When you pick up Your Beloved Remains, you’re choosing unhinged academic rivals who actually perform worse under pressure. And then some.

It would be easy to simply categorize this novel as dark academia. How else would you interpret “I kinda want to impress this woman who fiendishly tore me apart in the literature journals but all she cares about is this dead author”?

However, Your Beloved Remains is so embedded in the setting of Basin College that it feels like a true descendant of The Haunting of Hill House (and, dare I say, weird girl lit).

The story is a dual POV: -Celia, an archivist who has built her entire life around gothic author Beatrice Donahue -Joan Harriot, a postdoc skilled in mimicry and keeping her own dark secrets

I thoroughly enjoyed the pull of will-they-won’t-they get along just long enough to complete their crimes. The duo that is Quinn Connor does an excellent job of building characters with Wants at odds with their insecurities. I dumbfoundedly watched our two main characters until the very end. My eye is fixed on what Quinn Connor does next.

Did I enjoy it? 👍 Do I recommend it? 👍