Monday, May 14, 2012

The Hunt Review

May 8th 2012 by St. Martin's Griffin
Goodreads


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?

In Andrew Fukuda's The Hunt, life is hard for Gene.  Gene knows no other humans. He is constantly on guard hoping his every move will allow him to survive, unlike his parents and sister. Unlike most other humans. For years he has to hide the truth about who he really is from everyone around him for one reason.  The truth will get him killed.  The truth is Gene is not a vampire. His father has trained him everyday to keep his humanity a secret: to always bathe, to never smile or cry, to always remain stoic because emotions will give him away, and to stay out of the sun. Because if he is a vampire, how will Gene ever be able to explain a sunburn or suntan? Gene lives everyday, especially at school, by these rules just trying to survive one more day.
Then life gets difficult. The vampire ruler announces to everyone a heper hunt will take place for the last surviving humans. Everyone gathers to see if his or her lottery number is chosen.  All want to patricipate in the hunt.  Just waiting to see who will be picked, the vampires can almost smell the hepers' blood, imagine chasing them down, tearing into them as they wait to see who will be the lucky winners. As the numbers are called out one by one, and vampire by vampire is out of the running, Gene finds himself one of the "lucky" one...one of the winners. Now, he is in the spotlight, after years of following the rules and laying low. He is now surrounded by vampires being trained in ways to hunt humans. Can Gene survive in this extremely hostile environment? Will he somehow find a way to overcome the stronger, faster, and deadlier vampires?

The Hunt is an insane adventure as you run along with Gene trying to outsmart the vampires.  This novel was an interesting take on the vampire as the bad guy after so many books where the vampire is the good guy.  I loved Fukuda's vampires beliefs about humans, and how vampires are surprised humans had higher brain function, knew how to use tools, or didn't understand why the humans would sing.  I read The Hunt with a sense of dread from the moment Gene knew he was going to the hunt.  I was so invovled in this plot I had to know how Gene was going to survive!  If you are looking for something different in the vampire world, maybe a story of a human survival, then The Hunt is the book for you.


Lagniappe
So, if you want to get a visual to go along with the book, just so you can freak yourself out even more while you read the book, check out the book trailer:



 
 

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