The Uninvited by Nancy Banks Summary: Paris Vampire Hunt
Introduction
A wrong door code on a Paris sidewalk sets everything in motion.
Sixteen-year-old Tosh Reeves arrives in the city alone for a summer language program, expecting cafés, museums, and a few weeks of independence while her father handles a work crisis in London.
Instead, she meets a boy named Nick, a tight circle of young artists, and a city quietly panicking over a killer the media calls the Paris vampire.
Nancy Banks builds The Uninvited around that collision: a teenager discovering an underground Paris of catacombs and street art while a predator moves through the same streets above.
The novel follows what happens when Tosh stops being a bystander to the danger and becomes part of it.
Who Will Enjoy This Book?
- Readers of young adult paranormal and supernatural thrillers with a gothic edge.
- Fans of vampire fiction that reworks traditional folklore rather than repeating it.
- Readers drawn to Paris settings, street art culture, and catacomb exploration.
- Those who prefer survival stories built on friendship and autonomy over romance alone.
TL;DR: What You Need to Know
The Uninvited is a fast-paced YA paranormal thriller set in contemporary Paris.
Tosh Reeves, an American high school debater and printmaker, is attacked and bitten by a narcissistic street artist named Le Bec, who is secretly the “Paris vampire” attacking young women across the city.
Tosh survives, but the attack infects her with vampirism.
- Central arc: Tosh fights the predatory urges of her new condition while hiding them from her overprotective father.
- Key ally: Noor Sidi, a street artist known as “Headscarf Girl,” is attacked and infected too.
- Central conflict: Two infected teenagers hunt their attacker through the Paris catacombs instead of waiting to become monsters.
- Key support: Madame Dupuy, the family housekeeper, supplies silver, folklore, and the three traditional cures.
- Major themes: consent and boundaries, female solidarity, art as resistance, grief, and refusing to live in fear.
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Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Tosh Reeves | Sixteen-year-old American student in Paris who is attacked by Le Bec and infected with vampirism. |
| Nick Wallace | American teenager living in Paris who becomes Tosh’s romantic interest and introduces her to catacomb culture. |
| Noor Sidi | French-Muslim street artist known as “Headscarf Girl,” also attacked and infected by Le Bec. |
| Madame Dupuy | Housekeeper for the Reeves family, from a Croatian family of traditional vampire hunters. |
| Le Bec | Street artist famous for pigeon murals who is secretly the “Paris vampire” attacking young women. |
| Mr. Reeves | Tosh’s father, an outdoor-gear executive who responds to the attack by restricting her freedom. |
| Martine Sardou | Model UN debater in Nick’s friend group who organizes and supports the others. |
| Youssef Rachedi | Martine’s boyfriend, a videographer and experienced cataphile who documents Noor’s art. |
| Sophie Wallace | Nick’s six-year-old sister who befriends Tosh on her first day in the building. |
| Cole | Tosh’s former debate partner in Portland who assaulted her on a team bus. |
The Uninvited Summary: The Full Story (Spoilers Ahead)
Spoiler warning: the following section recounts the plot in full, including the ending.
Tosh Reeves lands in Paris while her father is diverted to London for a supply-chain emergency. She cannot open the apartment building door because of a typo in the security code he texted her, and she breaks down crying on the sidewalk.
An American boy named Nick Wallace and his six-year-old sister Sophie help her inside. Nick offers a Louvre tour the next day, and the two begin spending time together.
Tosh meets the family housekeeper, Madame Dupuy, a stern Croatian woman who takes her duties seriously. At dinner with Nick’s family, Sophie mentions rumors of a vampire in Paris, which the adults dismiss as a disturbed person.
Tosh enrolls in a demanding summer French immersion program and settles into a routine. She starts meeting Nick in a park between classes and visiting the boulangerie with Madame Dupuy.
Nick invites her to a club called Le Shopping, where she meets his friends Martine, Youssef, and the street artist Noor Sidi. She also meets Le Bec, a celebrated street artist known for oversized pigeon murals.
Before the club, Madame Dupuy gives Tosh an heirloom silver filigree heart pendant. She explains that her great-grandmother used it to burn a vampire, and that silver harms them.
News reports confirm a woman has died from a neck bite. Madame Dupuy insists vampires are real; Tosh’s professor bans crosses in class and tells students to worry about human predators instead.
