Direwood

Gr 9 Up–Aja desperately wants to be like her perfect older sister, Fiona, who knows how to blend into their quaint Michigan town, be their father’s favorite, and charm everyone. But when Fiona makes a wish on her 17th birthday for everything to change, even the pretense of perfection vanishes from their lives. Fiona disappears, and Aja follows a charmingly terrifying vampire named Padraic through the woods to an abandoned church now turned into a vampire homestead. She stays in the nightmare world of vampires and bloodthirsty caterpillars and butterflies night after night, partly in search of Fiona, but also partly because the vampire’s words make Aja feel beautiful and no longer second best to her sister. Aja tries to resist Padraic’s thrall, but her conviction that there is something human in him clouds her judgement. Ultimately, the vampires remain monstrous, but show a glimmer of compassion in the moments before their demise. Yu has crafted a dark, bloody debut with rich Gothic atmosphere and a naive yet determined protagonist. Her inclusion of the body-horror caterpillars and butterflies adds an increased layer of tension and risk; even if the vampires don’t drain the human characters, readers understand that the insatiable insects will. There are deep psychological threads at work in this story, from Aja’s complicated relationship with sister to the pain and sadness that Fiona has hidden in plain sight, with a lot for readers to sink their teeth into.