The Call (The Call, #1) by Peadar Ó Guilín

Oct 01, 2016 Jesse (JesseTheReader) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book was so much better than I was expecting it to be! Mind you, I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style, but it didn't really affect my overall enjoyment of the story. This book is gruesome & horrific. At times I had to set the book down, because of how twisted it was getting, but then I'd pick it right back up, because I had to know what was going to happen! This is the perfect read if you're looking for a unique horror story!

FULL VIDEO REVIEW CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://youtu.be/drt0qcJ ...more

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Oct 16, 2016 Christine Riccio rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I REALLY REALLY ENJOYED THIS. CAN'T WAIT FOR BOOK 2. Here's my full booktalk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xebkW... ...more

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Dec 17, 2017 Lori rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A fairy tale. One where the Fae play with people like Sid Phillips plays with toys. Well, as harmful and destructive, but they seem more alien. (Sid is Andy's sociopath neighbor in Toy Story if you're not up to speed on children's movies.) Along the lines of:

As flies to wanton boys are we to the' gods,
They kill us for their sport.
—King Lear Act 4, scene 1, 32–37, William Shakespeare

It's a genre blend of fantasy, horror, and folklore. A contemporary setting with Ireland as a cursed land cut-off ...more

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Sep 24, 2016 Jilly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: y-a, faeries-fae, winner-winner-chicken-dinner, urban-fantasy

Wow!! I flew through this book. It was unputdownable!

Imagine the Hunger Games, but instead of only one group of kids a year having to go, every single teen has to go at one point. And, instead of fighting each other to the death, there are ugly, twisted, vicious monsters chasing you down to torture and kill you. You only have to survive the day, but only 1 in 10 makes it out alive. And, even then they are not without emotional and physical scars.

It was brutal. Dark, bloody, sadistic... yeah, rea ...more

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Apr 29, 2017 jv poore rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror, donated, heyssel-classroom, adolescence, fantasy, action_adventure, ghost-story, magic, student_appropriate, young-adult

Nessa was celebrating her 10th birthday when her childhood abruptly ended. Instead of giving gifts and baking a cake, her parents explain The Call.

The little girl that built an emotional armor against people’s perceptions; both the pitying looks as well as the ones filled with contempt and disbelief, is intelligent enough to understand the uselessness of her efforts. Her legs, twisted by polio into more of a hindrance than a help, have gone from a focal point to a genuine liability.

Held hostag ...more

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May 25, 2017 Lori rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A fairy tale. One where the Fae play with people like Sid Phillips plays with toys. Well, as harmful and destructive, but they seem more alien. (Sid is Andy's sociopath neighbor in Toy Story if you're not up to speed on children's movies.) Along the lines of:

As flies to wanton boys are we to the' gods,
They kill us for their sport.
—King Lear Act 4, scene 1, 32–37, William Shakespeare

It's a genre blend of fantasy, horror, and folklore. A contemporary setting with Ireland as a cursed land cut-off f ...more

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Feb 27, 2017 Ellen Gail rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

Deliciously brutal and loads of fun, The Call is a bloody heart-racing delight. It's going to be a painful wait for the sequel!

The man who is speaking pokes his head in, reaching blindly with his deadly hands. But [she] has hands too and, before he knows what has hit him, she has taken his eyeballs...

Every child will be Called, it's only a matter of when. Between ages 10 - 17 every child in Ireland, male or female, healthy or not, will disappear for 3 minutes and 4 seconds (a full 24 hours t ...more

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Oct 12, 2016 Melanie (TBR and Beyond) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-horror, kick-ass-females, read-in-2018, halloween-2016, ya-fantasy, top-2016-reads, read-in-2016, ya-dystopian, physical-disability, underrated-gem

Could You Survive the Call?

NOTE: Read it for a second time and still give it four stars. I really had fun with this one and just love the amount of gore and disturbing images. MORE!

I haven't read anything quite like this book, then again I've only more recently gotten really into dystopian books. This book was quite a ride!

The Call is centered a group of kids that are training for when it's their turn to be Called. At the age of ten they are taken from those they know and love and p

Could You Survive the Call?

NOTE: Read it for a second time and still give it four stars. I really had fun with this one and just love the amount of gore and disturbing images. MORE!

I haven't read anything quite like this book, then again I've only more recently gotten really into dystopian books. This book was quite a ride!

The Call is centered a group of kids that are training for when it's their turn to be Called. At the age of ten they are taken from those they know and love and put into a very strict and harsh school where they are trained to try and survive the horrors that are inevitably coming their way. The Sidhe are a race of fae that are hellbent on killing anyone they can from Ireland because the Irish took their land many years ago and forced them into a type of hell. The Sidhe only live to seek vengeance for the wrongs that have been done to them.

The Call is kind of a mix of The Hunger Games and a more adult horror book. The violence is all too real in this book and fairly disturbing. I actually would've liked them to go a little further with some of the descriptions and what happened to some of the kids. Maybe that makes me a sicko, it likely does! What can you do! I loved that a YA book was actually disturbing me though with some of the ideas it was throwing out. I won't give anything away because it's fun reading about it.

I don't understand why this book didn't get more hype. It deserves more. I saw a few large Booktubers mention it but it kind of disappeared from any discussion in YA books just as fast as it came. Shame.

I found the book fairly fast-paced but I know others have said differently. The book kept my interest though-out it all and I would've likely read it in one sitting if I didn't have five books on the go at the time. The main protagonist worked for me. I found her intelligent and I loved her drive. I also loved that the main character had a physical disability, I wish we would see more about disabilities in these types of books. So many of us can relate and identify with these types of characters and other people can learn a lot from just the normalization of disabilities in general. So bravo to the author of making his lead with a big challenge like that to overcome.

So, what didn't work for me? Why did I hold back on five stars? The characters were a little thin. There were some that when they got Called I had no clue who they were. That didn't mean I wasn't interested though. No, I didn't have any investment in those characters but I did have an investment in the world they entered. I wanted to know what was going on and what awful things they going to have to endure, so that didn't ruin it for me. I think the world building on both sides needed to be fleshed out more - I wasn't confused about anything, I just wanted more. I could've easily read another 100 pages on the world alone. I have no idea if that is a good or bad thing. I also had issues with the main character's best friend. I don't mind that she was crass but at times she felt a bit juvenile with all the potty humor. It made me roll my eyes a few times. Not my thing at all.

I'm not going to criticize that I don't know much more about Anto yet but only because another book is coming. I have no idea if it will be a series or a duology. I don't think that has been announced. I'm hoping that the author will take the time to let us get to know these characters better in the next one.

I highly recommend this book IF you can handle gore and violence. This book doesn't hold back even though it is a YA novel. I also should warn you that it does leave the book on a pretty big cliff hanger so if that is going to bother you then you might want to wait till the author releases the next story so you can find out what happens right away. ...more

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May 26, 2016 Figgy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites-2016, reviewed, format-proof-copy, from-scholastic-work

LINK UPDATED

‘Listen,’ he says, ‘we don’t need the Sidhe to teach us evil. We were the ones who put them in the Grey Land, remember? And not just for a day or however long it is the Call lasts. We Irish… we trapped an entire race of people in hell for all eternity, just so we could take their homes for ourselves.’

In the Iron Age, the people of Ireland chased the fairyfolk away and trapped them in a nightmarish other dimension. 25 years ago the Sidhe successfully cursed Ireland, cutting it off fro LINK UPDATED

‘Listen,’ he says, ‘we don’t need the Sidhe to teach us evil. We were the ones who put them in the Grey Land, remember? And not just for a day or however long it is the Call lasts. We Irish… we trapped an entire race of people in hell for all eternity, just so we could take their homes for ourselves.’

In the Iron Age, the people of Ireland chased the fairyfolk away and trapped them in a nightmarish other dimension. 25 years ago the Sidhe successfully cursed Ireland, cutting it off from the rest of the world, and began picking off its children.

Sometime between the ages of ten and seventeen, every child will be called to this nightmarish dimension without warning. There, naked and without any weapons, they must run and fight, and do whatever it takes to survive the day. If they make it through 24 hours in the Grey Land (three minutes and four seconds in our world), they can return home, though they will never be the same, because that other world is so very gruesome.

The silver landscape falls away in front of her like a scroll with a map drawn on it. Fairyland in its entirety: lakes of red fire, the only colour here, spewing and bubbling in the distance; forests growing terrible fruits; tornadoes, that look like a giant’s fingers digging into the soil; scattered lightening; burning rains and murderous flora of every kind.

The creature was once a human woman. Now she pads along on all fours. Her back legs bend the wrong way. Her jaws have grown thick and large with massive teeth that don’t fit properly together so that the mouth can never fully close, and a constant stream of drool hangs down from her chin. Her paws are still recognizably human hands. Her all-too human breasts hang down, catching on rocks and bushes so that Antoinette aches to see it and wishes she could do something to help.

A worse smell than usual tickles his nostrils. It began with Dagda’s arrival. He sees why when he looks at the man’t clothing, and he gasps, for the hem of each sleeve is a set of human lips – a whole human mouth, in fact, panting in distress around the Sidhe’s wrists, while a tiny trail of what might be vomit drips away to the ground.

And if they catch you, well… you really don’t want them to catch you.

The boy’s body reappears and thumps down hard onto the floor. Nessa is relieved to see that it’s not one of the really awful ones. There’s nothing to churn the stomach here, other than a little blood and a set of tiny antlers growing from the back of his head. The Sidhe can be a lot more imaginative than that, and they even have what experts refer to as a ‘sense of fun’. Nessa shivers.

And suddenly something is there: not a corpse and far too large for a human being. Two metres high, it stands on four legs that end in a parody of a man’s toes. Its skin is the pale white of most Irish, but it has stretched so thinly over such a large frame that parts of it lie torn and bleeding.

The next morning is Halloween. To celebrate, the Sidhe have left a gift in the boy’s dorm. It is Keith, one of the Round Table. They have sculpted his face into a delicate flower of blood and skin.

The rest of this review can be found HERE! ...more

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Jan 23, 2021 Lucy Tonks rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-on-ebook

"She says, "I'm going to live. And nobody's going to stop me." She believes every word of it."

Look at me procrastinating and actually writing my reviews. Yey for me. But moving on. This was one of the most horrifying books I have ever read. This is pitched as the next Hunger Games and I understand this. It actually managed to do what The Hunger Games couldn't for me. I found THG to be pretty overrated, but this actually did the damn thing. I was engaged through out most of the book and I actuall "She says, "I'm going to live. And nobody's going to stop me." She believes every word of it."

Look at me procrastinating and actually writing my reviews. Yey for me. But moving on. This was one of the most horrifying books I have ever read. This is pitched as the next Hunger Games and I understand this. It actually managed to do what The Hunger Games couldn't for me. I found THG to be pretty overrated, but this actually did the damn thing. I was engaged through out most of the book and I actually liked the characters. This book was so entertaining that I managed to read it in two sittings!!

So you might ask what this book is about and basically the Irish people thousands of years ago have took over the land of the faerie people called, the Sidhe, and made them move in a place that's, simply put, hell. And now to get their revenge, during their teenage years, everyone is "Called" for 3 minutes. But of course, time is different in the faerie world, so they actually spend a whole day there and most kids don't survive their Call, but those who do, don't come back the same.

Now you can probably tell why this is pitched as "the next Hunger Games". At the same time, it's similar to The Hunger Games and not. It gave me the same feelings THG did, but this did a better job at impressing me. I just found the story to be way more entertaining. Although I have to say I prefer Suzanne Collins' writing style over this author's. Like Collins' writing style was excellent, 10/10, while this author's was kinda meh and I would give it a 6/10. It was alright, just nothing impressing.

As I said before this is one of the most horrifying books, I have ever read. The main character in this book, Nessa, who is also disabled by the way, is 14 years old. 14! And that's the age most people are Called. They are tortured by the Sidhe, some manage to survive their called, but they never return the same. They endure so many horors there. And those who don't survive return mutilated! Imagine living in this world... I wouldn't survive the first five minutes of my Call!

The plot was engaging for the most part and I couldn't put it down. I was not joking when I said I read it in two sittings. There were so much at stakes and I needed to know if Nessa and the other characters will survive or not. I was captivated from page one and I kept turning the pages until I have no more pages to read.

I really liked the cast of characters. Especially Anto. He was just so sweet! I don't really have a favourite character in this book, as I felt like we didn't delve deep enough for me to actually feel a connection with any of them, but I do have to say Anto is the one I was most concerned for. I also really liked Megan, Nessa's closest friend. There was just something so likeable about her and I loved how much she and Nessa actually cared for eachother.

I need to rant a bit about Conor. He was one of the most pathetic characters I have ever read about. Him and his whole gang. Like what the hell is wrong with him?! I wanted to strangle him from the beginning of the book. How can someone be as pathetic as him?

I think this book is considered horror, but I wouldn't say it actually is a horror book. I've never been scared while reading this book, but I've been horrified and for me, there's a difference between the two and I would consider this book more of a thriller than horror, to be completely honest.

I really liked this book, it's not a favourite book of mine by any means, but it's extremely entertaining and addictive, and also if you loved The Hunger Games do definitely give this a try. It's so worth it. ...more

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Mar 15, 2016 Vikki Patis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I heard about The Call when it was still just a twinkle in Peadar’s eye. I was hobbling around with a walking stick at WorldCon, and he collared me into telling him about my illness with the promise of free coffee. He told me about a Hunger Games-style story, where teenagers fight for their right to live (and party, maybe), and how he wanted the protagonist to be different, to be struggling with a disability on top of everything else. So we chatted, and I heard his ideas with the excitement of a ...more

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Oct 07, 2016 Kate (GirlReading) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian, fantasy, young-adult, horror

3.75* The whole time reading this I couldn't stop thinking that this book is perfect for fans of Stranger Things. I recently watched and loved the show and this gave me major Stranger Things vibes. It was eerie and not afraid to be a little disturbing and push boundaries. It was definitely a fun read! I did find the ending slightly anticlimactic and I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing style (which I eventually got used to and it didn't take away from the enjoyment of the story.) The Call was ...more

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Sep 27, 2016 Joanna rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This book had a lot of hype and therefore I was expecting a lot from it it had an interesting enough premise for me but the problem was the pacing. I thought it was too slow and the characters just didn't seem like people you could root for. Here they were in this dire situation and I couldn't root for anyone to come out on top or be the hero. Maybe the point was there wasn't suppose to be one but I usually like books that have heroes.

Nessa was just completely apathetic most of the time and whe ...more

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Feb 24, 2018 Mizuki rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fairies-related, young-adult-books, pretty-good

4.5 stars for this chilling and gloomy, and in parts downright gruesome and upsetting alternative-reality tale about a group of Irish teens struggling to survive the assaults of the revengeful faeries and their deadly realm.

15 years ago, Ireland was cut off from the rest of the world by magic, everyone who tried to escape by air or by sea would mysteriously vanish without a trace. Even worse, the Irish teenagers started to experience a strange and horrifying phenomena named The Call: out of the 4.5 stars for this chilling and gloomy, and in parts downright gruesome and upsetting alternative-reality tale about a group of Irish teens struggling to survive the assaults of the revengeful faeries and their deadly realm.

15 years ago, Ireland was cut off from the rest of the world by magic, everyone who tried to escape by air or by sea would mysteriously vanish without a trace. Even worse, the Irish teenagers started to experience a strange and horrifying phenomena named The Call: out of the blue, teenagers around 14 to 18 would be spirited away (always in front of their shell shocked friends and loved ones) from the human world to the realm of the faeries for the total of 3 minutes and 4 seconds, and during these 3 minutes the revengeful and merciless faeries would hunt those teenagers like preys before the latter were magically sent back (dead or alive or changed) to where they came from; since time flowed differently in the Grey Land than the human world, 3 short minutes of struggling for survival could last from hours to one whole day in the Grey Land.

Our main characters are a bunch of students in one of the Irish Nation's survival colleges --due to the effort of the training system, the survival rate had been increased from 1:100 to 1:10 after years of training the teens against the inescapable horror of the faeries (as you can imagine 15 years on there aren't many young people left as a whole). We mainly follow the stories of a 14 years old girl named Nessa and her friends' as they prepare themselves for the horror of The Call.

No one expects Nessa to survive The Call, since how can you expect a girl with a pair of bad legs to outrun the faerie hunters and their monsters when countless of able-body teens had already failed?

It is an overwhelmingly dark, twisted tale about the faeries (and it is set in a modern world setting which is familiar to our own world), I really like the author's imagination--especially the many horrors in the Grey Land, I found some of the details truly disgusting--not only because of the on-screen violence against the teens (there are plenty) but because of the faeries' cruelty to their captives and their awful, twisted imagination.

As a whole I like the story lines, I also like how the author described the different reaction among the students (bravado, denial, etc) and the details of their training and school's activities. I don't particularly like these main characters but I do think they are reasonable and understandable enough (at least no one is being a drama queen or getting into annoying love triangle when their lives are on the line). So I will look forward to the next book. ...more

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Nov 26, 2016 Schizanthus Nerd rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: content-warnings, kindle-food

What was I thinking?! I discovered this book in 2016 and gave my initial read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. What?? This is clearly a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book! I’d borrow more stars right now if that was possible!

Put to the ultimate test for your survival, you will find out exactly what you’re made of when you’re Called; literally if you’re not quick enough, wily enough or lucky enough. At some point during your adolescence you will be Called to the Grey Land. Your body will return, dead, alive or somewhere in between, exact What was I thinking?! I discovered this book in 2016 and gave my initial read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. What?? This is clearly a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book! I’d borrow more stars right now if that was possible!

Put to the ultimate test for your survival, you will find out exactly what you’re made of when you’re Called; literally if you’re not quick enough, wily enough or lucky enough. At some point during your adolescence you will be Called to the Grey Land. Your body will return, dead, alive or somewhere in between, exactly three minutes and four seconds after you disappear, but in the Grey Land you must survive an entire day of horror beyond measure.

Cowards have the opportunity to become heroes. Those who are certain they will survive aren’t so sure once they breathe in the acrid air and encounter the first of the Sídhe (fairy, in English) who want to play with them, agonisingly twisting and reshaping their body beyond recognition.

‘The Nation must survive! The future is ours!’

With only one out of ten people surviving the Call it’s wise to not get too emotionally attached to anyone. However it’s impossible not to have a few of the teens penetrate your protective emotional armour. My favourite character doesn’t survive their Call but their time in the Grey Land proved to me exactly why I loved them from the moment I met them.

While at first glance it seems clear who the monsters of this story are, the longer I read the more I questioned my initial judgement. It appears there are monsters on both sides of this war and I felt some surprising empathy for the Sídhe as I learned more of their history.

This is the spirit of the Call itself. Deadly and inevitable and imminent.

This is one seriously messed up fairy (Sídhe) tale and I love it! It’s a brutal and at times quite gory story, with characters I cheered on to survive (or otherwise), and locations that came to life in my mind. This is definitely not a world I would ever want to visit because there’s no way I’d survive the Call, but I was fully immersed the entire time in this imaginative, well thought out world.

I have the Hugo Awards to thank for finally getting my act together to reread it. The Invasion is a finalist in the 2019 Hugo Awards category, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, so I had the perfect excuse to revisit the awesome horror of the Grey Land in The Call.

Books within the book: I wish I could get my hands on the hundred page History of the Sídhe book mentioned in The Call, as well as all the volumes of the Testimonies.

Content warnings include ableism, sexual assault, bullying, physical assaults and torture, mental health, and brief mentions of family violence and suicidal ideation. ...more

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Jun 18, 2016 Lauren Stoolfire rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, fantasy, young-adult, urban-fantasy, dystopia

The people of Ireland have been facing the Call for the last twenty-five years and there's no avoiding it. The Sidhe are finally getting their revenge for having been driven under the mounds thousands of years ago. Those from age 11 to 16 could be Called from their lives into the world of the Sidhe without any warning for 24 hours - well, 3 minutes and four seconds in the human world. For all of those who get called the survival rate is only about 1 in 10, but that's much higher than it was in t The people of Ireland have been facing the Call for the last twenty-five years and there's no avoiding it. The Sidhe are finally getting their revenge for having been driven under the mounds thousands of years ago. Those from age 11 to 16 could be Called from their lives into the world of the Sidhe without any warning for 24 hours - well, 3 minutes and four seconds in the human world. For all of those who get called the survival rate is only about 1 in 10, but that's much higher than it was in the beginning. Even if you are one of the lucky ones to make it back, chances are still very high that you will have all sorts of physical, mental, and emotional scars.

I'm glad I stumbled upon a sampler of The Call at Barnes & Noble and was able to find a final copy via the library. I was very impressed by this unique and twisted vision bringing Irish mythology in to the present. Our main character, Nessa, is very determined to survive and she's quite strong physically and mentally even though she still shows the signs of having contracted polio as a child. Although, she is disabled she never thinks less of herself in a society that constantly does. She knows that she has to keep her mind to her future, and making it through her Call in alive. We also get a good look at many other characters who attend Nessa's Call survival college - their personalities, outlooks, and the horrors of the Sidhe world through their eyes. Personally, I would have preferred to have primarily stayed with Nessa, I still enjoyed jumping into these other perspectives. Sometimes though, these changes in perspective could be very abrupt and at times difficult to keep up with. The author's world-building skills are excellent and well-developed. I loved getting a new look into Irish mythology, which is quite refreshing to see in YA. This makes me wish there were more like it, particularly the dark, gritty, and thoroughly inhuman side of fairies.

Overall, The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín is a twisty page turner that had me glued to the pages. I honestly hope that somehow we will return to this author's world, but in the meantime I'll definitely be looking into his Bone World Trilogy. If you like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black, The Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, you may also enjoy The Call. ...more

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Aug 28, 2016 Amy Sturgis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction-contemporary, ya-dystopia, gothic, 21st-century, fantasy, ya-horror

If you're within the sound of my voice -- or, more appropriately, the sight of my written words -- please take this as a given: I want to sit you down, shove this book into your hands, and insist that you read it. Now.

Don't let my Goodreads reading dates fool you, either. I've read this twice already.

It may be easy to overlook what a stunning achievement this novel represents, but that's because Peadar Ó Guilín makes it seem so effortless as he draws the reader on from one page-turning moment to ...more

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Oct 11, 2016 Jill rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Wtf did I just read?

*******

Alright so I really don't have a ton to say about this book. It was just really freaking strange. It wasn't scary in the least. It was just weird. And I still don't even understand what happened. It also has a TON of very foul, vulgar language that was just completely unnecessary and just...wow. I feel like I could rant about this fact for 30 years but I won't get into it here. So, I went into this book with little to no expectations because I was hearing mediocre thin ...more

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Jul 22, 2017 Puck rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Fans of Stranger Things & Dark fairy-stories

Shelves: underrated, young-adult, horror, fantasy

3,5 stars. If you can’t wait for “Stranger Things” to come back, this disturbing horror story might sooth your hunger. The Call is a teenage dystopia book far darker than the others, with a kickass main character that doesn’t let her physical disability stand in her way.

2000 years ago, the people of Ireland banished the fairyfolk to the hellish Grey Lands. As punishment, the faeries initiated "the Call", in which any Irish child between the age of ten and seventeen suddenly gets taken a 3,5 stars. If you can’t wait for “Stranger Things” to come back, this disturbing horror story might sooth your hunger. The Call is a teenage dystopia book far darker than the others, with a kickass main character that doesn’t let her physical disability stand in her way.

