Review: The Hunted

Sequel to The Living
By Matt de la Peña
Available now from Delacorte (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

I have wanted to read THE HUNTED since the moment I finished THE LIVING, and hearing Matt de la Peña read the first chapter at a book signing only whetted my appetite.  THE HUNTED starts about a month later, when Shy, Carmen, Marcus, and Shoeshine finally make it to California.

In THE LIVING, they had to mainly survive a fight against nature.  Now, they have to mainly escape people.  A biker gang is killing travelers to keep them from spreading the Romero virus.  And a certain entity wants to kill Shy and his friends because they know too much about the virus.  Their only hope is to hike across a picked-over post-apocalyptic California to Arizona.  It is a brutal journey.

I don't think THE HUNTED can truly be enjoyed without THE LIVING.  De la Peña recaps the bare minimum, particularly when it comes to character relationships.  I certainly don't think the passages involving Addie have much meaning if you haven't read the first book.  Fortunately, both books in the duology are quick reads.  The chapters are short of full of action, which keeps the pages turning.

I felt that Shoeshine was more of a plot mechanism than a character in THE LIVING, so I like that he's a little more fleshed out in THE HUNTED.  A former soldier is still an incredibly lucky person to have by your side in a survival situation, but THE HUNTED gives hints of his hobbies and of his past. 

I'm also truly thankful that rape isn't used as a threat in THE HUNTED.  It is overplayed in dystopian/post-apocalyptic books, like everybody - not just rapists - couldn't resist the urge if civilization collapsed.  People are too busy being awful to each other in other ways.  (To be fair, a virus with a 100% death rate is scary.)

THE HUNTED is a great survival against the odds story.  The protagonist, Shy, is hugely likeable.  I could read many more books featuring him.  I'm happy to leave it at two, although there are some unanswered questions that de la Peña could answer in a third book.  Be sure to read THE LIVING and THE HUNTED if you like quick books about intense journeys and noble causes featuring diverse casts.

Matt de la Peña at Blue Willow Bookshop

Yesterday I went to see Matt de la Peña at Blue Willow Bookshop.  He read a little from THE LIVING, then a little from THE HUNTED after we asked, and answered some questions from the audience.  If you haven't seen him speak before, he has a lot of upcoming events, including YAK Fest in Fort Worth this Saturday.

And if you haven't read THE LIVING, you should.  It is one of the seven books on the Cybils shortlist for YA Speculative Fiction.

A few highlights:

• Shy, the protagonist of THE LIVING, is the same character in his story "Angels in the Snow" from MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME (my review) and his One Teen Story "Passing Each Other in Halls".  He's been trying to find a good home for the character for ten years, so he kept trying him out in different ones.  THE LIVING and THE HUNTED were the novels that worked.

• THE HUNTED begins with a radio conversation, and part of it takes place at Sony's studios.  It comes out in May.

• When de la Peña wrote THE LIVING, he wanted to stretch himself and write something different from his other books, something more commercial.  He wants to reach as many readers as possible.

• There will be more Shoeshine in THE HUNTED and some of his mysteries will be revealed.

• de la Peña wrote a lot of THE LIVING while running, to make himself as uncomfortable as possible.  That way he could think of more uncomfortable things to happen to the characters. 

ETA: Here's a pic of the crowd!

Review: Martyr

Book one of The Hunted
By A.R. Kahler
Available now from Spencer Hill Press
Review copy

I've heard good things about A.R. Kahler's Immortal Circus series.  (After all, what isn't to like about books set in circuses where strange things happen?)  But I have so much to read that it's hard to go back and catch up on a series.  So when I saw that he had a new book out in a different series, I decided to give it a try.

MARTYR is set in a post-apocalyptic war.  Some people have magic powers granted through the use of spheres.  Some of these people worship a dark goddess and managed to unleash a plague of various types of zombies on humanity.  Tenn is a Hunter, one of the people with magic left to fight the monsters.  The Hunters aren't widely liked, since they're viewed as somewhat responsible.  (And, oh yes, it's the magic people who can turn into monsters or create more.)

Still, Tenn and the other Hunters do their best.  But when Tenn's magic acts up on a routine patrol, he finds himself being pursued by Tomás, an incubus, and other members of the Kin (that is, the people who unleashed the monsters).  Between the pursuit and his suddenly out of control powers, Tenn is in way over his head.  The only people he has to rely on are his boyfriend and the twins (two other Hunters), but they might not be powerful enough to survive Tenn's new enemies.

I found MARTYR very thrilling.  It's a chase story, which keeps up the momentum.  I thought that Tenn's emotional state was well conveyed.  He's in a time of turmoil and grief, and his powers force him to dwell on his most unpleasant memories.  I did find the worldbuilding a bit confusing at times, since it was very similar to our world except for the spheres.  Where the spheres always a thing?  When were they discovered?  What is going on outside of the US?  How far do the monsters spread?

MARTYR is a fun dark YA story, with potential to become something better as the sequels deepen the world.  I liked the main characters quite a bit, so I'm eager to see their future adventures.  There's also plenty of answers to be found about why Tenn is so important.