3.5 STARS

I am late with the review for this book because, for once, it wasn’t that I prioritized other books; rather, I was sure it was an August release. I don’t know why. So I kept it on the sidelines because I wanted to read it in the publication month. The thing is… the publication month was April, not August. Sorry about that.
But the strange thing is that I haven’t seen this book around, but it is sooo cute! I think it deserves a bit more visibility.

To be honest, I didn’t love it, and I don’t think this is the best book ever. But… but it is good! It really is cozy horror, and even if horror is not really my cup of tea, I had fun with this one! And sure, cozy horror may sound like a strange choice, but Kingfisher is doing it like a pro, so it’s not really something unheard of. And it works quite well!
We have Lovecraftian horrors, a cute small town, two sweet MCs, the cutest ravens ever (and hellhounds!! Aww, the hellhounds!), and some magic. And all these ingredients are mixed pretty well in this novel.
I have only two complaints, sort of. Because they are not big things, but the first is about the humor in the book. It worked for me, but barely. It was fun, but from time to time, I had the impression that the author was trying a tad too hard. I am not saying that it is bad, it worked, but it could have been better.
And the other thing that didn’t work so well for me (but again, it worked, I just think it was a tad flimsy) was the reason why Melanie comes to town.
She is recruited as a PI to give closure to the rich grandma of a man who disappeared in the forests around the small town, but she is not a PI, and she has no qualifications whatsoever to do that. And there is a reason why she doesn’t ask too many questions, and it became clear (and relevant) as the story progress, so I am not getting into details here, but even with a reason for why she didn’t ask the questions she should have, that reason becomes flimsy when you apply it to the “Why she went along with the idea”. And everyone else with her. It makes sense, but you shouldn’t think too hard about that.

But, as I said, the were minor things and they didn’t really impact my reading. I had fun and I think that this is a great book for the Summer, if you want to read something fresh and cute, not too demanding and with some really original elements. And the cozy horror vibes are a big plus to all that!

DIRECT DESCENDANT is a cozy horror story featuring an insular small town, eldritch beings, sinister pacts, magic and mayhem. It's filled with a great cast and an even greater magic system. Cassie was a perfect perspective to portray this one half of this story, and her character is juxtaposed brilliantly with Melanie who tells the other half. Combining someone more lackadaisical with a skeptic definitely made their relationship and romance so much more interesting, and you could see how that would translate to "love and lust at first sight". In particular, though, I would say my favourite part of this book is wherever the Dark shows up. Honestly, for an eldritch being, they're so chill and funny and clearly have just gotten so used to human nature that they've sucked some of it up and combined it with their horrific intensity to come up with some of the funniest things I've ever heard of. If there's ever more in this universe, I would love to see more of the Dark and infinitely more curious about this bargain and how it came to be!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eARC copy of this book!

This book is something else (in a good way.) At first, I thought it was going kinda slow, the plot was not making enough sense. The plot is a bit weird and confusing but fun to read. The characters are also weird but interesting in their own way.

We have two points of view, Melanie and Cassie, one of them inside of Lake Argen and the other outside of it but soon to enter Lake Argen. It's interesting how both points of view help define the setting and make sense of what's going on. I felt as if I was trying to make sense of a dream, I knew all the parts that were included in it but not how they made sense together. It was fun though, to see it all come together. I guess the timing wasn't great for me since I've been under a lot of stress lately so it took me longer than expected to finish this book.

My favorite part of this book is the side characters. They help make the mood creepy/weird in the best way and it helped me focus a lot more on the actual town which was fascinating to me. Learning the lore behind the town was another aspect I enjoyed about this book.

I recommend reading this book if you enjoyed listening/reading "Welcome to Nightvale" as it has similar weird/creepy vibes that make you want to know more about the place its characters live in.

I had originally picked this up because I really enjoyed Tanya Huff's vampire P.I. detective series back in the day, but I hadn't really heard of her putting out any new books since then. And even though Direct Descendant is very, very different from her other books, I was really excited to try it.
The first chapter really throws you into it. Lots of character names, lots of vague references to things characters know that we, as the reader, don't. And quite honestly, that first chapter, I did kind of consider DNFing, but a couple of chapters in and I was completely hooked on this book.
I really loved it.
It has very much that cosy, small town feel while also having eldritch horror creatures just happen to be around.
It really gave me vibes of Welcome to the Night Vale and a little bit of what's going on in the background for the characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer while Buffy and the gang are dealing with the Monster of the Week.
There was a kind of humour to it, the kind of idea of “Brenda's been eaten by vampires but what did the silly cow expect? She left her windows open, what can you do about it?” These people have generations of having these creatures be around them. They've learned how to deal with them and there's a slightly dismissive attitude to anyone who doesn't have the common sense to follow the rules the town have come up with to keep themselves safe.
In that sense, the story has a real kind of knowing quality to it and slightly tongue-in-cheek humour throughout.
I think some reviewers might have a problem with the insta-love, but (like the tongue in cheek nods to Buffy, to other kind of staples, other tropes that are really common in this kind of eldritch horror world), Huff is aware of how insta-lovey this is and there are a couple of references to U-Haul lesbians, to moving in with each other the day you meet, and she just seemed very aware of the trope she was playing with so the insta-love really didn't bother me. In fact I kind of thought it was quite charming, and it fit that B-story or bottle episode vibe.
This is a perfect standalone, but if the opportunity arises (like Alice, the monster in the lake), I will quite happily read more books in a series.