2000 years ago, the people of Ireland banished the fairyfolk to the hellish Grey Lands. As punishment, the faeries initiated "the Call", in which any Irish child between the age of ten and seventeen suddenly gets taken away to those Lands for three minutes. In the fairyworld however those minutes are 24 hours, in which you will be constantly hunted by a bloodthirsty group of Sidhe. Only 1 in 10 teenagers makes it through the Call, but they will bear the mental and physical scars for the rest of their lives.
In this book you follow a group of student training in a survival academy; our main character is a 14-year-old girl named Nessa who contracted Polio as a child and now can’t fully use her legs. Despite her disability and everyone thinking she’d be better off dead, Nessa is determinate to survive the Call and prove everyone wrong.

The tiny skulls on the cover should be warning enough, but I was horrifyingly shocked by the brutal hunts and the terrifying atmosphere of this book. As if the fact that you can get “Called” at any time, without any warning, isn’t scary enough, the descriptions of the Grey Lands themselves and the hunts will certainly twist your stomach. No matter how heavily the teenagers are trained to survive, nothing can prepare them for facing beings like this:

“The creature was once a human woman. Now she pads along on all fours. Her back legs bend the wrong way. Her jaws have grown thick and large with massive teeth that don’t fit properly together so that the mouth can never fully close, and a constant stream of drool hangs down from her chin. Her paws are still recognizably human hands. Her all-too human breasts hang down, catching on rocks and bushes so that Antoinette aches to see it and wishes she could do something to help.”

Even more awful is that once those 3 minutes are done, the child – either dead or alive - is send back to our world, showing to everyone what the fairies do to the teenagers they…catch

“The next morning is Halloween. To celebrate, the Sidhe have left a gift in the boy’s dorm. It is Keith, one of the Round Table. They have sculpted his face into a delicate flower of blood and skin."

Bloody, twisted and disturbing, but this horrifying setting was actually the strongest part of the book for me. What I loved less was the way this story is told – by switching a lot between perspectives – and how there were simply too many characters and not enough development. I’d loved to get to know Anto and Megan better, or read more about Nessa’s struggles with her disability, instead of following a teen that will most likely die in the next ten pages. The latter works in illustrating the brutality of the fairies, but not when the author writes about ‘high-school’ life at the academy.

But although the characters are a bit thin and the ending was wrapped up a tad too quickly, it’s been a long time since a book surprised me like this one. If you want to read a highly original dark YA novel with an one-of-a-kind main character, read The Call - but only if you can handle gore and descriptions like above. ...more

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Oct 28, 2016 Justine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-read

4.5 stars

This book has a raw and stripped-down quality that enhances the grim story of the Sidhe exacting their revenge on the humans who took Ireland from them. Excellent storytelling and characters make it a real page turner.

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Jun 27, 2016 Tammie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dark-horror

The Call is a book that I'll have on my mind for quite some time- more horror than anything else and quite a gruesome tale the author tells. With a 1 in 10 chance of survival in this book- the odds are truly against you. The book was extremely fast-paced, - I would have loved to see more character development but it's still really good. I would suggest this to people who like horror, survival stories, and just a unique type of books in general. ...more

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Oct 30, 2016 Kortessa Giachanatzi rated it liked it · review of another edition

I have read some good reviews about The Call, so I decided to give it a try myself...
Well, I liked it, not as much as I expected to.

The story is set in future Ireland which is cut off from the rest of the world. The population is aged because of The Call. Years ago the Irish people chased down the Sídhe to the Grey Lands and now the Sídhe want to take revenge and gain back their land. They call teenagers to the Grey Land and they have a kind of a fight with them, they kill them or twist them in I have read some good reviews about The Call, so I decided to give it a try myself...
Well, I liked it, not as much as I expected to.

The story is set in future Ireland which is cut off from the rest of the world. The population is aged because of The Call. Years ago the Irish people chased down the Sídhe to the Grey Lands and now the Sídhe want to take revenge and gain back their land. They call teenagers to the Grey Land and they have a kind of a fight with them, they kill them or twist them in the strangest ways. In the normal world this lasta only 3 minutes and four seconds, but in the Grey Lands it might be even a day. So teenagers in Ireland spend their life preparing and training for the Call, because they may be called at any time. We follow Nessa a girl suffering from polio ( a desease affecting her legs) training for the Call in a survival school. One of the many Ireland has. Despite her problem she doesn't give up.

Well, in the beginning (until the half of the book I could say), I could not tell where everything was going. The point of it. Ok. We see how teenagers prepare, we see what happens to some of them in the Grey Lands. So?????? The interesting part for me, took a little longer to come up which is no good... Something else I found distressing were the names. They were too many, and all seemed similar to me. I couldn't even tell if they where male or female. I was looking for the pronouns to define it. Another negative in the book was the repetition of the word "grin' and " grinning". It was used countless times!! Come on!!!! Wasn't there anything else to use. And for the sake of repetition what was that thing about the promises?? Give me something to give you something else in exchange! I mean it was good, but up to a point. It was used far too many times!!