Nick takes Tosh to the Eiffel Tower, where she climbs the open grillwork stairs despite her fear of heights. They share their first kiss as the tower lights sparkle.
Nick reveals his passion for the illegal catacombs and promises to take her underground. He leads Tosh, Noor, Martine, Youssef, and Le Bec into the quarries through a hidden hatch in a shoe-repair shop.
Underground, Le Bec grabs Tosh and presses his mouth to her neck in a “playful” bite. He recoils in pain when his lips touch her silver necklace, and Nick throws him out of the group.
Noor’s street art goes viral after Youssef posts a video, drawing a Paris Match feature. Le Bec confronts Noor in public, threatens her, and retreats when the friends close ranks.
One evening, Tosh steps out alone for a quick errand. Le Bec corners her outside the church of Saint Martin, rips off her silver necklace, pins her to the pavement, and tears into her neck.
Tosh wakes in a hospital, voiceless and weak, after a life-saving blood transfusion. She identifies Le Bec to police, and her father blames her friends, forbidding her from seeing them.
Madame Dupuy asks whether Tosh ever invited Le Bec inside and warns that he is a true vampire. Tosh and Noor, both recovering from transfusions, begin comparing strange symptoms by text.
Tosh develops heightened senses, cannot stomach normal food, and follows an intoxicating smell toward a sleeping unhoused man. Le Bec appears behind her, urging her to embrace being a predator.
She refuses to bite the man and flees. Noor admits she gnawed her own cut finger from blood cravings, confirming that both girls are infected.
Tosh touches Madame Dupuy’s silver pendant and it burns a filigree pattern into her index finger. She begins sneaking to the basement dumpsters to eat raw butcher scraps and finds peppermint Altoids suppress her cravings.
Her friends wait outside her school to support her and Noor. Tosh discovers that smoking a cigarette instantly quiets her vampire impulses, and the two girls start planning.
Tosh’s father announces a transfer back to Oregon. She confronts him and reveals for the first time that Cole assaulted her on a debate team bus.
Mid-argument, Tosh nearly loses control and fixates on her father’s neck artery. She packs her passport, money, and lockpicks and leaves a goodbye note before fleeing into the night.
She finds Nick and shows him the silver burn mark. When an aggressive passerby shoves them, Tosh drops into “vampire mode” and brutally assaults the man.
Horrified by Nick’s reaction, Tosh runs and hides in the crypt beneath Saint Martin’s church. Unable to feel her mother’s presence, she decides to stake herself.
Madame Dupuy calls before she can and reveals three traditional Croatian cures: smear yourself with the vampire’s blood, eat the ashes of his burned heart, and consume earth from his grave. Noor then sends a distress text with a location pin.
Tosh finds Noor hiding behind a trash bin after nearly biting a man who cornered her. The two resolve to find Le Bec in the catacombs and use his blood and heart to cure themselves.
They descend through an access grille in the church subbasement. After days of navigating tunnels, they find Le Bec’s furnished underground squat, complete with sketchbooks, an expensive cabinet, and a velvet throne.
Le Bec returns and boasts that he made them “victors” rather than victims. Noor accuses him of attacking her out of fear that her art would overshadow his.
The fight is bloody and desperate. He pins Noor by the throat, but Tosh blinds him with spray paint, tangles him in his sleeping bag and rug, and tips a heavy cabinet onto him.
Together they drive a wooden candleholder stake through his heart. They then perform all three cures, smearing themselves with his blood, burning his heart on a pyre of his sketchbooks and throne, and swallowing grave soil.
Their senses return to normal, confirming the cure worked. Madame Dupuy brings clean clothes and food, helps them clean up, and coaches them on a cover story for their three-day disappearance.
Tosh tells police and her father that she and Noor got lost in a church after running away. On the train home she confronts her father again and refuses to live a fear-based life.
She convinces him to let them stay in Paris. Nick, who called an ambulance for the man Tosh attacked and kept her secret from police, accepts her back into the group at a cautious distance.
In the epilogue, Tosh begins the school year at École Jarret with Noor, joins Model UN with Martine, and looks up at a blank sixty-foot wall where she imagines Noor’s mural of the two of them standing over Paris.
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Summary by Chapter (Spoilers)
This section offers a brief look at each of the book’s 27 sections: one prologue, 25 numbered chapters, and one epilogue. Chapter headings are time markers tracking the countdown to the present.
