What's a human gotta do?

The Hunt
By: Andrew Fukuda
Reported by: Julianna Helms
Source: ARC via tour
Release date: May 8th, 2012 by St. Martin's Griffin

Don’t Sweat.  Don’t Laugh.  Don’t draw attention to yourself.  And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.
 
Gene is different from everyone else around him.  He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood.  Gene is a human, and he knows the rules.  Keep the truth a secret.  It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.

When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him.  He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

-Summary from Goodreads
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A thrilling, fast-paced novel echoing elements of violence and humanity, The Hunt is an engaging dystopian novel that is, finally, a book I can claim will appeal to fans of The Hunger Games.



The most interesting fact about this book is its ability to stubbornly shove its way up your priorities list. It's nothing ground-breaking, or earth-shattering, but it's certainly refreshing. The main character, Gene, is already a master of survival, so the reader doesn't have to sit through the aggravating pain of waiting for the MC to realize how to live--and, more importantly, he realizes that others' survival matter, too. Not only that, but Gene is quite intelligent, and that alone made my job a lot easier: often you have characters who crackle against the page with only brute force or sole intelligence, but a calculated force and "street smarts" combined is a treat to sit through.


The premise of this novel rings similarly to The Hunger Games, yet though there were definitely scenes where I felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu, moments of originality still peek through the pages. What I admire most about Andrew's writing is his twists. For those of you who've read The Hunger Games (and if you haven't, what the heck are you doing reading this review?!), you know the ending of the first book is SHOCKING. Well, take that level of surprise and inject it about ten times more, and you get The Hunt. Gory and shiveringly chilling descriptions rise formidably in this novel to create an ambiance of fear and suspense, a dangerous combination that keeps not only the main character's life at a gun's point, but also tightens Fukuda's grip on the reader as well.


Though not a mind-blowingly incredible debut, The Hunt is still interesting; a thriller unlike one I've read in a long time. If you think you've had enough of vampires...


Think again.