What do you think?
Rate this book
Win a free print copy of this book!
9 days and 20:21:17
100 copies available
U.S. only
Your Beloved Remains
Not yet published
Expected 6 Oct 26Win a free print copy of this book!
9 days and 20:21:17
100 copies available
U.S. only
As fascination turns to obsession, two women drag each other into an academic horror of forgery, murder, and rage, destined to be devoured by readers of Plain Bad Heroines and If We Were Villains.
Archivist Celia Kiel has spent her life on the remote campus of Basin College in the Southern Ozarks. Once a jewel of women’s higher education in the South, the school now molders on its mountaintop, its endowment thinly supported by the bequeathed estate of 19th century writer, Beatrice Donahue. Celia guards the legacy of this venerated, yet scandalous author, who has been the object of her illicit desire since childhood.
When the administration announces the college's imminent closure, Celia discovers a manuscript pickled in formaldehyde, and with it, a chance to save the only home she's ever known. She will forge Beatrice's infamous lost work, a spellbinding horror written toward her life's tumultuous end. To do it, she is forced to recruit her professional rival, literature postdoc Joan Harriot, who has both an astounding talent for mimicry and a dark secret of her own. As their world closes in and the ghosts of the Victorian past encroach, their creative collaboration spirals into an obsession more twisted than even their beloved Beatrice could have penned.
Archivist Celia Kiel has spent her life on the remote campus of Basin College in the Southern Ozarks. Once a jewel of women’s higher education in the South, the school now molders on its mountaintop, its endowment thinly supported by the bequeathed estate of 19th century writer, Beatrice Donahue. Celia guards the legacy of this venerated, yet scandalous author, who has been the object of her illicit desire since childhood.
When the administration announces the college's imminent closure, Celia discovers a manuscript pickled in formaldehyde, and with it, a chance to save the only home she's ever known. She will forge Beatrice's infamous lost work, a spellbinding horror written toward her life's tumultuous end. To do it, she is forced to recruit her professional rival, literature postdoc Joan Harriot, who has both an astounding talent for mimicry and a dark secret of her own. As their world closes in and the ghosts of the Victorian past encroach, their creative collaboration spirals into an obsession more twisted than even their beloved Beatrice could have penned.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication October 6, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Read
March 6, 2026I blurbed this one!
"It's not often I find a novel where I know from the first page that it'll climb in my heart and head and won't ever leave, but Your Beloved Remains is one of them. Dark, transgressive, and beautifully written; a rare and perfect novel."
"It's not often I find a novel where I know from the first page that it'll climb in my heart and head and won't ever leave, but Your Beloved Remains is one of them. Dark, transgressive, and beautifully written; a rare and perfect novel."
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I want to begin this review with the clarification that Dark Academia is pretty much my favorite genre. On one hand, perhaps this makes me positively biased towards high ratings for DA books. On the other hand, I have read a LOT of DA at this point and haven't loved all of them.
I loved Your Beloved Remains. It's probably a 4 or 4.5 star read due to a couple plot points I wasn't totally sure on, but I am giving it 5 stars because I thought the whole fever dream quality of the ending was so well done.
Celia is our heroine. She is a total weirdo, an archivist in the 1980s at a remote college in the Ozarks who is obsessed - literally - with the founder of the college, a 19th century writer named Beatrice Donahue. All POVs that are from Celia are told in 2nd person, and she speaks directly to Beatrice in her mind at all times. Celia is a delightful basket case with a likely personality disorder. Add to this that Beatrice Donahue is famous more for her disturbing and shocking behavior than for her writing, and it's clear why Celia basically has no friends.
Our second MC is "Harry" - Joan Harriot - a doctoral student newly employed at the college. Harry and Celia clash instantly because Harry is skeptical of the genius of Beatrice's writing - unforgivable in Celia's eyes.
Celia stumbles upon a lost manuscript of Beatrice's, one which had famously existed but no one knew what had become of it. She knows the impact this will have on the literary world, and the timing is excellent as she has been given a tip that the college is likely to be shut down.
To reveal more would ruin the fun of reading the story, but suffice to say that Celia reluctantly enlists Harry to help her with the restoration of the old text. The book takes a sharp turn at a certain point and becomes a true horror story. This is a standard element of DA, but in this case it feels very gothic, which works so well. The author has clearly read The Secret History, the grandmama of all gothic DA. I loved the ending, and all of the twists. The final portion of the book has a claustrophobic sense of doom hanging over it - excellent atmosphere.
DA with major themes of romantic obsession and undertones of feminist rage - subtle, yet compelling. Loved this one! Thank you NetGalley.
I loved Your Beloved Remains. It's probably a 4 or 4.5 star read due to a couple plot points I wasn't totally sure on, but I am giving it 5 stars because I thought the whole fever dream quality of the ending was so well done.
Celia is our heroine. She is a total weirdo, an archivist in the 1980s at a remote college in the Ozarks who is obsessed - literally - with the founder of the college, a 19th century writer named Beatrice Donahue. All POVs that are from Celia are told in 2nd person, and she speaks directly to Beatrice in her mind at all times. Celia is a delightful basket case with a likely personality disorder. Add to this that Beatrice Donahue is famous more for her disturbing and shocking behavior than for her writing, and it's clear why Celia basically has no friends.
Our second MC is "Harry" - Joan Harriot - a doctoral student newly employed at the college. Harry and Celia clash instantly because Harry is skeptical of the genius of Beatrice's writing - unforgivable in Celia's eyes.
Celia stumbles upon a lost manuscript of Beatrice's, one which had famously existed but no one knew what had become of it. She knows the impact this will have on the literary world, and the timing is excellent as she has been given a tip that the college is likely to be shut down.
To reveal more would ruin the fun of reading the story, but suffice to say that Celia reluctantly enlists Harry to help her with the restoration of the old text. The book takes a sharp turn at a certain point and becomes a true horror story. This is a standard element of DA, but in this case it feels very gothic, which works so well. The author has clearly read The Secret History, the grandmama of all gothic DA. I loved the ending, and all of the twists. The final portion of the book has a claustrophobic sense of doom hanging over it - excellent atmosphere.
DA with major themes of romantic obsession and undertones of feminist rage - subtle, yet compelling. Loved this one! Thank you NetGalley.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I love it when authors write a book especially for me.
Now, I know Quinn Connor didn't really set out to write this book with me in mind, but this includes everything I love in a gothic book so they might as well have:
- sapphism;
- obsession in general, but especially with a dead author, death in general, a living woman you hate but also yearn for, and a specific place or building
- a dead author who was just fucking weird, and then it includes excerpts of that author's work;
- the beauty and horrors of academia;
- a beautiful writing style.
I also loved how the whole book was written in second person. I'd love to see that used more.
10/10 no notes from me.
Now, I know Quinn Connor didn't really set out to write this book with me in mind, but this includes everything I love in a gothic book so they might as well have:
- sapphism;
- obsession in general, but especially with a dead author, death in general, a living woman you hate but also yearn for, and a specific place or building
- a dead author who was just fucking weird, and then it includes excerpts of that author's work;
- the beauty and horrors of academia;
- a beautiful writing style.
I also loved how the whole book was written in second person. I'd love to see that used more.
10/10 no notes from me.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews