Review : The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

Summary (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?

Personal Thoughts

 I've been meaning to read The Hunt since I first saw the cover of the book. While reading some of the reviews on Goodreads, I became a bit wary to start reading the book because of the mixed reviews it had received. Nevertheless, when I got approved for a galley of the book, I immediately dived into the story!

The Hunt tells the story of Gene, a teenager living among a group of species that hunt humans or hepers as they call them and survive on raw meat. Gene, however, is a heper and no one knows about it. His father has trained him to blend well among these 'vampires' so that he can survive among them.  The rulers in this world that Fukuda has created decide to host The Hunt. The Hunt is an event where a group of these species, all chosen through a lottery, gather to hunt hepers. As predicted, Gene's numbers are chosen and he goes off to prepare  for the Hunt with his fellow hunters.

This book was written in the POV of Gene. This has to be the first YA book that I've read in the male POV and I found it to be surprisingly interesting. Being inside Gene's head was at the same time strange and exciting.
I'm not very sure about my thoughts on Gene. He was slightly weird, a loner but super smart. I had some issues connecting with him for the simple reason that not much information was given out regarding his personality. I didn't have anything against Gene as a character, but my only wish was that his behavior and mind-set were a little more developed, so that I could figure out what kind of person he was.

The book did have a prospect of romance, that I found was not so bad considering it was a man who wrote the book. Gene has had a crush on Ashley June since a very long time. She was also a slightly confusing character. As a reader, I got only glimpses to her personality. I wanted to get to know her better. Gene and Ashley June become close friends during The Hunt training and I liked the slow pace at which they got to know each other.

The world that Andrew Fukuda has created is truly original. Sure, it did have some resemblance to the Hunger Games initially, but it was only in the beginning. Some of the things that happen in this book are truly horrific and gruesome, so I don't think people who don't like too much violence and gore in their books will like this one. Andrew Fukuda is extremely skilled at writing grisly, disgusting and disturbing scenes. As a huge fan of descriptions, I found myself anticipating these such scenes, although that makes me sound creepy.

According to me, the book was slow at the beginning, but the pace picks up about halfway into the book. The plot was highly interesting and I liked how Fukuda explained the habits and customs of these "vampires". It helped a lot to visualize the events of the book. However, some of their ways of life were so puzzling and sometimes truly gross. The author needs to be praised for his originality and well-executed action scenes.

Overall, this was a satisfactory debut which could have been a lot better with character growth and faster pace in the beginning. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading The Hunt and look forward to reading the sequel since this book ended on a cliffhanger.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 4/5
Characters : 2/5
Writing : 3/5

Big Thanks To St Martin's Griffin for providing me with an ARC of this book.