3.5/5 stars ⋆｡°✩

Direct Descendant is a "cozy" sapphic horror set in a small Canadian town full of eldritch horrors and a deal with dark forces. The premise of this book was soooo good but it fell flat for me. The combination of a romance plus a potentially world (?) ending plot happening at the same time weren't cohesive enough to really work together (in my opinion). Both plotlines seemed incomplete even after getting a resolution.
Cassie and Melanie's instant connection felt so unbelievable that I thought it was going to be some trick by our "bad guy." Even that addition of being obsessed with someone and still letting them go on a fool's errand when you know the truth is kind of wild to me (but like also, let's go sapphics ig).
All of this aside, if a horror rom-com set in a small town is your vibe, then this might be a good pick for you.

No mini playlist for you, direct descendant.

Thank you to Netgalley, DAW, and Tanya Huff for an e-ARC of Direct Descendant!

Direct Descendant is an engaging blend of urban fantasy and intriguing characters. The story hooks you early with its fast-paced plot and vivid world building, making it a hard book to put down. Huff’s writing style is sharp and accessible, yet she weaves in enough depth to keep things interesting. The characters are well developed and relatable, with enough quirks to keep them from feeling formulaic. While the story hits all the right beats for an enjoyable read, a few plot twists felt a little predictable. Nonetheless, it’s a solid, entertaining addition to Huff’s repertoire that fans of the genre will likely appreciate.

I always wanted to check out Tanya Huff's works, especially the epic fantasy ones. However, I shouldn't have started with the cozy horror romance. I find that the new trend of "cozy" fantasies tend more often than not towards the narrative being secondary to the author's languishing in their own indulgence of comfort vibes. Horror is a genre that rarely ever works for me. And the romance, well, I'm hella picky. For a very long part of this book, it was striking out for me on all three fronts. The reader gets dumped into some ideal Canadian small town a la Schitts Creek/Gilmore Girls level of tweeness, with names and lore coming at you fast and furiously, as if you already live there and should know the nuances of living there already. Not to mention, the horror elements draw heavily from Eldritch tropes that is a very specific corner of the genre I almost never pick up. But then again, there is almost never a sense of horror in this horror story, because it's commonplace for the town, so the cozy entirely undercuts the horror. Now the characters. I have to say, ultimately, I did come to deeply enjoy the large cast of townspeople in this deeply weird town. Yet afterwards, I am left feeling very uneasy about individuals and their problematic portrayals which is played off as quirky. Especially Cassie, who is basically a lesbian fuckboi. First of all, if you hate insta-love based on tits and ass and destiny, you'll hate everything about this. There is almost no tension between two VERY different characters before they're mooning over each other, the ONLY resistance being temporary memory wipe. Melanie is the only one who seems to care anything about the weird social dynamics of any of this and the larger world, but all her ideals are swept under the rug because...love and magic? There is something of a climactic action sequence, where it turns out every side is the dark side and cleanup is super fast and easy. And then the story abruptly ends with a most predictable "reveal". I wouldn't say I didn't have fun reading this, mostly because I switched to an audiobook version which was very well performed. But lords was this badly and lazily edited, and with no conviction or introspection except flippant whimsy and vibes. This may be the author's idea of cozy, but it was far from mine.
Thanks Netgalley for the ebook.

I thought this had a lot of promise but ultimately I didn’t love it. I like the idea of cozy horrror and elements of it were there but I don’t like being dropped into a world and not having enough context clues to figure out what’s happening. I think if there had been a little backstory or a bit more explanation of what was happening near the beginning I would have settled in and enjoyed the book a lot more

this was fun, but fell flat for me on a LOT of the things that i expected out of a "cozy queer horror". the pacing is funky and that made the characters hard to buy into and root for. the little town with the eldritch creatures was fun, i just wish there was more.

This was such a fun read, truely creepy and unsettling at points yet somehow retained a completely cosy vibe throughout. I really loved the blend of horror, fantasy and fun.
I will be recommending this to friends.

