Publishers Weekly
★ 06/06/2016
This intense, riveting tale is set in an Ireland that the Sídhe, Irish faeries, have cut off from the rest of the world, plotting to retake their former home through a grim war of attrition that involves kidnapping human teenagers. During the “Call,” teens disappear “for a little over three minutes, but in world, the Grey Land, an entire day has passed, panic and pain in every second of it.” When the stolen teens reappear, they are usually dead and/or horribly mutated by magic. All Irish children attend special centers where they’re taught martial arts, the Sídhe language, and total ruthlessness. Nessa, already relegated to crutches due to polio (Ireland’s isolation means no imported vaccines—or anything else), seems unlikely to survive her Call, but has dedicated everything to doing so. O’Guilin (The Inferior) follows several teens, including Nessa, over into the Grey Land, delivering blisteringly fast-paced and graphic descriptions of the tortures the children endure. This is a bleak, gripping story, one where only the most muted of happy endings is possible. Ages 14–up. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
Advance Praise for The Call:"A must-read for anyone who's been sleeping too well at night." —Danielle Vega, author of The Merciless"A story as sensitive and tender as it is horrific and bloodthirsty . . . . It is a ghastly beauty, this book." —Virginia Bergin, author of H2O* "Intense, riveting . . . Blisteringly fast-paced." —Publishers Weekly, starred review"Recalls such predecessors as The Hunger Games or Divergent . . . the book excels [ ] in its worldbuilding." —Kirkus Reviews"This is brilliantly compelling adventure . . . Don't miss it." —The Bookseller (UK)"Fresh and interesting and powerful. It's beautifully paced, remorseless and is peopled with characters you can believe in. I couldn't put it down." —The Bookbag (UK)"O'Guilin has created a world worth a short, head-shattering visit." —Culture Hub Magazine (UK)
School Library Journal
09/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—Set in Ireland, this fantasy horror novel introduces readers to a freaky reality: at any given time, on any given day, a teen's world will go black, and when her senses return, she realizes she is naked and alone. She has been Called to the Grey Land. Nessa, a 14-year-old girl living with the aftereffects of polio, and her best friend Megan attend Boyle Survival College to prepare themselves for their Call. At this boarding school, they learn about the fairy enemies (the Sidhe, based on traditional Irish folklore) and practice survival and defensive techniques. The students who have lived through the Call return disfigured and emotionally broken, but it is through their accounts that others can prepare for the torture they face. Nessa works her hardest so that her limited mobility does not become a deterrent to her survival. Amid a colorful cast of supporting characters—including Anto, her pacifist love interest, and Connor, the egotistical bully—the dangers facing Nessa aren't limited to just those that await her in the Grey Land. The third-person narrative allows readers to identify with each of the characters. The Irish vernacular and vivid descriptions place teens in the heart of the island. Horror fans will love the grotesque world of Sidhe, where monsters and animals are made from twisted human bodies and body parts. Nessa is a resourceful character, often inventing creative ways to survive the same obstacles as her peers in order to prepare herself for the Call. The novel's strengths are its strong imagery and diverse cast of characters, who represent different ethnicities and sexual identities. However, the denouement is too quick and underdeveloped. The language, sex, violence, and world of the Grey Land are more appropriate for mature fantasy fans. VERDICT For those craving a new Hunger Games-esque thriller.—Stephanie DeVincentis, Downers Grove North High School, IL
Kirkus Reviews
2016-06-01
Vanessa Doherty is a 14-year-old white lass who attends Boyle Survival College, one of many in Ireland that serve only to teach its youth how to survive the Call of the Sídhe. The Sídhe are magical beings who were, in a distant past, banished from Ireland to live in a hellish netherworld. Seeking revenge, the Sídhe kidnap Ireland's youth via the Call: the dreaded, unexpected moment when an adolescent simply disappears from Earth to land in a dreamlike, horrific underworld full of monsters—and the carnivorous Sídhe. From the age of 10, the Call is the moment every young person trains to survive, even grimly determined Nessa, who is permanently disabled from polio and can only navigate the training on crutches. One by one, students vanish, sometimes forever, into the Grey Land of the Sídhe. O'Guilin creates some suspenseful moments with his concept, but from its onset, the book recalls such predecessors as The Hunger Games or Divergent, in which young people undergo military-style training only to wind up in a bloody carnage, whether it's among themselves or at the hands of their enemies. Where the book excels is in its worldbuilding, which imagines a realistically multicultural, modern Ireland unified by the Call and where the Irish language is no longer spoken and Sídhe is replacing English. Though the plot is not terrifically original, readers will root for the book's disabled protagonist to survive. (Fantasy. 12-16)
