Jun16

Review: The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

by Christy on June 16th, 2012
Posted In: Uncategorized


Title:  The Hunt
Author:  Andrew Fukuda
Pub Date:  May 8th, 2012
Publisher:  St. Martin’s Griffin
Series:  The Hunt #1
Source:  The publisher

Purchase:  Amazon

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? [Goodreads]


I don’t even know where to start…

I was not expecting this.  Not even close.

Okay, when I first started reading this book, all I kept thinking was “this is so weird” and “what the heck am I reading?” I’m totally down for weirdness and like some super weird stuff, so that’s probably why I couldn’t stop reading it.  I was asked early on if I thought it was a good weird or a bad weird, but I honestly didn’t know at the time.   As I read more, I started to understand what the author was doing, and by the end, I decided that it was definitely a good weird.

The author built a world where vampires are the “normal” ones – they are the people.  In fact, they refer to themselves as people, not vampires.  Whereas, the humans are called hepers and thought of as dumb animals.  To the vampires/people, hepers are the most delicious thing ever – they literally can’t control themselves if they even know there is access to one.  These aren’t the type to just bite you and suck your blood; they savagely rip you apart and devour you!

Ultimately heper/humans became close to extinction, but there were some who hid right under the vampires’ noses.  They adapted to living like the vampires; doing everything they could to blend in, like shave all their body hair, perform the same mannerisms, don’t sweat, eat raw meat, etc.  It’s hard work keeping up the charade, but when they’ve been conditioned to do so from a young age like the main character was, it becomes part of who they are.  They continue a lot of the mannerisms even when not around vampires because it’s ingrained in them – they behave the way they were taught. They even hold a lot of the same ideologies as the vampires regarding hepers, even though they technically are hepers themselves.  Honestly, the psychological aspect of this was great.  This was my favorite thing about the book; I would love to just break it all down from a psychological standpoint.

The characters, though, didn’t exactly wow me.  Don’t get me wrong, I did like them.  I thought they were interesting, but I can’t say that I necessarily loved any of them.  The story is told from Gene’s POV, which I liked.  I got a kick out of his tendency to break down exactly how he was going to die during certain situations.  He still felt restricted and stiff to me, though.  I’m hoping that his personality will blossom more in the second book.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty good book, with action and plenty of intense moments. I definitely recommend it, but I also recommend that you keep an open mind and try to appreciate the creativeness of such a different book.  Think outside the box.


You can read an excerpt HERE.


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