When Gene is selected to be one of the combatants he must learn the art of the hunt – but also elude his fellow competitors as suspicions about his true nature grow…
My copy of The Hunt was an early Christmas present from Simon and Schuster at their December blogger event. To be honest it was the book I was most excited about, but cruel and lovely people that they are, they waited until the very end of the talk and presentation about their upcoming books to give each of us a carefully wrapped package containing one copy each of The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda.
This book will grab you by the throat on the first page with the monstrousness that happens – I will not tell you what it is but it is heart-breaking and wonderful in its savagery. Chapter one will hook you and you will not want to put this book down until you have read every page. I can tell you this because I know it to be true as I started the book on the bus way back in December as I was going to meet friends for a movie and dinner, I can remember everything about that evening as the book was in my pocket, and desire to run home and read it was nigh irresistible! Fortunately I was able to resist this need.
In the world of the Hunt the vampires are humanity’s appetites unleashed – all the things that make us human – restraint, consideration for others, overcoming the desire to have another morsel once our hunger is sated – all those controls are absent. No sparkly, tortured souls that exist in the night these vampires – they are hunger and desire for human blood and flesh unrestrained.
I have heard people I know describe The Hunt as The Hunger Games with fangs – and it is not an inaccurate description, but for me the closest novel that I can compare it to is my favourite vampire novel of all time. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Forget the movie versions starring Charlton Heston (The Omega man) and the newer flashier version with Will Smith, which up until the end was not too bad but they bowdlerised the ending – unforgiveable as I Am Legend is a timeless horror classic and now – in my mind at least it has a sequel.
A world where normal means fangs, an aversion to light and an unquenching thirst for the taste of Heper flesh and blood. A world where the few, uninfected that manage to live hidden amongst their predators must deny and hide their humanity to just survive.
For too long vampires have been the pop stars of the literary world, bright, beautiful and desirable. With The Hunt Andrew Fukuda takes them back to their bloody roots as hungry, monstrous beings – humanity’s apex predator! For that I thank him!
If I scored the books I read The Hunt would get a bloody 10 out of 10.
Buy it, read it and then tell your friends and like me you can wait, hungry for the sequel!
