Publication Date: May 8, 2012Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Series: The Hunt #1
Young Adult
Pages: 304
Genre: Dystopian, Fantasy, Paranormal, Science Fiction
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?*e-ARC provided by publisher for honest review*
Vampires. We've seen them all: ones that suck blood, ones that steal your soul, ones that sparkle. But then we have ones that harbor humans, termed hepers, and prepare them for a Hunt against ruthless and virgin hunters (vampires) unknown to the taste of human blood and ecstatic towards the very sight or smell. In a world where our main character must blend in and mask himself as one of these strange creatures, everything human about him is but a distant memory.
-- "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." --
A slow paced beginning, like that of a roller coaster ride, brings you up until the tippy-top, until that first dive over the edge. That's how the beginning half felt. Though most of the time the smooth travel up was hit with bumps and jolts of forcefully obvious things (i.e., Main character wins lottery to enter The Hunt, main love interest also wins lottery, and other things that I don't really want to spoil, but were very obvious during my stride of reading). The one thing that I noticed was you don't learn about the main character's name within the novel until the last half of the book. It was well thought out, you're so wrapped up within Gene's thoughts, so enveloped with his stream of conscious and the events that are taking place, that you notice that he doesn't explain what his name truly is; only pronouns or seating numbers articulate who he is.While being in the head of Gene, the characteristics of blending into the society of these vampires was very bland--the mere crinkle of ones face, falling asleep in class, laughter, always scratching their wrists--it was an interesting concept but it was a boring start going into the novel like that. The flashbacks and thoughts of Gene's father, now those were interesting. Even when Gene wanders into the Dome and engages with the Hepers. Those were the parts that had me reading intently. The more human qualities Gene showed the more that I enjoyed getting into the novel, especially when the hysteria of Gene began to play out at the institution days before The Hunt, I couldn't stop reading. Besides the obvious bumps in the road within the novel from all the cliched inferences, the novel was captivating with the action and the mystery as to how things were going to play out in the end. The word building was beautiful, definitely diverse to say the least. These are the things that I enjoy in a novel. Give me some awesome fight scenes and diverse word choice and you're my new best friend.
First Line: There used to be more of us.Story: SCover: A