On the other hand though, there were some positive elements. The beginning, to start with. The first two chapters were dynamic and with action. The scene on the bus. That it what I'm talking about. Something else that I found interesting, was the way that the callings were made. When someone was called, that was happenning a in a moment that I didn't expect. It came out the blue, and in that way I could sympathise with the characters. It created the appropriate tension for the chapter to follow which usually was about how the Called person experienced the Grey Land. The description were vivid. Too explicit I would say, but that is something I loved!!

This is a book I would definitely recommend to someone who is between the ages of 15-20. I think that someone in this age group would love that book. For me it was good but I expected something more. ...more

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Sep 01, 2016 Catherine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, young-adult, dystopia, horror, kindle-library, fae

She says, "I'm going to live. And nobody's going to stop me." She believes every word of it.

Being a teenager is hard enough. It's been years since that time in my life, but I remember. In The Call, teenagers in alternate-reality Ireland have to deal with one more thing: the constant threat of disappearing for 3 minutes, only to return horrifically mutated and likely dead, all at the hands of vicious Sídhe (the Fair Folk) pursuers acting out of revenge and hatred for humans. This is The Call, whi She says, "I'm going to live. And nobody's going to stop me." She believes every word of it.

Being a teenager is hard enough. It's been years since that time in my life, but I remember. In The Call, teenagers in alternate-reality Ireland have to deal with one more thing: the constant threat of disappearing for 3 minutes, only to return horrifically mutated and likely dead, all at the hands of vicious Sídhe (the Fair Folk) pursuers acting out of revenge and hatred for humans. This is The Call, which has been occurring for 25 years at the point when we're introduced to the characters in this book. Teens attend survival schools, the academic pursuits of previous generations eschewed in favor of learning about the flora and fauna of the Grey Lands where the Sídhe reside (and where the teens end up when they are called), intense outdoor training simulating Sídhe hunts, and poring over the written accounts of the few survivors that return alive, having outrun the Sídhe during their time in the Grey Lands.

This is the kind of story that commanded my full attention from the outset and never let go. The cast of characters is what you would come to expect of high school students, almost every expected archetype is on display here. One character worth noting is the protagonist, Nessa. When the Sídhe enacted The Calling, it cut Ireland off from the rest of the world. As such, access to modern-day medicine steadily declined. As a child, Nessa did not receive the vaccine to protect her against polio, and she is struck with the disease, leaving her legs weakened. Considering the overarching storyline, one would immediately assume she is at a terrible disadvantage. Her legs may not be strong like her classmates, but her mind and will to live are stronger than most. Her classmates often comment upon her singular focus and intense self-restraint, as these are traits often attributed to survivors of The Call. I appreciate authors that feature protagonists with a different voice and motivation than what is typically seen within a genre, in this case a main character with a physical disability who is thankfully not used as a source of pity.

Definitely worth the read. There is a strong horror element woven throughout the story, so if you love nighmare fuel, you are in luck. ...more

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Aug 27, 2017 Brie rated it really liked it

Shelves: mythology-and-retellings, ya, fantasy

The Call is pure heart racing Irish folklore horror for the YA audience like you've never seen before. I really enjoyed it, as someone who generally dislikes a lot of fae themed books. O'Guilin put the fury, revenge, and twisted nature back into the Irish fae – or sídhe – and as truly grim and at times horrifying the contents of this book are, it shows the humanity of the victims and the complicated ways groups of people try to survive these apocalyptic situations. It shows the way PTSD affects ...more

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Nov 07, 2016 Mary ~Ravager of Tomes~ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 3-star, year-2016

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

This is a difficult book for me to rate/review, like very difficult. I'm waffling between a 3 and 3.5 stars.

2000 years ago, humans banished faerie inhabitants to The Gray World. As punishment, the faeries initiated the "Call", in which adolescents are taken at random and hunted, tortured, even killed in the terrifying land of the faeries. 1 in 10 children survives the "Call", though they are not always returned the way they left. This story follows a handful of students i Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

This is a difficult book for me to rate/review, like very difficult. I'm waffling between a 3 and 3.5 stars.

2000 years ago, humans banished faerie inhabitants to The Gray World. As punishment, the faeries initiated the "Call", in which adolescents are taken at random and hunted, tortured, even killed in the terrifying land of the faeries. 1 in 10 children survives the "Call", though they are not always returned the way they left. This story follows a handful of students in a survival college, particularly a 14-year-old girl named Nessa who has very limited use of her legs due to being diagnosed with Polio.

I think my favorite aspect of this novel was how grotesque and dark it was. Peadar Ó Guilín did an excellent job creating a macabre atmosphere with his downright disturbing descriptions, I was instantly roped into these awful circumstances that are presented at the start of the book. Danger surrounds the students on all sides. They live in constant anxiety about being "called", and on top of that they are engaged in a violent status war with their peers.

I thought the concept was very unique. I felt the fear in these children, and their characterization really made sense given their situation. The faeries were literally fucking horrifying, and definitely more like I imagine faeries should be. Too often lately I've been reading books where the faerie trope is used to create hot princes who sit around on their thrones just waiting to be part of a love triangle. Not these guys.

