I found this novel by browsing through a list of World Fantasy Award winners. I realized that I had quite liked several of the past winners (e.g., Song of Kali, Replay, Last Call, Declare, and Galveston), so I thought I'd try the most recent winner, which happened to be Ysabel.

This fantasy novel is firmly set in the present day (as established by an inordinate number of references to iPods). The protagonist is the teenage son of a famous photographer, who has accompanied his dad to Provence on a series of shoots. While there, he becomes entangled in an epic supernatural struggle and discovers that his family has ties to it. It evolves into a race to save a girl from a horrible fate.

For me, Ysabel doesn't hold up to any of the other WFA winners I've read, but it was an enjoyable diversion. The writing is pretty good, but the dialogue got on my nerves (teenage characters are annoying), and it seemed like the plot arc was made up as it went along. I like the fantasy elements in novels to have good reasons for existing, and here, there were too many bits that didn't need to be there.