So a friend and I were geeking out about books, as I often do with friends. I mentioned that I was writing a story about faeries, specifically mean faeries. My friend’s face lit up as she told me about a book centered around evil faeries that I should read. It was The Call* by Peadar Ó Guilin.
And oh boy did this book hold up its promise of evil faeries! The faeries in this novel were beautiful, but also so cruel that I will legitimately have some nightmares.
Here’s the summary from the library:
For the last twenty-five years every teenager in Ireland has been subject to "the call" which takes them away to the land of the Sídhe, where they are hunted for twenty four hours (though only three minutes pass in this world)--handicapped by her twisted legs, Nessa Doherty knows that very few return alive, but she is determined to be one of them.
And if you’re wondering if the faeries do the hunting, then you’re right. And they do terrible, twisted things to the poor teens they find. By the end of the novel, I was on the edge of my seat, desperate to know what happened next. And once I finished the book, I was torn between not wanting to revisit the horrors of this fantasy world and eager to read the sequel, The Invasion.
It was a great read for a darker spin on the faerie genre with plenty of Irish mythology thrown in. But a word of warning, it is definitely not for the weak of heart. There are some gruesome scenes of violence that made me take a break from the book… before needing to know what happened next pulled me back in.
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