Where this book fell short for me was in its constantly switching perspectives and a somewhat unsatisfying ending. This book is not very long, but I feel like ~~a shit ton~~ too many characters were introduced. It was to the point that I was confusing who was who. The switching perspectives worked when we were allowed to follow a child who had been "called", but when the perspectives switched back at the survival college I was struggling.

The end of this book also just sort of forced itself to wrap up. Maybe I missed something? But I'm still a little foggy on what specifically happened because there was just so much going on. I almost wish it would've been longer.

Overall a really good book. I would definitely recommend this as a spooky Halloween read or for someone who enjoys dark/macabre themes. ...more

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Nov 24, 2016 Maria Hill AKA MH Books rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-set-in-ireland, irish-authors, supernatural, dystopia, fantasy, books-i-own-and-have-read, young-adult

Well this is a very enjoyable tale well told. YA is not my favourite genre however there are always exceptions and this is one of them. This is compared a lot to the Hunger games (which is another YA I enjoyed) and the story really does have a lot in common with these books. What I really enjoyed though was the author taking the sanitised stories of the little people and fairies and bringing them back to the truly scary legends that there were of the Sidhe (or the old pagan gods of Ireland). The Well this is a very enjoyable tale well told. YA is not my favourite genre however there are always exceptions and this is one of them. This is compared a lot to the Hunger games (which is another YA I enjoyed) and the story really does have a lot in common with these books. What I really enjoyed though was the author taking the sanitised stories of the little people and fairies and bringing them back to the truly scary legends that there were of the Sidhe (or the old pagan gods of Ireland). They make a very interesting foe for a teenager to survive.

“Listen,’ he says, ‘we don’t need the Sidhe to teach us evil. We were the ones who put them in the Grey Land, remember? And not just for a day or however long it is the Call lasts. We Irish… we trapped an entire race of people in hell for all eternity, just so we could take their homes for ourselves.”

At any time between 10 and 17 a teenager on the Island of Ireland will be called back to the Grey Land to try and survive the hunt of the Sidhe. It takes about 24 hours in the Grey Land and 3 minutes 4 seconds in Ireland. As a teenager you never know when you will be called and watch your friends being called around you. As with all things in life this seems to be always when you least expect it and is definitely the most tense element of the story. Teenagers naturally joke around having fun but these ones have to deal with this constant threat. I think Peader deals with this rather well and uses his fourteen year old protagonist, Nessa (who isn’t wasn't whiny about being in love - Yes!) well to tell his story.

The true impacts of war are not ignored as in:

"'How long must I wait?' she asks the mirror in Sidhe.’ As a survivor, she doesn't need to speak the language anymore. But many like her are more comfortable in it than English, and since they have no choice but to marry each other, the primary schools of the country are filling with tiny tots whose innocent mouths spout the long-dead language of their distant ancestors, which also happens to be the living, never-changing tongue of the enemy. Some day, she thinks, we will be them, a greater victory for the Sidhe than if they kill us all."

I also note that one of my GR friends could not work out the genders of the characters without pronouns. Maybe the sequel (which is a well know secret) should include a list of characters as Irish names are sort of difficult to get a handle on for the non-Irish.

Overall a fun read. ...more

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Sep 10, 2016 Cheryl rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I was really excited to pick up this book and start reading it. Yet, I found myself struggling to read the book. I started this book at night. The next two nights I could only read about 2 chapters and then I grew tried and put the book down. I could barely even comprehend what I was reading. I thought that it was just me and the wrong time of the night to be reading this book. So, I picked up this book again during the day and proceed to start reading it again. Sadly, it was not me. This book w ...more

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Jul 12, 2016 Erin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Once again I have to thank Valerie my librarian friend for letting me read The Call. Peadar O'Guilin's The Call is grim, intense & riveting. Set in an Ireland of undisclosed time, that has been cut off from the rest of the world by The Sidhe. The Sidhe are dark faeries who are plotting to retake their former lands by kidnapping teenagers for 3 minutes in our world but a whole day in the Sidhe world, & returning them dead or maimed. As I said The Call is very grim & my only problem with it was I ...more

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Jul 31, 2018 Chelsea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book has no chill. You better plan on finishing this when you sit down to read it because it just doesn’t slow down. I loved how eerie and dark it was. The overwhelming sense of disparity mixed with potential hope for humans is such an awesome combo. I think readers of all ages would love it, but maybe hold off on handing it to children unless you have a very morbid child. It gets unapologetically gruesome pretty quickly so it might be a tad scary for younger readers. But the disturbed part ...more

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Nov 25, 2020 Julie Zantopoulos rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2020, own-it

I really don't know how to feel about this one. I dug the rep in it, the world building was really cool and I like that it "went there" with the gritty never trust a Fae thing...but it was just...a lot. Not for the faint of heart if you don't like body gore. I have to sit with this one a little. ...more

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