Review - The Hunt

by Andrew Fukuda
publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
date of publication: May 8, 2012
format: digital review copy
pages: 293
source: Netgalley
read it in: 4 days

From 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?

What do you do when you're prey in the middle of a city of predators?  Gene is a boy in just this type of situation.  As one of the few remaining humans in a world overrun with vampire-like beings who would tear him limb-from-limb if even a hint of his humanity was to be found out, Gene has all but annihilated all clues as to his true nature.  All of his carefully executed cleaning rituals are about to become all the more important, however, for Gene has been selected to take part in The Hunt.  If Gene fails to keep his true identity a secret, he faces the possibility of becoming an addition to the quarry selected for the slaughter... human beings.

Gene is a somewhat difficult character to figure out.  He spends much of the story worrying about keeping himself from gaining unwanted attention by hiding everything from his scent to the true extent of his intelligence.  However, while he knows he is human, he still seems to throw his lot in with the monsters surrounding him by using pronouns such as "we" and "us" in relation to them.  At times, I wondered as to whether or not he wanted his humanity.  It seemed as though it was more of an inconvenience to him, which made fully connecting to him as a character difficult.  Even when I figured out the nature of the creatures around him, I still didn't quite know what to make of Gene.  It remains a puzzle even now.

While the storyline and action found within The Hunt is riveting, the world in which Gene lives is just as confusing as Gene, himself.  There is little rhyme or reason to why things are the way they are.  There is no hint as to when the populace ceased to be human and became ravening monsters, nor is there any explanation as to how it came to be.  As a reader I like to be filled in on the origin of a book's setting.  I just didn't get that with The Hunt.  Instead, I was left to conjecture how it all came to be as I interpreted the nature of the monsters and the ways in which they operate.  I found myself the most disappointed by this aspect of the book.  I would have loved a few clues as to the history of this horrific world.  Instead, I was left with an inordinate amount of questions.

The Hunt has both its good points and its less than stellar points.  Amongst my favorite elements were the intriguing premise and the riveting action sequences.  My least favorite aspects of The Hunt come from its enigma of a main character and history deficient world-building.  As a story of the vampire variety, however, it is fresh and out of the ordinary.  If you are interested in a story surrounding a truly horrific race of vampires, The Hunt is a good choice.  It has some truly chilling moments that will leave you thinking of the days when vampires were meant to be frightening.  These certainly are! 

Buy The Hunt at the Following Locations:

Amazon / IndieBound / B&N / The Book Depository

Obligatory legal statement: This digital review copy was provided to me free of charge by the publisher via Netgalley. No monetary compensation was received in exchange for this fair and unbiased review.