Book Review
Title: The Call (Grey Land #1)
Author: Peadar Ó Guilín
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Horror
Rating: *****
Review: The Call has been on my TBR basically since it came out and I am only know picking it up. We are introduced to 10 year old Nessa who caught polio as a child and struggles walking because of it. Her parents explains to her about something called the Three Minutes that happen during everyone’s teenage year where the Sídhe hunt them down and they have to survive unless they are put to sleep for all of their teenage years. The same thing happened to Nessa’s older brother but we don’t know whether he was caught by the Sídhe or whether he is sleeping but Nessa realises this is the truth as she doesn’t know any teenagers and hasn’t seen any, however, Nessa is determined to survive even with her disability. We then jump forward four years, where Nessa is now fourteen. Nessa and other teenagers are training for the day where they are called by the Sidhe and Nessa has only gained one friend, Megan although she did have a sort-of boyfriend but she has called things off with him as she is going to be called soon. We get to see some of the surviving students who have returned and yet they all come back changed, even though Nessa has been training her disability puts her at a major disadvantage and she is constantly told to give up because none of them believe she will survive the call. The Sidhe themselves are considered to be faeries or Celtic Gods that were overthrown by the race of humans and driven into underground burrows and the Call is their form of revenge but the odds are increasing as 25 years ago only 1 in 100 children survived and it is now 1 in 10 but most believe that the Sidhe are looking for a way to turn the odds in their favour again.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we follow Nessa as she navigates training despite being singled out by her fellow students and teachers because of her disability. One of the boys in her years make his opinions well known as he believes the strong should rule the Nation and undesirable people like Nessa who are unlikely to survive the Call should be killed while they are young so they don’t use up necessary resources. However, during this portion of the novel we get to see two different students who are Called by the Sidhe although more like 5 or 6 have actually been Called during this time. The first is a girl called Antionette and she does quite well as she outruns the Sidhe but ends up being cornered in a muddy bog where she has to make the choice between crossing or being caught and she decides to cross. However, the bog is like quicksand and she begins to sink, the Sidhe offer her a rope but accepting it means she has lost and will become their plaything which means basically being tortured and she chooses to die in the bog instead. The second is a boy named Cahal who is among the strongest in Nessa’s year and one of the students most likely to survive the Call. However, his location has him at a disadvantage as it is a cliff face but his kind heart also leads to his demise as he tries to help a girl, he believes is trapped but turns out to be a Sidhe in disguise. They twist Cahal into a monstrous creature and decide to send him back alive where he kills one of his former friend, Rodney before being killed himself. This is rare as the Sidhe doesn’t normally send the captured or twisted back alive but the other students are sworn to secrecy in order to protect the family from what their youngest son became. So far, the Call is turning out to be very dark and slightly gory which I love in horror books and I can’t wait to see when Nessa is Called and how she gets on as the student only have to survive for three minutes and they earn their freedom from the Sidhe.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, we get to learn more about the history surrounding the Call as we know that the human ancestors drove the Sidhe into the Grey Lands where they trapped them for all eternity but the Sidhe were tricked into signing a treaty to leave Ireland to the humans. As revenge, the Sidhe cut Ireland off from the rest of the world and began dragging human children into the Grey Lands to be tested, if the children can survive for more than three minutes then they are allowed to return to their world otherwise they become plaything and eventually mutants belonging to the Sidhe and the Grey Lands. Many of the children around Nessa’s age don’t want any form of peace with Sidhe and want to wipe them out altogether which doesn’t align with the beliefs of the other generations and other survivors. However, in the background of this another training school has been completely wiped out as almost everyone was murdered and it could have only been done with help from inside the school and Nessa remember the dogs protecting their school were drugged a few nights before and informs one of the older student, Nabil. During a hunt later that week Megan and Nessa stumble across the dead body of a Sidhe and they learn that there is a Fairy Fort only the school grounds. Many people that all the Fairy Forts are gone as they were supposedly all destroyed but this obviously isn’t true. Some of the students believe they should be allowed to see the Sidhe’s corpse up close because when they are Called, they have to fight and outrun them and it would provide them with essential information but the teachers are against this.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, we have only seen a few Calls so far and not for long so I am hoping we get to see Nessa’s call soon or spend more time in someone else’s Call. After the discovery of the Fairy Fort, Megan wants to get a close look at the Fort and the dead Sidhe, despite all of Nessa’s protests. Megan end sup going with two other girls although they are being followed by Connor, Chuckwu and another boy. During this time Nessa witnesses the boys going after Megan so she and Anto follow them too, by the time they get close they hear Megan cry out. It turns out the boys were hidden waiting for the girls to turn their backs but all of them can feel a presence around the Fort which isn’t a good thing but then they pounce. Once of the girls during the fight, cuts herself on the Fort which seems to activate it in a way. While Megan makes a run for it the boys continue fighting the other girls but Chuckwu and Anto gets sucked into the Fort almost like they have been Called. Anto helps Chuckwu who was trapped by the Sidhe and they make a run for it before realising they have been drawn into a trap. Chuckwu sacrifices himself to the Sidhe in order for Anto to escape when he comes across a window to another time which are rare in the Grey Lands and tries to hide from the Sidhe but they find and capture him. However, before they do, they mention the worlds aligning which might be a hint to what is to come in this novel and the sequel. I also know that Anto’s death is going to deeply impact Nessa who is his sort-of girlfriend.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, it turns out that Anto didn’t die and he came back alive but no one has seen him and when Nessa asks about him, they only tell her that the doctor’s are confident but she won’t be seeing him soon. While everyone spends time in the Cage, Nessa is spared because she is already seen as weak and this is further shown when one of the teachers punishes Conor for trying to sexually assault Nessa. However, one of the girls in the cage, Aoife not only had to suffer through the horrors that took place at the fort but she is soon going to learn her brother, Kieron has survived the Call. Kieron is even more unfortunate as when he returns from his Call he finds that his entire school has been murdered by one of the Sidhe but it shrinks the longer it is there until Kieron is able to kill it but he isn’t believed and blamed for the murders. However, this is overshadowed however, by the return of Anto to the school but he is greatly changed. Aoife who is mourned the death of her girlfriend overhears that Conor former girlfriend is pregnant and the Conor and his gang are planning to kill Nessa during the next hunt. Aoife goes to tell Anto but he doesn’t nothing about and seems like he doesn’t care but both are unaware Nessa is hiding nearby as she was planning to visit Anto and has heard everything. She is caught by some teachers and is punished but it isn’t planned until the following day so she still has to take part in the hunt where Conor is planning to kill her because she attacked him when he forced himself on her. Nessa tells Megan and she plans to not let Nessa out of her sight during the hunt in order to protect her and I honestly have no idea what is going to happen next. The Call is turning out to be an amazing novel but I was ready to see Nessa Call and see more of the Sidhe since they are starting to be able to cross into the real world which is something that they haven’t been able to do before and it might have something to do with the worlds aligning which was mentioned during Anto’s Call.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, as the hunt takes place Nessa, Megan and some other girls come up with a plan for Nessa to meet them by the Fort which has been fenced off as most of the students will be too afraid to go there as they might be Called. However, this doesn’t deter Conor and his gang, Nessa has a run in with one of them and manages to get away but she has lost on her crutches. By the time she arrives at the Fort the others are nowhere to be seen when Conor turns up looking for her. In order to escape, Nessa gets close to the Fort and the fence splits open almost like it is inviting her in and she decides to hide there with only one of them giving chase. However, both of them feel the pull of the Fort and it takes all their willpower to turn back to safety but this brings Nessa face to face with Conor and his gang. Just when things look bad, Anto turns up to save the day but he doesn’t want Nessa to see him due to the deformity he returned with but he saves her. The next night, Nessa is put in the Cage for three days but she manages to escape in order to visit Anto to tell him that her feelings about him haven’t changed even with the way he looks now resparking their relationship before Nabil comes to return her to the Cage but he comments about how amazing she is as she has faced more challenges that any other student despite not being called. During this time, some of the teachers have figured out that the Fort is a path to the Grey Lands but only the students who haven’t yet been Called can find it and feel its affects. After being released from the Cage, Conor comes after Nessa again but before he can hurt her, he is Called. After Conor is one of the strongest student, he always his pride to get the better of him and he comes face to face with the Sidhe King and he has to make a deal with him to return alive in return for his loyalty to the Sidhe and we can see from some other survivors that they endured the same thing. It seems like the Sidhe are preparing for all out war and are selecting the strongest teenagers and converting them to the Sidhe’s side in return for being kept alive and mostly whole but I have a feeling Nessa won’t take the deal even when faced with death.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, everything seems to settle back into its normal routine until Megan is Called which is a blow since she previously said it didn’t matter if she survived, she only wanted to take one of the Faeries with her when she did. Just that happens as Megan is cornered by the Sidhe in a stone maze and she taunts them with things she has experienced that they never will in the Grey Lands and they twist her but not before she etches a warning into her skin. When her body is sent back, Nessa is heart broken running to Fort begging the Sidhe to take her because Megan was her only friend but others including Aoife and Anto bring her back where she falls into a depression and only comes out of it when she remembers that Megan would want her to fight. She learns that Megan’s message was there school is next to be attacked by the Sidhe and they begin preparing for it. However, they are unaware that there are traitors within the school working with the Sidhe including Conor and one of the teachers who is a Sidhe in disguise. They begin attacking students and teachers at random but are equally matched until they set fire to the student dorms where Nessa currently is. As Anto battles his way through to get to Nessa, she is trying to convince Aoife to jump out of a window when she is Called. This means her death because even when she returns the student dorms are going to be on fire and she will still die. In the Grey Lands, Nessa is quickly surrounded because of her disability but she manages to escape and hide in an acid pit after a Sidhe falls in. The other Sidhe find her there but they know they can’t let her die because it would break their promise to Conor and means the treaty wouldn’t be revoked as Conor wants to kill her. Nessa tells them it doesn’t matter because when she goes back, she will die in the fire and they offer to make her fireproof and not twist her in anyway and she takes it. When she returns Conor is ready to kill her but remembering his earlier affections towards her, Nessa asks him to kiss her and when she does, she drags him into the fire breaking his bargain with the Sidhe and slamming the door between their worlds shut and keeping the treaty in place. They have lost a few in the battle and in the aftermath but Nessa’s testimony about the Grey Lands and what the Sidhe are attempting to do has given humanity a major upper hand over their enemy. While Nessa does return home briefly, she returns to the school as she knows she can do more for the Nation there and she can stay with Anto. Overall, The Call was an amazing horror portal fantasy novel based around Irish mythology that I would highly recommend to all and I can’t wait to get into the sequel, The Invasion as soon as I can.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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