A force to be reckoned with, Tanya Huff has been writing books for nearly forty years. I grew up among her worlds, inhaling words and dreaming of places that would welcome me one day. I still have tattered copies of No Quarter (1996) and Summon the Keeper (1998) on my bookshelves. So, it’s not much of a surprise that when I heard she had a new book coming out, I added it to my TBR immediately.

Direct Descendant catapults readers into the story, beginning with a startling scene and working its way backwards to the cozy concept: Cassie is a baker coasting by, content to live an effortless life in the small Canadian town of Lake Argen. It’s utterly idyllic except for (or because of) the townsfolk’s bargain with the Dark, an evil otherworldly entity that keeps the insular town thriving outside of interference, the kind of place outsiders forget as soon as they leave, where children roam around skewering shadows with silver stakes, one that houses Alice, the town’s resident tentacled lake monster.

Everything hums along just fine until one outsider disappears in a horrible way. Even then, the Dark has given Cassie the ability to speak commands that others obey. She tells the authorities not to investigate any further, and that’s that. That is, until the boy’s wealthy relative sends Melanie, an out-of-work English teacher, to investigate. Melanie is gorgeous and intelligent, and of course she wins over the hellhounds. And Cassie.

Some readers have taken issue with the immediacy of the physical attraction between Cassie and Melanie. One particularly pointed critique has been that one of the first things Cassie notices about Melanie is her curves—her breasts and her ass, to be exact. If that’s something that won’t work for you, please take note. Personally, I appreciated the balance struck by the lines directly afterwards: “Her elbows had dimples. I couldn’t see them, I was too far away, but I knew they were there the same way I knew that someday we’d argue over the remote and that she’d tuck cold toes under my legs while we cuddled on the couch.”

The reader may have to suspend their disbelief at how quickly Cassie and Melanie fall for one another… but I was pretty sure I was going to marry my partner after one date, so my high ground here is distressingly underwater. One of my few real gripes was that occasionally I felt like I needed a directory for the townspeople. Oh, and there are spots of occasional unexamined misogyny (not cool, Cassie!), but since she has a growth arc, I’m settled on that point.

Direct Descendant charmed me. The Dark is hilarious and sweetly awkward, (“HAVE THE TWO OF YOU SHARED THE VIVISECTION OF AN ELDRITCH CREATURE BY THE DARK OF THE MOON?”) and I wish readers had gotten to hear more from it. The book will resonate with readers that appreciate humor in the style of Welcome to Night Vale.

Overall, Direct Descendant was a solid read, one that I would recommend for a rainy day with a cup of tea and an oversized blanket. Sure, it could have gone deeper and explored more of the concepts—and I absolutely wanted to hear more from the Dark—but nonetheless, it was built on a fascinating premise and contained an engaging town I wanted to take a stroll through. It read like cozy, enjoyable fluff—like a Tumblr post, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Direct Descendant was a fun idea and had some cool moments, but it didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I liked the cozy horror vibe and the small-town weirdness, and the main characters had potential, but the story felt a little scattered. I kept waiting for it to dig deeper or really hook me, and it just never got there. Not a bad read, just one that left me wanting a bit more. Solid 3 stars.

I absolutely loved this book. It was everything I'd want in a cozy horror novel. You can really tell that the author wanted to tell a story that they love.

CW: Mind Control; Body Horror (Mild); Blood; Eldritch Horror (Mild); Gunshot Wound

I have never read a book labeled as “cozy horror” before, but I like the vibe. That said, a few aspects of the book didn’t work for me. First, I felt like I was reading two different stories knit together. Everything in Cassie’s narrative, with her responsibility as The Voice of the Dark and citizen of the town, was cute, and the investigation of the weakening of The Agreement was interesting. Melanie, an English teacher turned investigator (which is weird in itself, but I rolled with it), likewise has an interesting story of being placed in this oddly well-provided for space in search of a disappearing man. These two stories just didn’t mesh well together, in my opinion.

Relatedly, I found the romance weak and not beneficial to the story. I’m never a fan of love-at-first-sight, and in this case I felt it didn’t benefit the narrative either. Both Cassie and Melanie are fine as characters, and even them sparking and growing a romance would have been fine – but given their different upbringings and motivations, it just felt weird for both of them to go goo-goo so quickly. Others may disagree, of course.

Finally, this was big on cozy and light on horror. Cassie some strain from acting as a conduit, but everything of the Eldritch horror variety is introduced as cute and familiar. Melanie doesn’t react to anything “weird” in the town until she meets one monster and then instantly flees. There’s no building of tension or growing creep factor. I’d have preferred just a bit more spookiness and people reacting to it.

Classed as a ‘cosy horror’, this book feels more like a romcom set in the town of Night Vale, but without quite capturing the vibes of either.

Main characters Cassie and Melanie have an insta-love but no real chemistry between them and most of the characters had the same narrative ‘voice’, which made their banter feel too samey and also made it hard to keep track of who’s who with the multitudes of bit-players involved.

