Hey Bookworm friends! Today I want to share my thoughts about a recent buddy read I finished. Direct Descendant was selected by a friend for us to read together and I was excited because I heard it was partly set in my city! Additionally, I had been curious about Tanya Huff because she’s Canadian and I have another one of her books on my shelves.
Book Details
Direct Descendant
by Tanya Huff
Genre: Cozy Fantasy/ Horror
Standalone
Publisher: DAW
Format Read: Physical
Pub Year: 2025
Cover Artist: Faceout Studio, Jeff Miller
Themes & Tropes
Faustian Bargain │Small Town│Sapphic Romance│Eldritch Creatures
Content Warnings:
Blood, Violence, Body Horror, Death, Murder, Animal Death, Suicide
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Blurb
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Generations ago, the founders of the idyllic town of Lake Argen made a deal with a dark force. In exchange for their service, the town will stay prosperous and successful, and keep outsiders out. And for generations, it’s worked out great. Until a visitor goes missing, and his wealthy family sends a private investigator to find him, and everything abruptly goes sideways.
Now, Cassidy Prewitt, town baker and part-time servant of the dark force (it’s a family business) has to contend with a rising army of darkness, a very frustrated town, and a very cute PI who she might just be falling for…and who might just be falling for her. And if they can survive their own home-grown apocalypse, they might even just find happiness together.
Queer, cozy, and with a touch of eldritch horror mixed in just for fun, this is a charming love story about a small-town baker, a quick-witted PI, and, yes, an ancient evil.
Review
A mashup of genres; high on the fantasy romp, low on the coziness, and brimming with tentacles.
This book is somewhat evenly divided between two points of view. Cassie, who lives in Lake Argen, a small-town which generations ago made a deal with a dark force. Everyone in the town is aware of this deal and there are four townspeople that have been chosen by The Dark to be a conduit between the townspeople and itself. Cassie is one such person, The Mouth of The Dark. The second POV is Melanie, currently living in Toronto and looking for work. She gets hired by a rich old lady looking for her grandson who went missing in Lake Argen.
The story begins in a very disorienting way, in the middle of some sort of ritual. It felt like getting dropped off in the middle of nowhere with no directions. I typically enjoy when a book makes me work a little harder to follow along because it makes me feel more invested. Provided it all makes sense eventually. In this case I think the confusion was worth it because I enjoyed the plot overall. But I will say that I preferred Melanie’s POV because it allows the reader to learn about the town along with her.
“One foot, hand, elbow, and other assorted body parts in front of the other, I kept climbing. I was not gong to fail, not when the other Three had finally begun to take me seriously. Of course, not failing would have been easier had I not decided to sleep in.”
I don’t often read books set in Toronto or even Ontario but I thought this book did a good job of placing the story within a Canadian setting. It was fun being able to recognize specific places, foods, and references. The author is Canadian so I’m sure that helps 😜. I liked the vibe of the town and found a lot of interesting world-building details that tickled my fancy. There were some comical ideas mostly relating to the town being so casual about having Eldritch entities among them. Or like, quirky small-town personalities. There’s a character who’s constantly trying to train Ravens to fight in aerial formations and the mental imagery of that made me laugh a lot.
As much as I enjoyed portions of this book, I also have a few large issues with it. Firstly, Direct Descendant was marketed as a cozy fantasy horror but, despite being set in a small town, it never felt cozy to me. The main reason for that is because most of the dialogue was so combative. A disproportionate amount of conversations were arguments or bickering, no matter who was involved. It was actually kind of stressful in a way that I’m not sure is deliberate.
“You couldn’t build a relationship on lies, but I very much doubted one had ever existed without a few stuffed into the superstructure.”
Sadly, the romance was the weakest element of the story and thus my other issues are connected to that. It is one of the most uncomfortably insta love-iest romances I’ve ever read. Cassidy, upon seeing Melanie for the first time from a distance, just knows she’s going to marry her. There’s a huge whiff of predestination about the whole thing and it was stinky. If you know my reading tastes you know that ‘fated mates’ and ‘insta love’ are some of my most hated tropes and this was a mashup of both!
But lastly the thing that annoyed me the most requires a bit of explanation. I mentioned that Cassie is The Mouth of the Dark but that title gives her a magic power where she can Tell someone to do something and they obey. Whenever she Says something with her power, it’s always capitalized. Ok, cool. As the reader we know when she was using her power or simply speaking but in normal conversation capitals are not something you can hear. But somehow Melanie mentioned several times that she was hearing capitalization! No. Just, no. It was kind of explained away at the very ending but it was so flimsy and unearned to me. If this type of comment had happened only once, it would be merely annoying but instead the repetition actually dampened my enjoyment.
“Had I just heard a random capitalization go by?”
And there you have it, I had quite a mixed reaction to this one. The premise and ideas were really fun, to the point that my favourite part was when the history of The Agreement was finally explained. I wanted more of that. But if you’re reading this for a cozy romance, I think you’ll be sorely disappointed.
Let’s chat in the comments!
What’s something weirdly specific that has bothered you in a book? Or, have you read any books with a Canadian setting?
