Review – The Call by Peador O’Guilin (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Horror/Fantasy/Post-Apocalyptic
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: David Fickling Books
Release Date: August 30, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1338045611
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in The Call series
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Imagine a world where you might disappear any minute, only to find yourself alone in a grey sickly land, with more horrors in it than you would ever wish to know about. And then you hear a horn and you know that whoever lives in this hell has got your scent and the hunt has already begun.

Could you survive the Call?”

I got an advanced reading copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This was an okay book that is a bit like a sci-fi fae-themed post-apocalyptic version of The Hunger Games.

I didn’t really enjoy how the story was told and thought it didn’t flow all that well. The fact that it’s told in third person along with the style of the writing really distances the readers from the characters. This has the effect of making something that should be engaging and terrifying much lower key and dry than it should have been.

Basically the book follows a general story about this alternate world where teens train to survive The Call. In between these chapters are brief chapters about teens and their experience in the grey world that they are Called to for brief spans of time.

This book ended up being a lot different than what I was expecting from the synopsis. It’s more about these teens and their time at a “survival” school than it is about the Fae. I personally was looking forward to seeing more of this grey Fae world but the characters spend very little time there.

It’s an interesting idea. However, I thought the whole story came across as a bit contrived and stiff. The story was very implausible. More background would have made this world really come alive and seem more realistic.

Overall it was okay and a quick read, but I was left feeling like something was missing. The characters are just so cold and so is the story; when I was done I didn’t really care much about either. I personally won’t be continuing on with the series and wouldn’t really recommend it.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge