Then there’s the thing about parents killing their children before they reach teenager status so they aren’t Called. Plus there’s the joyful human/animal mutations of Calls never given back, and can we talk about the field of human heads laid out like cabbages? The idea of getting Called pays homage to the Wild Hunt, which I liked. It was more like Fairyland-meets-Hell: trees bleeding black sap, lakes of fire, grey landscapes, grabbing trees. This was way darker than anything faerie related I’ve ever read, so if you’re looking for a Stephen-King-meets-Holly-Black-esque horror, this is for you.įirst of all, this world was by far the most savage Faerieland I’ve ever read. Due to this phenomenon, children are sent to special schools to train in survival and defense for their Calling. Teenagers live in constant fear of being Called, where they are transported to Faerieland for a whole day – if they mange to survive the day, they are returned, but more often then not they are lost forever or returned with extreme deformities and messed up heads.

Our main character Nessa lives in a world where the Sidhe have risen up against their age-old bonds and cut off Scotland and Wales from the rest of the world around fifty something years ago. This world was brutal and the story ended up being more of a horror novel then I ever imagined.

This book was definitely not long enough for such a terrifying and creative concept. Ah yes, once again my love for dark, creepy faeries made me extremely eager to read The Call.

The call by peadar ó guilín