Charles Synyard (@CharlesSynyard)

Reread Teeth in the Mist (2019), then read Blood on the Wind (2024), the two books in the young adult horror The Conjures series by Dawn Kurtagich. Had read Teeth shortly after it came out, but a few chapters into Blood, realized I had forgotten much of the plot in the first book, so begrudgingly at first, I read it over front to back, but it turned out a satisfying experience. Where Teeth in the Mist is more of a claustrophobic horror story filled with dread, the characters trapped in a manor house in the Welsh hills, Blood on the Wind has plenty of travel and more spirit of adventure, with a heavier focus on the relations between the characters, and plot turns more creepy than scary. I think Blood on the Wind is what’s labeled a “lesbian vampire romance”. Normally you don’t arrive at that if you begin on a more general interest book, and I (probably!) wouldn’t have chosen something advertised as that right off the shelf, but Kurtagich is a writer I’ve appreciated for some years now, and she develops her story well. There were barely mentions of explicit scenes in Teeth, and with Zoey… rendered immobile by the second book… there’s little opportunity for physical romance in Blood. We got in the first one, and more in Blood on the Wind, some Christian elements that take a harsher, but perhaps proven more realistic approach to opposing the demonic antagonists than do the irreligious main cast. We get a few Scripture citations when Raplen pleads with the abbess to let her keep a dog. Probably my favorite scene is Roan’s encounter with a certain creature mentioned in the book of Job at the bottom of the ocean, on a few pages appropriately printed with jet black ink, tiny white letters… Blood on the Wind also seems more feminist, most of the time: there’s a seemingly endless supply of cruel, abusive London men for our immortal blood suckers to kill in alleyways with minimal guilt. Yet, by the end of book two, it is hinted that there is something essentially nefarious in the female quest for power, as a kind-hearted religious order of sisters founded on an alternative theology proves not at all what it first seems... I expect most of the audience here is female, the target of most popular fiction and lit culture nowadays. Male readers will easily identify with Poulton, Zoey‘s friend who drops everything to meet her on a campout at Medwyn Mill House, searching for answers about her father, but succumbs to the influence of the place and loses his mind, only to recover by the second book, helping Zoey’s immortal lover Len care for her, stealing Chinese food deliveries to survive while on the run from authorities who’d pin likely him with kipnapping Zoey were he caught. An awkward third wheel, Len can hardly stand him but does get to feel bad for the thankless life he has to lead all because he wanted to help Zoey in a moment of need. There are even more questions and unresolved points now than after the first book, and with Fostos still on the loose, and now a band of devil-worshipping nuns at large, a sequel is virtually assured, though how soon I can’t guess. Teeth in the Mist was published by Little, Brown and Company, but Blood on the Wind seems to have been essentially self-published under the Ribbit Books imprint, which is no more than an Instagram account with no posts. Despite the impressively done layout, with interior art roughly as nice as in Teeth and maybe four typos, Blood seems not to have sold nearly as well. I already have her adult-aimed vampire novel The Madness, but plan on waiting to read it until I’ve read Bram Stoker’s Dracula (after my Castalia Library copy arrives). I have now to order her latest release, The Thorns, which I see has accrued more reviews on Amazon than any of her previous titles to date. #DawnKurtagich #TeethInTheMist #BloodOnTheWind #TheConjures #demonic #magic #lesbian #vampire #romance #Christian #horror #Wales #London #youngadult #novels #literature #books