part of this is that the occupants of the house peel out of their skin each night to dance around as skeletons.
Beautifully written and insightful enough to make me question the weight of my own skin. Check this one out if you like body horror, haunted houses, and questioning everything!
This is an ARC so quotes may differ from finished copy:
“She held sway over the house, its occupants, and controlled who could unzip from their skins.”
“Even so, everyone had a reason for wanting to leave their own body. A trauma to escape from, to unzip from their skins and celebrate a night without its heaviness.”
**Thank you to NetGalley and Psychopomp for the eARC of this terrifying title!**
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