Alex Brown Reviews Direwood by Catherine Yu

Release Date: September 20, 2022
Publisher: Page Street Kids
Genre: Horror, Young Adult

Description

In this velvet-clad 1990s gothic horror, Aja encounters a charming vampire who wants to lure her into the woods–just like her missing sister.

No one ever pays attention to sixteen-year-old Aja until her perfect older sister Fiona goes missing. In the days leading up to Fiona’s disappearance, Aja notices some extraordinary things: a strange fog rolling through their idyllic suburban town, a brief moment when the sky seems to rain blood, and a host of parasitic caterpillars burrowing their way through the trees. Aja’s father, the neighbors, and even her ex-friend Mary all play down this strange string of occurrences, claiming there must be some natural explanation. It seems everyone is willing to keep living in denial until other teens start to go missing too.Aja is horrified when she meets Padraic, the vampire responsible for all the strange occurrences. His hypnotic voice lures her to the window and tells her everything she’s longed to hear–she’s beautiful and special, and he wants nothing more than for Aja to come with him. Aja knows she shouldn’t trust him, but she’s barely able to resist his enthrallment. And following him into the woods may be the only way to find Fiona, so she agrees on one condition: He must let her leave alive if she is not wooed after one week. Though Aja plans to kill him before the week is out, Padraic has his own secrets as well.In the misty woods, Aja finds that Padraic has made his nest with another vampire in a dilapidated church infested by blood-sucking butterflies. Within its walls, the vampires are waited on and entertained by other children they’ve enthralled, but there is no sign of Fiona. Before her bargain is up, Aja must find a way to turn her classmates against their captors, find her sister, and save them all–or be forced to join the very monsters she wants to destroy.

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Must-Read Speculative Short Fiction: 12 Works You May Have Missed in 2022

Every month I read a couple dozen or so short speculative fiction stories from 60+ publications in order to put together my monthly short SFF/H column. That’s a lot of reading! It’s always impossibly hard to narrow down to just my ten favorite pieces; if I had the time and energy, I’d do a massive list every month. So this year, instead of doing a best of list, I thought I’d put together a little collection of my alternates, one story from each month that I loved but that didn’t make my original spotlight. Let’s take a walk back through last year and some absolutely epic short fiction.

Read the rest of this spotlight at Tor.com.

Must-Read Speculative Short Fiction for December 2022

December is a bittersweet month for me. With decorations lighting up the streets yet the days getting shorter and colder, with the avalanche of romantic movies yet family and friends hundreds to thousands of miles away, I always end up feeling a strange mix of both melancholy and cozy. And so, not surprisingly, those were the short speculative fiction stories I was drawn to the most.

Read the rest of this spotlight at Tor.com.

Vampires, Aliens, and Killer Clowns: A Golden Age of YA Horror

We have entered a new golden age of young adult horror, and I am one hundred percent here for it. While there has long been plenty of horror-adjacent fiction, real horror has been hard to come by. That is until the last year or so. I keep a spreadsheet of all the traditionally published young adult speculative fiction for each year, and in 2022 we had 17 (!!!) books come out that were specifically marketed as horror, plus many others that were delightfully bloody and bite-y. I’ve put together a short list of some great YA horror for fans new and old to check out.

Read the rest of this spotlight at Tor.com.

Notable Young Adult Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror of 2022

Hundreds of young adult science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels make their way through the traditional publishing industry every year. Fantasy, of course, takes the biggest chunk of the market, but we’ve seen an upswing in horror recently. No matter your favorite speculative genre, we’re in an age where choices abound. And I’m here to help you make some decisions.

Here is my list of the 30 most notable YA SFF/H of 2022. Define “notable” as you see fit, but for me I’m thinking in terms of books that stood out, books that made me think, books that played with genre conventions in new or interesting ways, and books that I can’t stop recommending.

Read the rest of this spotlight at Tor.com.