Danielle Reads

The Hunt
By Andrew Fukuda
Published: May 8, 2012
St. Martin's Griffin, 304 pages

Gene is different from everyone else around him.  He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood.  Gene is a human, and he knows the rules.  Keep the truth a secret.  It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.
When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him.  He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

- Amazon.com Description

The Hunt is a unique take on dystopian vampire fiction. The main character, Gene is a human (or 'heper') who has spent his life trying to blend in with the vampire population and is chosen for an exclusive heper hunt. When he arrives at the training for the hunt, he discovers that everything is not quite as it seems and has to work doubly hard to hide his human characteristics or risk being eaten.

The vampires have interesting characteristics, such as scratching their wrists rather than laughing, and are quite violent and not at all watered-down for a YA audience. There are several violent scenes throughout the book.

Although I quite enjoyed the plot premise of this book, and as such had high hopes, there were a few disappointments. I found that Gene's character was underdeveloped and rather boring. Much of the dialogue was corny and unbelievable, and there were several moments when I couldn't believe how dumb he was for someone who was supposed to be incredibly intelligent. The beginning of the book was a bit slow, but did definitely pick up towards the middle. The one thing I really wish I could change about this book was the lack of world-building. It was never explained how vampires took over the world, or other important information. Hopefully some of these things will be clarified in the sequel. It feels like a good editing job could have vastly improved this novel, but it's still decent.

Despite its flaws, I do think this book is worth reading. It's an interesting storyline and has a lot of action. It isn't comparable to other dystopian/paranormal fiction, which I think is a good thing. Don't discount it because of the vampires either -- these vampires are unlike the others you've read about!