Catherine Yu

Suspenseful and atmospheric young adult horror story!

The Devil's in the Dancers by Catherine Yu is an engrossing and eerily atmospheric young adult horror story set at an exclusive and elite summer ballet intensive for the children of the wealthy and privileged. Told from the viewpoint of a hopeful young scholarship student who is there to augment her high school resume for her application for admission to Harvard, this haunting, upended fish-out-of-water story had me glued to its show more pages.

Marianne "Mars" Chang is thrilled to be accepted into the prestigious Allegra Academy summer ballet intensive on a full scholarship. She is shocked when the founder, Allegra Bechler, takes a personal interest in her attendance, holding out the possibility of a place at the school for the regular term, if she'll do her one small favor. Alex, Mars's roommate, is Allegra's great-niece and is acknowledged as the best dancer in the program, despite the girl having expressed her flagging interest in dancing. Allegra wants Mars to secretly replace Alex's daily nutritional supplements with a new and improved formulation not yet on the market. Mars agrees despite her ethical reservations, but finding the right moment to make the switch proves to be a logistical problem. As she begins to question the fairness of giving the most privileged dancer yet another advantage over the others, she impulsively shares one of the pills with a struggling but devoted scholarship student. Hannah shows immediate and amazing improvement in her performance, but soon begins to exhibit some alarming side effects. When Allegra turns a deaf ear to Mars's concerns and Alex's friends close ranks against her, she desperately tries to warn Alex of her aunt's plans and get her away from the ominously over-secured campus.

Mars is a likable main character with reasonable hopes and aspirations, despite agreeing to the founder's suspicious plans to switch out her great-niece's supplements. Why didn't she just approach Alex straight on? Mars is an underdog from the wrong background, with a reach-for-the-stars dream. Alex is the cool girl, and Mars develops a crush as she gets to know her, genuinely lacking the thought of how Alex's status could enhance her own. However, her attraction to her roommate takes a backseat to the mystery behind the need for the supplements and what is really going on at the school. Alex's friend from home, Naomi, Sophie, and Sasha, are creepy and menacing 'mean girls' and their presence really keeps the action suspenseful.

The Allegra Academy setting is gothically atmospheric, with empty, echoing hallways and unusually proportioned spaces. In a secluded, remote location, the sprawling campus is fenced and gated, with a plethora of cameras keeping watch, but perhaps not for possible intruders, but for the program attendees. Strictly-enforced curfews add another layer of control and a hint of menace.

The plot moves quickly, and the author's storytelling is absorbing; I read this book cover to cover in one day. The ballet classes and dancers' experiences will be familiar territory to students of dance. The aches, the pains, the interminable rehearsals, and the chaos of the dressing room before performances are realistic and may be eye-opening to those unfamiliar with ballet life. I loved how the story gradually transformed from a fish-out-of-water tale into a horror story with unexpected elements of the supernatural. The climax was an absolutely terrifying surprise and answered the questions I'd been harboring from the very beginning. I was delighted that I was not left hanging in the aftermath but presented with an ending of hope for normality for the girls.

I recommend THE DEVIL'S IN THE DANCERS to readers of young adult horror, especially those who enjoy stories set in boarding schools, remote settings, ballet, and a hint of sapphic romance.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy through Toppling Stacks Tours. show less

Direwood by Catherine Yu should be a book I adore. After all, it is a gothic horror story about vampires. Usually, that would be enough to earn an automatic A. Unfortunately, I could not get into the story enough to enjoy it. The vampires were too one-noted, and Aja is a bit too annoying in her inability to view the world in any way other than superficially. Add to it the weird, blood-sucking butterflies and caterpillars and the red rain that no one else seemed to notice, and it felt like show more Ms. Yu was trying too hard to make her vampire story different from the million others in existence. She doesn’t explain much of anything, so you slog through the story hoping that something will make sense soon. It doesn’t help that I could not keep awake while reading it. No matter what time of day, I found myself nodding off while reading even a few pages. All of this is to say that I was not a fan of Direwood. There are much better examples of gothic horror stories and way better vampire stories. show less

I know we often talk about books that tell vs show but this might take the cake. I swear the events the mc was talking about by the end of the book never actually happened. It was very weird to read her reminiscing about a relationship that didn't exist. I'm not exaggerating.

Our mc is also generously blessed with dumb. Such a shame because I was really interested in where this was going at the beginning.

Aja and her sister, Fiona, are Asian teens trying to fit in in their small suburban town, and Aja has always believed that Fiona is much better at being popular than she is. But then strange weather comes to town – dense fog and blood rain – and then Fiona disappears. So when a vampire shows up at Aja’s window, she decides to accept his offer to follow him, because she believe he’ll lead her to her missing sister.

I generally really enjoy vampire stories, but this one was tedious and show more dull. The characters all seemed flat – even the vampires! – and I really didn’t care what happened to any of them. There was zero chemistry between the love interests, and every other sentence described the worm-creatures hanging out everywhere ad nauseum. The writing lacked any finesse. show less