Prologue: Six Weeks Ago — Tosh hides twenty meters beneath Paris in a limestone cellar, covered in blood, holding only her phone, cigarettes, matches, and lockpicks. She cannot form a plan or cry and curls up on the cold floor. The scene establishes the mystery the novel later resolves.
Chapter 1: Twelve Weeks Ago — Tosh arrives in Paris alone after her father is called to London. A typo in the door code leaves her stranded on the sidewalk until Nick and Sophie help her inside. She notes that entering the wrong code set off a chain of events leading to love, secret catacombs, and killing someone.
Chapter 2: Twelve Weeks Ago — Nick and Sophie invite Tosh and her father to dinner, where Tosh meets Madame Dupuy for the first time. Sophie mentions rumors of a Paris vampire, which the adults dismiss as mental illness. Nick offers a private Louvre tour.
Chapter 3: Twelve Weeks Ago — Nick takes Tosh to the Louvre after an interrogation from Madame Dupuy. He teaches her a mental trick for navigating crowded sidewalks, and they view the Mona Lisa and winged bull statues. Tosh notices a figure in red in one of Nick’s photos, and he tells her the legend of the Red Man of the Louvre.
Chapter 4: Eleven Weeks Ago — Summer immersion classes overwhelm Tosh with homework, but she meets Nick in a park between sessions. Madame Dupuy approves a night out at Le Shopping and gives Tosh the silver heart pendant. At the club, Tosh meets Martine and Youssef and debates economics.
Chapter 5: Eleven Weeks Ago — Tosh meets Noor, who explains the stencils that give the Mona Lisa a headscarf and Venus de Milo arms. She also meets Le Bec. Back home, Madame Dupuy tests whether Tosh truly returned on time and reveals the trap by pointing her to a shoe in the refrigerator.
Chapter 6: Eleven Weeks Ago — Madame Dupuy insists Tosh wear the pendant after a fatal attack is reported. Tosh’s professor bans crosses and warns about human predators instead. After school, Le Bec touches Tosh’s neck at his new mural, then the group visits Noor’s Venus de Milo stencil.
Chapter 7: Eleven Weeks Ago — Tosh lights a candle for her mother at Saint Martin’s church and works through memories of Cole. She shares her love of printmaking with Noor and Martine over pastries. A hooded figure grabs her arm on a crowded sidewalk, and her friends pull her onto a Métro train.
Chapter 8: Eleven Weeks Ago — Nick takes Tosh up the Eiffel Tower, guiding her step by step to manage her fear. They talk about living in the moment and share their first kiss as the lights twinkle. Tosh realizes she will never see the landmark the same way again.
Chapter 9: Ten Weeks Ago — Tosh’s father hesitates to let her go out for ice cream during the attacks, and she promises to stay in well-lit areas. She vents about how girls are conditioned to fear rather than addressing predatory behavior. Nick responds by revealing the catacombs and inviting her underground.
Chapter 10: Ten Weeks Ago — The group enters the catacombs at midnight through a hidden hatch in a shoe-repair shop. They picnic in a mural-decorated room until a debate about the Paris vampire breaks out. Le Bec tries to bite Tosh, recoils from her silver necklace, and is banished by Nick.
Chapter 11: Ten Weeks Ago — Tosh hosts a collagraph printmaking workshop at her apartment. She confronts Nick about tolerating Le Bec’s cruelty, and he prints “I’m sorry” as an apology to the group. The friends accept it and spend the afternoon pulling prints.
Chapter 12: Ten Weeks Ago — Noor and Martine teach Tosh to pick locks in a park. Le Bec sends Tosh a painting of a pigeon with her features, which she ignores. After Youssef’s video leads to a Paris Match feature, Le Bec threatens Noor in public and is forced to retreat.
Chapter 13: Nine Weeks Ago — Tosh briefly leaves the apartment alone for a store run. Martine texts that Noor was attacked and is in the hospital. Le Bec corners Tosh outside Saint Martin’s church, tears off her necklace, and bites her neck.
Chapter 14: Eight Weeks Ago — Tosh wakes voiceless in a hospital after an emergency transfusion. She writes answers for a police officer and names Le Bec. Her father blames her friends, bans them, and places her under house arrest.
Chapter 15: Eight Weeks Ago — Madame Dupuy asks whether Tosh invited Le Bec in and reveals her family were vampire hunters. She warns that Le Bec may have infected Tosh. Tosh texts Noor and learns they share the same lingering symptoms.
