The Hunt (Hunt Trilogy, #1)

by Andrew Fukuda

[inlibrisveritas]

The Hunt was a book I initially went wild for, I needed to have it…but then everyone started focuses on the weirder side of the book and I didn’t feel as confident in it anymore. However when I saw it at the library I put all that aside and took a chance, and it turns out it was just what I was initially hoping for. A world filled to the brim with vampires and a place where being human is a very quick death sentence.

The story follows Gene, a human among the ravenous vampires. Every aspect of his life is carefully constructed to appear as a normal vampire. He has to act, think, and talk like them…and he goes through some serious trouble making sure he looks and smells like one. Of course everything becomes worse when his name it pulled for The Hunt, which is basically like a lottery where instead of money you get the chance to hunt down and kill a human. I loved the world that Fukuda created. It’s gritty, dark, and full of monsters. I’m all for vampires that feed first and ask questions never, and these are so far gone that a human drives them crazy. Of course there is the odd quirky behaviour that they exhibit which involves scratching their wrists for amusement and odd placement of pleasure nerves, and while I was kind of confused as to why it’s not that big a deal. It’s kind of slow to build up as the world is established and my interest waned from time to time, but after it hit a fast pace it never slowed down. I just wish it had some of that same gusto towards the beginning.

Gene is quite the interesting guy. While he is in fact human in some ways he’s more vampire in nature when it comes to the simple things. It’s interesting to see that even things like smiling or laughing don’t come naturally to him anymore. It’s also interesting to see what happens when fear kicks in and how he’s normal humanity comes quite quickly.

Overall it’s a great concept and it’s definitely something I look forward to continuing. This is what I look for in YA vampire lit. It has the grit, the fear, and it brings something new to the table. Of course it helps that the ending drove me crazy! It’s not a cliffhanger but it definitely feels like one.