ARC Review: The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

See when Richelle Mead said The Hunt is "terrifying and fascinating", I should have taken her word for it. I really should have.

Title: The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda
Pages: 304
Release Date: May 8th 2012
Published by: Simon & Schuster UK / St. Martin's Griffin
Source: Publisher (thanks Amy and Frances!)
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository
Summary:

Seventeen-year-old Gene struggles to survive in a society where humans have been eaten to near extinction by the general population. When Gene is chosen to participate in the government-sponsored hunt for the remaining humans, he must learn the art of the hunt but also elude his fellow hunters whose suspicions about his true human nature are growing.

I am writing this review with my heart still up on my throat, pounding frantically from the adrenaline rush this book provided. I'm pretty much feeling utterly terrified right now, and I am not exaggerating.

We are all humans, that's an undeniable fact. I am human, and I have never before appreciated being one until I have read this book. It saddened and somehow repulsed me to see humanity die and deteriorate to the unimaginable. You never appreciate humanity as it is now until you read of something like what is portrayed in The Hunt, where the population was reduced to flesh eating, merciless creatures. The few remaining survivors are stripped of even the most basic thing, to be called a "human", a live breathing person. Instead they are called "Hepers", nothing more but food, much like a cattle, for consumption and entertainment. They were educated, well fed and kept in a dome, unaware of the doom their young existence will meet shortly. How ironic the vampires in the book consider themselves superior when they behave the way they do, with insatiable thirst for flesh and blood, like savages. Like monsters.

The children in this book have my respect for surviving as long as they have. I would never last a day if it was me. Fear is a great motivator to stay alive. Gene has done all he can to live, even the unthinkable: to walk with the very same people who are out to get someone like him. Years of pretending to be someone he was not felt like he was slowly forgetting who he was. The father he has lost taught him these: Do not stand out, be like them, do not show emotions. The vampires are just like what I expected them to be, merciless and vicious. You cannot outrun them, you cannot escape from them, you cannot win against them. If you are a Heper, you will die. It was a fact in this book. He couldn't do anything to stop it, not if he wants to survive. Self preservation is an instinct, and Gene's reluctance to help the Hepers were understandable, but seeing and finally understanding that he and them were the same, he couldn't possibly let them die. Not for him, not for Ashley June. The only thing that gave hope in this book is the confusing and fragile romance between Ashley June and Gene and in some ways it is also sad.

The little details that makes the vampires who they are, no matter how horrific it was, fascinated me. They express laughter by scratching their wrists, they show affection by touching elbows and armpits. They do not smile. In a way it felt like they were dead inside. Imagine a whole place filled with creatures like them. They walk and they talk, but that's where the similarities end.

Gene had a front row seat to witness first hand the devouring of Hepers, of his kind, his people, when he was selected to take part in The Hunt. What a sick and twisted way of entertainment. But it wasn't just for that, even the government found a way to make it a tool for gaining support and popularity. I keep on asking myself "how is this all possible?". Why can't they just be satisfied with synthetic meat? With produced blood? To hunt humans as a sport? Make it a form of entertainment? Some sort of a campaign? This is what happens when the order of things change. What was natural for humans will never apply to these creatures. Basking in the sunshine, sleeping under the shade and eating apples were all but trivial things. What a horrifying society the world had in this distant future.

The Hunt is full of unexpected surprises and twists and turns tucked within pages of hair raising, high octane scenes. Expect carnage, expect blood, expect the unexpected. I felt my heart skipped a beat more times than I can count while reading. Andrew Fukuda paints a frightening, bloody picture of the future. What happens when the hunter becomes the hunted? The knowledge that you can die any minute is evident from the page one, like a dark cloud hanging over you, and it will not go away easily. I felt a myriad of emotions while reading this book, from total, utter fascination to something that made me sick to my stomach. But it's good. Very good. The kind of good that will leave you speechless.

Mankind's downfall will be ourselves, and The Hunt will show the readers just how hopeless, dark and savage the world can be if we become the very monsters we are all afraid of.

My rating:

Content (plot, story flow, character):

WOW. Just... WOW

Stunning: Worthy of a Goddess' Praise!

Book Cover:

You'll get an idea of what happens in the book just by looking at the cover.

I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.