The class subterfuge of Parasite meets the skewering of white supremacy in Get Out in this unmissable horror debut where a Chinese American woman who swindles her way into a white family's home realizes she may not be the only threat in the house.
Nicky thinks she might be a bad person; others would call her a con artist. All she knows is that she's always hungered for a life she can never have, so when the opportunity arises to become a live-in tutor for the adopted Chinese son of a wealthy white couple, she doesn't hesitate - even though she doesn't speak a lick of Mandarin herself.
The Bells are the perfect mark, welcoming Nicky with open arms into their lavish Connecticut summer home, a vine-entombed manor filled with relics from the Far East. As Nicky sets her sights on the Bells' trove of Chinese art, she convinces herself she's reclaiming stolen cultural treasure, not committing petty theft.
But Nicky is not the only sinister force stalking the manor's halls, and quitting with her score might not be as simple as waltzing out the front door. If Nicky has any hope of escaping the bonds of her employment, she'll have to confront the wretched legacy of her host family, and the trauma of her own shrouded past....
Steeped in Chinese folklore and legacies of colonial violence, Sleeping Beasts is a fever dream of a horror novel from a mesmerizing new voice in the genre.
PRAISE FOR SLEEPING BEASTS:
"A slow-burn gothic that inspires dread, discomfort, and other demons; I, for one, couldn't put it down." Johanna van Veen, author of Blood on Her Tongue