Victor Manibo
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victormanibo.com
Victor Manibo
@victormanibo.com
Author of THE SLEEPLESS (2022), ESCAPE VELOCITY (2024), DEAD NOTE (5/15/2025), and THE VILLA, ONCE BELOVED (11/25/2025) • Lambda Literary Fellow • NYC via MNL • he/him 🏳️‍🌈

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What a writer finds beautiful and moving, what they write about as aesthetically pleasing, what they struggle to and manage to get in front of a reader as a thing of beauty—all of that, independent of the “message” or “moral” or “theme”, is political
Reposted by Victor Manibo
HAPPY THE VILLA, ONCE BELOVED DAY @victormanibo.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:12 PM
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Happy #bookbirthday to THE VILLA, ONCE BELOVED by @victormanibo.com! 🎉

"Manibo has written a chilling gothic tale, using classic tropes to explore history, corruption, and injustices, both of the nation and the family"
—Library Journal

awfulagent.com/ebooks/the-v...
The Villa, Once Beloved – JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc
awfulagent.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
Can someone go in my stead? This book fucking ruled and I wish Victor a very happy release week
LAUNCH EVENT! Join me at the Strand as we usher into the world my gothic horror child, with one of my horror idols @claymcleod.bsky.social (Jsyk, his delicious new book Acquired Taste pairs well with mine, so go pick it up).

More book tour stops coming soon but if you’re in NY, grab your tix now ⬇️
November 24, 2025 at 3:38 PM
TONIGHT TONIGHT
LAUNCH EVENT! Join me at the Strand as we usher into the world my gothic horror child, with one of my horror idols @claymcleod.bsky.social (Jsyk, his delicious new book Acquired Taste pairs well with mine, so go pick it up).

More book tour stops coming soon but if you’re in NY, grab your tix now ⬇️
November 24, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
COVER REVEAL: My next book is a standalone science fiction cyberpunk thriller starring aging corporate samurai. The Last Contract of Isako will be out on May 5, 2026 from @orbitbooks.bsky.social. Can't wait to share it with you. Thank you to @tommypocket.bsky.social for this kickass cover ⚔️
November 22, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
I've just started reading the ARC and it is excellent, as expected.
COVER REVEAL: My next book is a standalone science fiction cyberpunk thriller starring aging corporate samurai. The Last Contract of Isako will be out on May 5, 2026 from @orbitbooks.bsky.social. Can't wait to share it with you. Thank you to @tommypocket.bsky.social for this kickass cover ⚔️
November 22, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
The Villa, Once Beloved by Victor Manibo is a compelling gothic horror complete with an atmospheric estate, a mysterious family legacy involving a curse, and an innocent young woman at the center. #BookSky TY #NetGalley, @kensingtonbooks.bsky.social, & @rbmediaco.bsky.social for the ARCs.
The Villa, Once Beloved — CandiKat Horror
The Villa, Once Beloved by Victor Manibo is a compelling gothic horror complete with an atmospheric estate, a mysterious family legacy involving a curse, and an innocent young woman at the center.
candikathorror.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
Be on the Look Out For ... THE VILLA, ONCE BELOVED by Victor Manibo, releasing later this month!
Look Out For … The Villa, Once Beloved by Victor Manibo
“With his horror fiction debut, Manibo presents a cursed family manor, tapping into the Philippines’ oppressive history with a nightmarish gothic tale.” Villa Sepulveda, a Spanish…
www.thisishorror.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 2:38 PM
BROOKLYN! Join me and bestselling author @ryanlasala.bsky.social in celebrating the launch of THE VILLA, ONCE BELOVED on 12/9, 6 PM at The Twisted Spine! More info ⬇️
November 19, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
For this month's newsletter, I wrote about inventing neologisms and what Ursula K. Le Guin called "box-words," with examples from China Miéville's excellent novel EMBASSYTOWN. Includes an assist from Samuel Delany, who helped me see how to introduce terms to readers without unnecessary exposition.
#57: Worldbuilding with Neologisms and "Box-Words"
China Miéville, Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel Delany
mattbell.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:34 PM
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We ask you to kindly lay down your Edmund Fitzgerald commemorative baseball hats and tune into @emilyhughes.bsky.social's November Horror Highlights, where she asks for 2026 horror recommendations and provides a few new release suggestions of her own!
Abandoned Mines and Secret Societies: Horror Highlights for November 2025 - Reactor
Spooky Season doesn't have to end with October!
reactormag.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
my November horror highlights column is live at @reactorsff.bsky.social! feat. @beatriceiker.bsky.social, @victormanibo.com, @peterclines.bsky.social, and more!
We ask you to kindly lay down your Edmund Fitzgerald commemorative baseball hats and tune into @emilyhughes.bsky.social's November Horror Highlights, where she asks for 2026 horror recommendations and provides a few new release suggestions of her own!
Abandoned Mines and Secret Societies: Horror Highlights for November 2025 - Reactor
Spooky Season doesn't have to end with October!
reactormag.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
AMAZING lineup for the in-person SF launch of WE WILL RISE AGAIN, the speculative fiction anthology about activism co-edited by @annaleen.bsky.social @drkarenlord.bsky.social and yours truly!
November 18, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
As promised, here is the cover for Muñeca, out June of 2026!

Described thusly: A vivid, surreal Gothic about a queer, Latine, working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/788211...
November 18, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
Keeping Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner is an unforced error for reasons concerning her specifically, the NYPD broadly, and the moment that we're in politically. An ICE collaborator cannot be trusted to protect New Yorkers. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social should make her a different offer.
Mamdani's NYC Can't Afford NYPD Commissioner Tisch
With ICE on its way, how can we expect an ICE collaborator to protect New Yorkers? Here's a compromise: make Tisch sanitation commissioner again
www.forever-wars.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Ends today!
My tropical Gothic horror novel THE VILLA, ONCE BELOVED is almost here and now you can get a chance at a finished copy before pub date, thanks to this Goodreads giveaway! Entry details below
November 13, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
Loving THE VILLA, ONCE BELOVED by Victor Manibo so far! It's got a killer opening that just pull you in completely. It's got these perfect modernized gothic vibes of a young woman being pulled into the curses of a rich family in the Philippines. #ewgc #booksky
November 6, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
Happy paperback day to Dead Girls Don’t Dream! Now with a bonus playlist in the back, which are all songs I both listened to incessantly while writing this, and songs that are thematically or vibe-ally resonant. Available wherever books are sold, and signed copies thru @astoriabookshop.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 3:52 PM
IT’S SNOWING
November 11, 2025 at 12:42 PM
NYC! This is in a couple weeks, get tix now
LAUNCH EVENT! Join me at the Strand as we usher into the world my gothic horror child, with one of my horror idols @claymcleod.bsky.social (Jsyk, his delicious new book Acquired Taste pairs well with mine, so go pick it up).

More book tour stops coming soon but if you’re in NY, grab your tix now ⬇️
November 8, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Stopped by the stationers and got a new pen and inks for Fountain Pen Day
November 7, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Victor Manibo
Do yourself a favor and read this book!
Based on true events, THE VILLA, ONCE BELOVED is a contemporary gothic horror set in a cursed manor on a coconut plantation—it’s got ghosts and witches and creepy crawlies and demons, all coming for you in three weeks!

Thank you,
@cadwellturnbull.bsky.social, for the kind words!

More info ⬇️
November 7, 2025 at 3:01 PM
I mf love jury nullification
November 6, 2025 at 8:02 PM