The Hunt (edition 2012)

3Q, 4P. This is great one for reluctant readers and I found it on YALSA's Quick Picks list. This book is a pager turner, full of action, and ends with a intriguing cliffhanger. The writing is average and I noticed a few inconsistencies in the story, but readers will be too focused on what happens next to care about the writing. Another appeal to this book is it's concept. The story is about a teen boy who thinks he might be the last human left in a society of vampires. He has survived this long by blending in and pretending to be one of them. It is a hard and lonely life, and he has to constantly remind himself who he really is. I thought this was an interesting take on the vampire novel since it seems the trend now is to have vampires be the romantic interest or that not all of them are dangerous. But in this story they are the enemy and they are everywhere. In this story the vampires are viewed as "people" and are the civilized ones. Not the humans, they are the other.

The Triumphant Return of the Vampire. That is what Fukuda has managed here. These are not the vampires of Twilight, Vampire Diaries, or even True Blood. There will be no coexisting with humans here, much less any ill-conceived, interspecies romances. These are vampires in all of their original glory—bloodthirsty, brutal, intelligent, powerful, dominant. They have no qualms about what they are, no angst over their nature. These are vampires that will tear apart a human child and enjoy themselves doing it. And it is magnificent. In a teen market saturated with watered down supernatural beings that like to talk about their feelings, Fukuda’s creatures are a breath of fresh air.

That’s not to say the book is without its flaws. Some of the random revelations about vampire nature seemed tedious and pointless—scratching the wrist when amused, the weird sensual armpit thing, etc. Gene, at times, seemed painfully slow in realizing things that occurred to me 50 pages ago. Most importantly, I think Fukuda’s whole premise is a stretch. It’s hard to imagine a human male surviving unnoticed among the hypersensitive, keen-nosed vampires for so long. It’s darn near impossible to believe that human females could do the same past a certain age, for obvious biological reasons.

Because of this problematic premise, the book could have easily been over before it started. Thankfully, Fukuda saved it with the details. Gene is an engaging narrator, easy to like and refreshingly free of angsty teenage emotions. The world is interesting and original enough to keep me turning pages. I did get shades of Hunger Games as I got farther into the book—the training period before the violence, the similar cast of competitors, etc.—but not so much that it was off-putting. I’m hoping the books that follow will take advantage of a bigger setting, because there is unexplored territory I’m very interested in.

The ending… I have to admit, I did not see that coming. Not at all. Due to the main storyline and an unresolved minor one, I was already mildly excited about the sequel. After that final sentence, I’m hooked.

All in all, I had a hard time putting this down once I started it. I will be looking for the sequel. ( )

As is usual, I received this book in a GoodReads drawing. Also as is usual I will candidly comment on it below.

The plot here is fairly straightforward. I can say confidently without fear of spoiling anything that Fukuda's "The Hunt" is merely an hybrid of "The Hunger Games" and "Twilight". Vampires rule the world and they use the last remaining normals as blood sport. Enough said. The overall concept is fairly new and I like the idea that the antagonists are in charge. From the onset the villains are ruling the proverbial roost and for someone that guiltily and perennial roots for the bad guy, that's pretty refreshing.

As for the writing, Fukuda at points is gripping and wonderful but at an equal number of points rather flaccid and perplexing. The text suffers from equal parts "Hmm, interesting!" and "huh, what...?" His characters regularly end up in impossible situations and take part in rather weak conversations but in the end the reader is still left with fairly well-established sense of drama. While on some levels you may not entirely believe what the author has written you do still care about what happens.

For a recommended audience on this book I'd say that most of the vampire/occult/fantasy crowd should be fairly satisfied. It has almost a young adult feel to it and nothing in the text, save for a bit of bloody feasting, will be inappropriate for a younger crowd. One should just work hard to glare over textual and plot inconsistencies as one goes. There are plenty to go around.

In summary, Fukuda has an interesting hybrid idea that while not entirely original, is at least an interesting derivative take on the vampire genre. His execution could use a bit of work but in the end that's mostly ignorable. ( )

A dystopian YA read featuring vampires, some interesting ideas but it never quite grabbed me. ( )

A dystopian YA read featuring vampires, some interesting ideas but it never quite grabbed me. ( )