There is mild humour in the low-stakes, everyday horror of routine sacrifices and possessions, and children hunting shadows like Scouts chasing badges, but there is no real mystery in the plot and only a smidge of action at the very end.

I felt like I was picking up the story midway through a lengthy series, where all the characters and setting are already fully established – it constantly felt like I was missing something that would make the whole thing ‘click’.

With all of that, this wasn’t a bad read, it just clearly wasn’t one for me, which is a shame because the concept and ideas really are right up my street, so I really wanted to love it.

I love Tanya Huff’s novel and this stand alone novel made me thing of a beloved series like The Keepers
Well plotted, gripping, intriguing characters and world building
I hope this stand alone could be the start of a new series
Well done
Many thanks to the publisher, all opinions are mine

Delightfully blasé about the eldritch horrors next door, cozy, humourful. Somewhat confused in its pacing, though that tends to play into the comedy factory of casually dropping gaggles of tweens with sharp implements onto the unwitting hordes writhing forth out of the Dungeon Dimensions.

A breezy, cozy fantasy about people living in a small town north of Timmins, ON, that has a literal dark past and an interesting relationship with it.

In the same vein and tone as author Tanya Huff's much earlier series “Keeper's Chronicles”, which I enjoyed a lot, this novel is set in Lake Arjen, a small town with a lake by the same name. It has great WiFi and mobile service, plenty of good doctors, teachers and others, which, if you've ever lived in northern Ontario, these facts alone immediately stand out as very unusual…

Lake Arjen's population leads comfortable, satisfying lives alongside tentacled being Alice living in the lake, lethal shadows, and a team of four individuals who monitor the safety and health of the town, and are responsible for ensuring that nothing imperils the town's 200-years ago agreement with a Dark being from Below. These four are known as the Ears, the Voice, the Eyes and the Hands, and as their titles imply, they are the means for the Dark to interpret the happenings in the town.

No one outside of Lake Arjen knows of this agreement, or the other perks, and dangers, of living there. People within are content, and one such is Cassie Pruitt, who was chosen as the new Mouth of the Dark relatively recently. Her role is to speak for the Dark when it is consulted.

One morning, she discovers a recently arrived in town stranger, Travis, conducting some sort of ritual with a powerful knife. He's dragged into the Below, much to Cassie's dismay. Quickly notifying the others (Ears, etc.) and taking the knife, the team knows it have to figure out quickly what the man was up to and avert the danger of a destabilized Below.

Meanwhile, recently out of work high school teacher Melanie returns to Toronto, where Travis' wealthy grandmother hires Melanie to travel to Lake Arjen to find out what happened to Travis, and bring back a knife. Melanie travels to lake Arjen, and begins talking to townspeople, who give her a story, which, of course, is not the real story. Melanie and Cassie meet, and of course they fall in love, while Cassie dances around the truth of the town and Travis' last moments before his disappearance.

At the same time, things seem to be spinning gradually out of control, when a messenger from Below appears (and is totally adorable).

This book is a mix of cozy, a little silliness, a tiny bit of scariness, some social commentary, and a lot of humour. The tone is light and the story moves well. I liked the different characters, and Cassie is a fun protagonist, as is Melanie. I did find that in the first few chapters I kept confusing the two women (despite the chapter headings) but this quickly resolved and I ended up enjoying this story quite a lot.

Thank you to Netgalley and to DAW for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Generations ago the founders of Lake Argen made a deal with a creature of darkness for their town to be prosperous and to keep outsiders out. Until one day a stranger comes to town and disappears. His rich grandmother will stop at nothing for answers and sends Melanie to find out what really happened. Cassidy Prewitt, a part time baker and vessel of the Dark, has to find a way to deal with the stranger’s disappearance and the ripples it has caused within the darkness. And on top of that she finds herself drawn to Melanie, but they might have to stop the apocalypse first.

I wasn’t sure this book would be for me as I tend to not do horror, but with it being described as a cozy horror I figured why not. Other than some eldritch creatures, I’m not sure I’d really call this a horror. Definitely got all the cozy vibes though. Although I found myself a little overwhelmed right from the start. There were so many characters introduced as well as the background and just jumping right into the story. And I won’t lie, my brain took awhile to sort it all out so I could just enjoy the story. I didn’t find the story bad but it probably wasn’t one of my favorites I’ve read so far this year. It was ok though.

Rating 3 stars
*I received a review copy from NetGalley for my voluntary and honest review

Hilarious, heartfelt, and at times horrifying! I found myself completely rapt by the town of Lake Argen. From the history of the town, to its inhabitants (new and old), I wish I could visit it on a road trip! Then again, I wish I could go on a road trip, pass through the town, and never think of it again. Wait... what book are we talking about again?