N. M. Browne

Hunted by N. M. Browne is a book I discovered in my early teens. I would say the intended audience is younger readers and young adult, but I still enjoy it almost ten years on. The only thing is that the writing can seem a little young at times, but the fascinating and unusual story more than make up for it.

We follow two main characters, Karen and Mowl, as the narrative brings them together in a very original way. Though Karen is the true main character, the story is told from both their show more points of view, alternately switching between the two. I know sometimes that can be irritating, but it works in this book.

The story starts with Karen (in modern England) being chased by a group of girls, ultimately ending up with her in a coma. She wakes up in a different world ( a very ambiguous one at that) as a fox. She is still herself, but her memories are fractured and she can't remember anything distinctly. This means that she survives through her fox instincts, which can so strong that they completely drown out her own thoughts and feelings. Also, though this world has some magic realism, as a fox she cannot speak or understand human speech. As you can imagine, this makes the whole situation a lot worse and very difficult for her to deal with. I can't even begin to wonder what the mind would go through waking up in a different world and time (as this second world is set in the past, in what I guess is medieval England) as a fox and on top of all that, no longer being able to communicate.

Across her travels, she meets and is befriended by Mowl, a shepherd boy in his teens. Mowl becomes hunted by the Militia, as they believe his estranged father (Mowl being an orphan with no knowledge of his family) killed the king. As his son, Mowl is also blamed.

Together, Mowl and Karen must find their way through a world in a state of oppression, where talk of revolution clings to the air and any suspected are hanged for treason and their loved ones hurt and killed. The king is under the influence of his advisor. The Militia is vast, strong and ruthless, killing without qualm.

Magic of a kind exists in this world, but more on a spiritual level. There are Adepts that can sense things on a higher plane and also sense peoples' emotions and desires. Some also believe in awls- beings from a higher tier who briefly visit their world. However, the king and his Purple Path are working to wipe all this out, building temples and charging taxes to make people believe there is nothing beyond their own world and killing all those who disagree. Rebellion is a whisper in the breeze, as many cannot survive the harsh winters with the new taxes.

The world itself, as I stated earlier, is ambiguous. We get small snippets of Karen is hospital from her grandparents' point of view, so it's unclear whether the second world is real or just a dream Karen is having during her coma.

Hunted is a great read, the characters are real and throughout the story the tension is constant and building. My only real criticism is that the ending is a little abrupt. I won't spoil it, but I would've liked to know just a little more than is given, but on the whole it's a great book. If you don't like books for younger audiences, but are interested in the premise, try checking it out of the library. I would definitely recommend Hunted. It was one of my favourites when I was younger and still holds a special place for me. show less

My mom gave me this book because the kids at her school are reading it in one of their English classes. It's about a young woman, Karen, who falls into a coma after a violent encounter with a gang. During her coma she is - or maybe just dreams she is - a fox in a medieval-like setting on the brink of revolution. She befriends a young man and their journey is the heart of the novel. This was interestingly written - lots of short, almost jarring sentences helped to communicate the idea that show more Karen-Fox's mind is mixed with an animal mind. show less

A Celtic Warrior girl, Trista, escapes from the tribe that has enslaved her into the hands of two Roman foot soldiers. One of them survives and is surprised by the fact that she can see the wolf in him, Morcant is a werewolf and his wolf side is starting to come forward. They proceed through several adventures to learn more about themselves and their place in the society they live in.

It's an interesting read, quite reminiscent of Rosemary Sutcliff and other stories like that, the story is show more mostly told from Trista's point of view but occasionally from Mortcant's and it makes it more rounded for that. Interesting to see Mortcant duel between his wolf and his human side. Threads left at the end could have a sequel but it's complete as it is. show less

For about 4 years I kept picking up this book and trying to push further. I felt like it was the last of a long series because it used so many invented terms as if it had already fully explained them countless times, and I apparently didn’t need to know what it was on about anymore. Well, it made me lose interest because I couldn’t grip who was what, and what the hell Ugna or Urtha was or any of the other invented words. It wouldn’t take much to give a quick explanation, especially show more seeming other ideas were repeated tediously, such as Tommo always being just about to die. I can give credit to the authors imagination and strong world-building skills, but when I can’t understand the rules of the world it’s hard to feel any tension from certain comments that I know should have had more impact than they do.
My other problem was when the storyline switched to the Protector’s wife (don’t ask me what a Protector is), Vevena, it became almost like a book summary telling me a complete back story of a random woman. This is actually where I stopped reading it the first time. Of course her back story becomes very important to the ending but there are much better ways of writing something like this.
The only reason why I kept reading it is that it became a personal challenge to finish it. In fact, the last third of the book, after I accepted that I wasn’t going to understand half of it, was actually pretty good. I still wouldn’t recommend it. Sorry, N.M. Browne! show less