Chapter 16: Seven Weeks Ago — Nick sends a mini Eiffel Tower, and friends flood Tosh’s messages. Sensory overload and restlessness drive her to sneak out and practice lockpicking. She follows a smell toward a sleeping unhoused man, refuses to bite him, and flees as Le Bec attacks the man.
Chapter 17: Seven Weeks Ago — Noor admits she gnawed her own finger from cravings, confirming both are infected. Tosh’s silver burn proves the condition, and she convinces her father to let her return to school. She eats butcher scraps from the dumpsters and finds Altoids suppress cravings.
Chapter 18: Six Weeks Ago — Tosh uses menthol salve and Altoids to get through class. Her friends appear outside school to support her and Noor. They visit Notre-Dame, where Tosh tries a cigarette and finds nicotine instantly halts her vampire impulses.
Chapter 19: Six Weeks Ago — Tosh’s father announces a transfer back to Oregon. She reveals Cole’s assault and nearly loses control watching her father’s neck artery. She packs and leaves, shows Nick her burn mark, assaults a passerby in vampire mode, and runs.
Chapter 20: Six Weeks Ago — Tosh hides in the crypt beneath Saint Martin’s church and decides to stake herself. Madame Dupuy calls and gives her the three cures. Noor then sends a distress text with a location pin.
Chapter 21: Six Weeks Ago — Tosh finds Noor behind a trash bin after Noor nearly bit a man who cornered her. They agree to hunt Le Bec in the catacombs for his blood and heart. Madame Dupuy instructs them to stake the heart directly.
Chapter 22: Five Weeks Ago — The girls spend days navigating tunnels, following the scent of paint and blood. They find Le Bec’s furnished squat with sketchbooks, a hunting knife, and a velvet throne. They plan to blind him and pin him down.
Chapter 23: Five Weeks Ago — Le Bec returns and calls himself their maker, claiming he made them victors. Noor accuses him of attacking her out of fear of her talent. They fight, he pins Noor by the throat, and they blind, trap, and stake him.
Chapter 24: Five Weeks Ago — Tosh and Noor perform all three cures: blood, burned heart ashes, and grave soil. Their senses return to normal. Madame Dupuy meets them with clothes and food and helps them build a cover story.
Chapter 25: Five Weeks Ago — Tosh and Noor stick to their story with police and parents. Tosh tells her father she will not live in fear, and he agrees to stay in Paris. Nick confirms he never told police about her attack.
Epilogue: Now — On the first day at École Jarret, Tosh’s father trusts her to walk alone. Noor gives her an evil eye pendant, and the friends reunite in the schoolyard. Tosh imagines Noor’s sixty-foot mural of them standing over Paris.
If You Liked The Uninvited, Try These Books
- City of Bones by Cassandra Clare — A teenager discovers a hidden supernatural underworld beneath a major city, complete with vampires and ancient protections.
- Gallant by V.E. Schwab — A gothic coming-of-age mystery with a young female lead confronting predatory forces tied to an old house and the dead.
- Crave by Tracy Wolff — A YA paranormal story placing a teenage girl inside a secret vampire world while she navigates trauma and her own choices.
- White Cat by Holly Black — Urban fantasy with strict magic rules, criminal underworlds, and a coming-of-age story about consent and control over one’s body.
- The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh — A supernatural thriller in a vivid city setting following a young woman caught in a string of vampire murders and underground secrets.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo — The novel Tosh reads for class, set in the same Paris churches and streets the characters move through.
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Book Details at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Young Adult Supernatural Thriller; Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Mystery / Gothic Horror Coming-of-Age
- Core Narrative Tropes: Reluctant Monster, Subverted Vampire Lore, Female Vigilantes, Secret Underground World, Overprotective Parent, Art as Resistance
- Tone & Atmosphere: Darkly atmospheric, tense, urban-gothic, witty, emotionally raw
- Primary Conflict: Tosh battling predatory vampire urges while she and Noor hunt Le Bec through the catacombs to perform the cure
- Pacing Style: Fast-paced and mystery-driven, structured as a countdown from twelve weeks before to the present
- Book Structure: 27 sections — 1 prologue, 25 numbered chapters, 1 epilogue
- Publisher: Delacorte Press
- Publication Date: December 1, 2026
- Print Length: 288 pages
- ISBN-10: 0593900324
- ISBN-13: 978-0593900321
- Reading Age: 12 years and up
- Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.56 x 8.25 inches
