The Hunt

Publisher: Macmillan (St. Martin's Griffin)
Pages: 293
Publication Date: May 8, 2012
Type: E-galley, received from publisher via NetGalley

Don’t Sweat.  Don’t Laugh.  Don’t draw attention to yourself.  And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.
 
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?


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I'm not going to rate this one, because I'm aware that my rating would be biased.


There were many things I both liked and disliked about it that were not, to my knowledge, biased in any way.


I liked that its concept was so crazily unique, despite certain basic similarities to The Hunger Games and numerous other dystopias.


I liked the constant action, the knowledge that there was always something happening, something relevant, something that demanded your attention.


I liked Gene's childish ignorance in regards to many things human--or, shall I say, heper.


I liked some of the genuinely beautiful moments sprinkled throughout this novel.

I disliked the telling.

I disliked the ridiculously unrealistic dialogue, whether it was attempting to be highly intelligent, villainish, or deep and beautiful.  I tried saying just a few lines out loud and had to stop because my sister was in stitches.

I disliked the many awkward phrasings or cringe-worthy similes.

I disliked the constant plot holes.

Unbiased.  Things I could base a rating off of.

But, in the end, there's something that would influence my overall rating that does not necessarily refer to the book's quality so much as my personal qualms: Gene and Ashley June's personalities.

I hated them.

Alright, so hated is a strong word.  Sometimes, they'd get something right. Sometimes, I'd give them a nod of recognition, a maybe you're starting to get there, just maybe.  But it wasn't enough to erase the fact that these two were cocky, hypocritical, selfish assholes.

And you might say but that's not biased, that is something to base a rating off of.  But the thing is, I can understand why they're cocky, hypocritical, selfish assholes.  From the way they were born, the way they were raised, the way they lived their whole lives--I could understand it.  I knew how they'd turned out as they did.

But despite that, it didn't stop me from loathing them.  And when you loathe the MC and the love interest, it really doesn't do the book any favors in your eyes.  I think I would've enjoyed this significantly more if I hadn't harbored such a deep distaste for two of the main characters I was intended to sympathize with.  

However, that's me.  That was me being unable to separate my personal dislike from the book's own merit. So I will not be giving this one a rating.  Would I recommend it?  If you're more adept at removing your personal bias and judging the book solely on its quality, if you can handle gore, if you like dystopians, if you love blood-sucking fiends that are not romantic in any way: yes.  If not, I'd recommend you steer clear.

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Publisher: HarperCollins (Balzer + Bray)
Pages: 250
Publication Date: March 27, 2012
Type: ARC, won

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered. 

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body. 

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane. 

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again. 


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This is one of those books that had a lot of things I liked and a lot of things I didn't and it's left me completely unsure of how I feel about this book.


There are some things that Jill Hathaway does wonderfully.  The way she handles family dynamic is fantastic; I absolutely loved reading about the relationship between Vee and Mattie and their father.  It was complex and real and incredible.   The characters themselves were also, for the most part, very complex, with real thoughts and feelings and secrets they'd rather not share.  The writing is smooth and occasionally brilliant, with some lines that I'd reread several times over because they were just that clever.  And perhaps best of all, I think Jill Hathaway does an amazing job of portraying what it is like to lose someone.  Loss is woven throughout this book, and it is portrayed in a painfully realistic manner.


But despite the many things I liked, there were two things that really dragged this down for me: the stereotypes, and the insta-love.


The stereotypes weren't as huge a factor as I'd originally feared.  Hathaway did try to make her major side characters be more than just the flat stereotypes that they could've become.  And I think she did pretty well.  But the rest of the side characters, the ones who weren't as relevant, were a loose mass of stereotypes forming  a background for the main characters.  The cheerleaders were mindless sluts (even Amber and Stephanie, who were given a little bit of extra flavor, would fit in this category).   The jocks were horny douchebags. The whole drama-rama atmosphere that many books and movies now attribute to high school was uncomfortably present.  


But I think I could've dealt with that if it weren't for the insta-love.


Ahhh, insta-love.  Unfortunately, this is one of my biggest pet-peeves.  I strongly believe that love is something that happens over a long period of time, when you come to know a person from cover to cover, when you would place their happiness over your own.  Not a teenybopper "oooh he's so hawt he makes my skin tingle we kiss I'm in love."  The speed at which relationships in YA today progress saddens me.  In this case, it isn't even that I disliked Zane; I didn't.  I thought he was cute and interesting and sometimes I even thought he was a great match for Vee, which doesn't always happen.  He wasn't one of the love interests that I would leap into a book for, but he's nice.  My problem does not lie with him.  It lies with them, together after days of knowing one another.  Claiming that they're "falling for each other," and "in love."  While there weren't the typical dramatic declarations of love (thank goodness), it just left a sour taste on my tongue.


Despite what it may sound like, I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit.  However, I've been playing with two ratings for a while now and cannot settle on one.  While I've been debating between a three and a four, I feel as if either of these would be inappropriate.  So I am just not going to rate it.  This was a good book, with a fast plot and intriguing characters, and if you can handle the stereotypes and insta-love, I would highly recommend it.  


*Note: This is a review of an unpublished copy, therefore nothing in here is absolutely final.