THE GRAVEWOOD

In this duology opener set in the aftermath of a global apocalypse, a disease called the Rot has overtaken the world.

Shea Parker’s father is dead, and her mother has been debilitated by the Rot. Shea, who’s Deaf, has struck a deal with vampire Oliver “Lys” Lysander: He drinks her blood in exchange for hard-to-obtain hearing aid batteries. Eighteen-year-old Lys rules over his gang, the Mercy Boys, in the mysterious Gravewood forest. When Shea’s childhood sweetheart, Asher Thorley, returns to town—he’s been granted special leave from basic training to search for his missing sister—the trio becomes entangled in a quest to find Camellia, defeat Lys’ nemesis, and cure Shea’s mother. They’re joined by Poppy Zahar, Shea’s friend and Camellia’s girlfriend, and along the way, they discover secrets from Lys’ past. Shea is largely comfortable with her deafness; her predicaments arise from her messy personal entanglements and the business of getting by. She needs the societal accessibility and safety her hearing aids provide to cope in a world that shuns disability, but her preference is for silence. The third-person, present-tense narration alternates between Shea’s and Lys’ perspectives, which sound similar and blend together; the post-apocalyptic New Hampshire setting is atmospheric, but the worldbuilding feels undercooked and difficult to follow. The love triangle among Shea, Lys, and Asher is realistically fraught. Most of the cast reads white, and Poppy has brown skin.

Supernatural intrigue with a protagonist who provides much-needed representation.