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A review by jayseejewel
The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín
5.0
9.5/10
I wasn't sure what to expect coming into this book but was not disappointed. It feels like a nosleep story, with very dark villains and monsters, made even more harrowing because the horrors are happening to children.
Pros:
- I love the setting. Children disappearing and dying in a game against fae creatures. The setting they encounter when they actually enter the games. The descriptions of the monsters and the (spoilers) realization that the monsters are all remnants of people and children who died there
- I like that the rules are well established (both for how the call works and ways to defeat the villains with promises)
- I like that the main character has a clear limit (disability) but they don't whine about it or ruin the story by focusing on it too much. It adds to her character rather than becoming her whole identity
- The twist (spoilers: that the people who came back actually did it because they agreed to help the villains) was one I enjoyed. It was predictable but in a satisfying "I knew it! It's exactly what I wanted to see!" kind of way rather than "yes, we know. boring".
Cons:
- The characters were definitely written like children, which always adds a bit of annoying flare to the dialogue and such. However, it didn't stop me from putting the book down and wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been
- The world of the villains felt very hard to follow. It felt like everything changed constantly and was random (which is partly the point) but I may have liked to see some hints left by the former escapees or inhabitants.
I wasn't sure what to expect coming into this book but was not disappointed. It feels like a nosleep story, with very dark villains and monsters, made even more harrowing because the horrors are happening to children.
Pros:
- I love the setting. Children disappearing and dying in a game against fae creatures. The setting they encounter when they actually enter the games. The descriptions of the monsters and the (spoilers) realization that the monsters are all remnants of people and children who died there
- I like that the rules are well established (both for how the call works and ways to defeat the villains with promises)
- I like that the main character has a clear limit (disability) but they don't whine about it or ruin the story by focusing on it too much. It adds to her character rather than becoming her whole identity
- The twist (spoilers: that the people who came back actually did it because they agreed to help the villains) was one I enjoyed. It was predictable but in a satisfying "I knew it! It's exactly what I wanted to see!" kind of way rather than "yes, we know. boring".
Cons:
- The characters were definitely written like children, which always adds a bit of annoying flare to the dialogue and such. However, it didn't stop me from putting the book down and wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been
- The world of the villains felt very hard to follow. It felt like everything changed constantly and was random (which is partly the point) but I may have liked to see some hints left by the former escapees or inhabitants.