ARC Review: The Call (Peadar O' Guilin)

Books: The Call

Author: Peadar O' Guilin

Hardcover, 320 pages
Publication Date: August 30th 2016 

Publisher: David Fickling Books

The Hunger Games meets horror in this unforgettable thriller where only one thing is certain . . . you will be Called.
Thousands of years ago, humans banished the Sidhe fairy race to another dimension. The beautiful, terrible Sidhe have stewed in a land of horrors ever since, plotting their revenge . . . and now their day has come.
Fourteen-year-old Nessa lives in a world where every teen will be "Called." It could come in the middle of the day, it could come deep in the night. But one instant she will be here, and the next she will wake up naked and alone in the Sidhe land. She will be spotted, hunted down, and brutally murdered. And she will be sent back in pieces by the Sidhe to the human world . . . unless she joins the rare few who survive for twenty-four hours and escape unscathed.
Nessa trains with her friends at an academy designed to maximize her chances at survival. But as the days tick by and her classmates go one by one, the threat of her Call lurks ever closer . . . and with it the threat of an even more insidious danger closer to home.

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Irish writer Peadar Ó Guilín is the author of the YA novel, The Call, inspired by the beautiful northwest of Ireland where he grew up.
In September 2007, Peadar published his first novel, The Inferior, which the Times Educational Supplement called "a stark, dark tale, written with great energy and confidence and some arresting reflections on human nature." Foreign editors liked it too, and over the coming year it is to be translated into eight languages, including Japanese and Korean.
His fantasy and SF short stories have appeared in numerous venues, including Black Gate magazine and an anthology celebrating the best of the iconic Weird Tales. He is currently working on a sequel to The Call.

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"3 Minutes

You wake up alone in a horrible land.

A horn sounds. The Call has begun.

2 Minutes

The Sidhe are close. They're the most beautiful and terrible people you've ever seen. 

And they've seen you. 

1 Minute

Nessa will be called soon.

No one thinks she has any chance to survive.

But's she's going to prove them wrong. 

TIME'S UP

Could you survive the call?"

I came across The Call while looking through Goodreads and it immediately grabbed my attention. Everything about The Call made me want to read it! The Call is described as Hunger Games with horror added in and I could not agree more. I am a huge fan of survival stories and with the idea of horror mixed in...YEP...HAD ME! 

I really enjoyed The Call and the characters within the story. The Call is a survival story that is based around young adults who are sent to an elite school where they are trained to fight for their lives against the "Sidhe" The Sidhe are  creatures who have been banished to another world and have signed a treaty with humans to prevent a war by requesting each teen to be "called" over to the Sidhe land and fight for their lives. The teen has about a day in the Sidhe land to fight and survive and if they live though the day then they are sent back to the human world and can live the rest of their lives free from being called. The time is different in the Sidhe land and a entire day equals 3 minutes in the human world and the human is returned to the exact same spot in which they left when they were called....which can cause issues if anything has changed while they are gone. 

The Sidhe land is really horrifying and the Sidhe people are even worse. The Call is truly a horror story and is not for the faint of heart. The Sidhe people are brutal and if the teen that is "called" actually survives...then they are usually sent back horribly disfigured or worse...in order to send a message to the human world. 

"They've been warned about this from their first night in survival college, when they wake up naked and alone in the middle of the woods......Even in your dreams, act as if your life depends on it, because someday it will."

The main character, Nessa, is a young girl who has polio and can barely use her legs. She is seen by everyone as weak and fragile and Nessa is ANYTHING BUT FRAGILE! Nessa is such a strong character and has such an amazing outlook on her life...Nothing stops her and she trains just as hard if not harder than everyone else. I really would have loved to explore the characters more and learn more about each one. The relationships between some of the characters was very strained and there was continuous turmoil between the teens. I also felt like there was more going on with the adults/teachers that are introduced in the story and the reader doesn't really get to explore this aspect of the story. 

I really enjoyed most everything about The Call and it kept my attention for the most part but the one drawback of the entire book was how short the book was. This story is so fascinating and the author really could have created an amazing, deep story with this book and I feel as though the story was too crammed and the reader really needed more information about everything. I wanted to read more about the Sidhe land and the background of why and how this all happened...I wanted to know more about these amazing characters and their will to survive. The Call is an survival story that is just as fascinating as it is horrifying...I recommend any ya horror fans to check this book out immediately! 

**The quotes from this book have been taken from an Advanced Reading Copy and are subject to change when the final book is printed. Please refer to the final, finished copy for exact quotes!**