The Call - Peadar O'Guilin

Thousands of years ago, humans banished the Sidhe fairy race to another dimension. The beautiful, terrible Sidhe have stewed in a land of horrors ever since, plotting their revenge... and now their day has come.

Fourteen-year-old Nessa lives in a world where every teen will be "Called." It could come in the middle of the day, it could come deep in the night. But one instant she will be here, and the next she will wake up naked and alone in the Sidhe land. She will be spotted, hunted down, and brutally murdered. And she will be sent back in pieces by the Sidhe to the human world... unless she joins the rare few who survive for twenty-four hours and escape unscathed.

Nessa trains with her friends at an academy designed to maximize her chances at survival. But as the days tick by and her classmates go one by one, the threat of her Call lurks ever closer... and with it the threat of an even more insidious danger closer to home.

SO CREEPY!

Like, seriously, the ways in which humans are tortured, manipulated, and torn apart by the Sidhe is just just twisted! Actually, the whole back story is fascinating and eerie, and I was hooked from the first chapter.

Nessa has polio, so she can't walk or run fight in the same ways that others can. But she's become quite resourceful. She can make crutches out of tree branches, she can use smooth rocks and mud to help herself slide to safety. But no matter how she may or may not survive the Sidhe matters only if she can survive her enemies at school. Conor is a bully and has a lot of darkness lingering inside, and he has a group of students willing to do whatever he wants.

There are secrets and lies, fears and insecurities. This book is unique in its merging of the contemporary world with Irish folklore and fairy mythology. The teens who are Called and return are deformed and disfigured in terrifying ways, which only serves to increase the stakes as the intrigue and horror culminate in an action-packed finale.

Though the third person narrative style feels a bit clunky at times and often leaves character development somewhat shallow, the overall novel is one that will be certain to find an audience with horror and thriller lovers alike. I Recommend this book for sure, though with the caveat that those with a weak stomach may find certain descriptions a bit graphic.

(NOTE: This Review is from an Advance Reading Copy - Out August 30, 2016)