I feel as though that this book is a mixture of Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games. The book takes place in Ireland, where it has been separated from the rest of the world because of the Fae. In doing so, the Fae has the ability to call upon the teenagers and hunt them in the land that they were forced to live (due to an ancient treaty), the Gray Lands. The teens have 3 minutes in our time to survive in the gray lands, or else they will either die or become part of the wildlife. You are following a group of teens who are going to school to be trained to survive in the Gray Lands and their experiences as they are getting called.
I gave this book five out of five stars on Goodreads. There were so many things that I enjoyed with this book. Of course there were those few things that I did not enjoy, but in the end, the book did stick with me for a few days, and I really did enjoy the book overall.
Let me start off with our pros. I really enjoyed that it was a dark, suspenseful, and an intense read. The book was not easy to put down, and there were moments where I was debating on whether or not I should be responsible or not, because I wanted to read the book and not go to work or do things that I knew that I had to get done. Another thing that I enjoyed and loved was how the characters were relatable, even the characters that I hate. It made the events believable and real. It also helped you sympathize with the characters and what they have experience in the Gray Lands. O’Guilin wrote his characters in such a way that you would understand their thinking and reasoning behind such choices and experiences. I especially loved our main character. I enjoyed the fact that even though she is physically disabled, yet she is still strong and smart. In fact, I remember reading the first few pages and celebrating on such an amazing character. I am more in love with her on the fact that she hates it when people baby her because of her disability. I also enjoyed how O’Guilin used these characters to play with labels and teach us to not judge a book by its cover. He did not just pick on the whole weak being able to survive, but also played with other cliches such as the strong hero being the bad guy or the depressed sick teacher being the leader of darkness. Finally, I enjoyed the different themes within the book, such as friendships, love, kindness, growing up and what it means to be human, not just survival.
However, as much as I loved our book, there are two things that I did not like about the book. Sadly, this does take place at the end of the book and there will be spoilers (so if you want to skip this, you may). The first thing that I did not like was the amount of loose ends that happened at the end of the book. It just left so many unanswered questions that I felt as though we could have had an extra chapter to happily tie those up. Some of my questions are:
What happened to the traitors? Did they get their wish granted?
What was the crazy woman who wished to be in the Gray Lands? What was her exact wish? Did she make sure that she would not be hunted while she lived in the Gray Lands? Were there more wars between Ireland and the Fae? Was Ireland ever able to connect back to the real world?
The other thing that I did not like was how depressing the ending was. Here we are supposed to celebrate the human’s victory, but we end it with a sad reminder of death and loss friendships. Those were the main two problems that I had with the book.
In the end, I would love to recommend the book to everyone. However, I do fear that this book could trigger some people who have anxiety or suffer from PTSD. I can tell you that this book did cause some anxiety problems, and I was struggling with it, but the book was worth it. In the end, I can only speak for myself when it comes to my anxiety. But I do recommend this book to anyone who would like to read dark and intense books, especially if you like both the Hunger Games and the Game of Thrones. It is beautifully formulated and a lot of fun to read and experience.
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Reviews with images
Four Stars
Great book to read, but my copy came torn on the top left corner. Sad times.
Top reviews from other countries
Dr. Colin L. Sheppard
MOST EXCITING READING FOR A LONG TIME
Reviewed in Australia on September 18, 2020