Direwood

Direwood

Catherine Yu

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

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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  • B00kWyrmNelle
    Dec 16, 2024
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

     I love that this is set in the 90s with all the great references to that time (80s baby here). It felt nostalgic but with a largely creepy undertone as the reader is described what is slowly happening to this town. I empathized with the main character and how she felt within both her family dynamic and within the residents of the town.

    From there, it just got creepier & the some of the descriptions of the things she sees and hears made a chill run down my spine. At the same time though, I couldn't put the book down until I had finished it. It was both sad & hopeful with a little uneasiness thrown in that made it a great read.

    Catherine Yu is definitely on my reading radar now! 

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  • brotacel
    Apr 07, 2025
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