The Call

by Peadar O'Guilin

Paperback, 2016

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Publication

David Fickling Books (2016), Edition: Export edition, 334 pages

Description

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.

Media reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Though the plot is not terrifically original, readers will root for the book’s disabled protagonist to survive.

User reviews

LibraryThing member wyvernfriend

Set in a boarding school for young children who are preparing for the day they will be called to Faerie, almost everyone dies who is called and no-one is quite sure why they survive. These are the faerie of myth, not the twee bewinged creatures, but the angry creatures who were exiled to the

underworld by human ancestors. These are the creatures our ancestors feared and who they warned about, not the sanitised Disney versions.

Nessa had polio and her legs are going to make it hard to run, in fact a lot of parents with children crippled like this kill them to spare them the inevitable death, but Nessa is determined to survive. Her survival will change things and dammit I want the next book now.

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LibraryThing member SheilaDeeth

In an Ireland cut off from the rest of the world, in a world where adults grow old but children disappear, in a school where teens try to prepare for a call that “changes” or kills them all as they grow up… in a book called The Call by Peadar O’Guilin, smooth sharp writing, absorbing

characters, scary action sequences and haunting mysteries quickly draw the reader in. Not quite apocalyptic fiction, nor dystopian; not quite teen magic and power; not Harry Potter or Hunger Games but perhaps an enthralling combination of both… this is the story of a group of teens awaiting their call, learning to run and fight and, hopefully, survive, and forming bonds that time will surely break.

In the midst of it all is a character with a physical disability. She surely can’t run and won't survive… but she can climb, use tools, think and imagine, and dream of love. Seen through her eyes, this world is a cruel place, but giving up—on life, on friendship, on hope—is surely not the right path. So she seeks something more…

Gruesome, haunting, terrifying, and impossible to put down, the Call pulls you in, chews you up and spits you out. It’s a complete tale in itself, with backstory slowly revealed, and so much more to ponder. It’s seriously dark, and its protagonist is seriously human and humanly flawed. And I love it.

Disclosure: My son got it for Christmas and I love it

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LibraryThing member SueS7

I'm not into this kind of a story, nightmares tend to follow. The whole concept is disturbing. What a horrible way to have to live your life waiting for the call. The place they go to is horrific and what happens there is hideous.
The story kept me hooked, I liked Nessa and wanted to know how the

story would unfold for her. Makes the Hunger Games seem tame.

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LibraryThing member ouroborosangel

I actually listened to the audiobook, which I'm sure has colored my feelings about this story a bit. The narrator on the audiobook does not do a very good job of differentiating between the POV characters so I feel like I was semi-lost for most of the first half of the book. I may actually go back

and read this again in paper format so I get the complete story arc. That being said, the last half of the book is truly fantastic. Once there are fewer characters to keep track of, the story really gets moving, and I gasped aloud a couple of times at important plot points.

It’s a pretty simple story, really – the Sidhe (pronounced “shee”, or fairies, have decided that they need to take revenge upon the humans who took away their rights to reside in Ireland. They do this by stealing teenagers and doing terrible things to them while they are in the Sidhe lands. Each teen is taken by surprise and is in the Sidhe lands for a little over 3 minutes in human time. But they are in the Sidhe lands for long enough to be played with, taunted, tortured and killed in terrible ways. The few who survive their time with the Sidhe and return home are maimed and horribly disfigured for life (in fun and entertaining ways if you are a horror fan!). By the end, you understand why some are returned home and what the Sidhe’s real game is.

Because this book deals with teens, you have the usual teen angst, cliques, and crushes. But, because of the time they live in, you also get some truly terrifying situations that will make your skin crawl. My favorite parts of the book happened while the teens were “called” – descriptions of humans shaped into horses and screaming overcoats made out of human mouths anyone? So, if you like your horror with some high fantasy thrown in, you could definitely do worse than this book. Just don’t try to listen to the audiobook unless you are able to solely focus on it to the exclusion of everything else.

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LibraryThing member MillieHennessy

Hmmmmm....where to begin? I bought this because of the fantastic cover art, though I did find the brief premise intriguing.

Sadly I didn't find anything really worthwhile in the plot and I was left with a myriad of questions, most of which went unanswered and those that weren't lead to more

questions. The short answer is that I didn't like the characters and didn't understand the plot and felt the world-building was lackluster. I won't be continuing with the series.

If you'd like to keep reading, here's my list of questions:
-If the teachers want you to be strong, why can they punish you by locking you in a room without food for 1 or more days? Why do they allow students to fight each other and why are instructors allowed to mildly beat students?
-Why do we need to know how gorgeous Nessa is? Can't being handicapped and having a shaved head be enough details?
-Why can no one get on or off the island?
-Why do the fae only steal the young? Apparently, something about that age brings them closer to the fae world. But why? Babies and those near death can be taken too. But why?
-Why did this all start? When?
-Can they steal someone more than once? No. But why not?
-How to they decide who to call and how do they actually call them?
-Are kids called one at a time? Not always. So why don't they call massive groups of people all the time?
-How does anyone escape? Why don't we get details from people who have? Is it just that you have to survive the allotted time? Why was that amount of time picked? Is it totally arbitrary? If you survive, how are you brought back to your world? Why should they give you back at all?
-Do they always land in the same place? No. Why not?
-Do they have electricity? It's a closed off island and resources are dwindling, so their computers don't work, but they have enough fuel to bus kids back and forth from survival school x number of times a year (how many times?), yet they don't have working computers, but radios work and they can watch movies on projectors --- WHY? Why do some modern things work and not others?

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LibraryThing member mattclark

If YA books using the Hunger Games survival-of-the-fittest competition trope were subjected to a survival of the fittest competition, this one would not last all that long. The Irish folklore adds a slight twist to the normal formula, but it's not really enough to make up for a lack of substance in

the characters and a plot which plods along for most of the book.

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LibraryThing member BingeReader87

This was one interesting, intriguing story. At first, I found it strange and wasn't sure if I would continue to read it, but I am so glad that I did! The characters are so interesting and cool as are all the twists and turns as the story progresses. I absolutely enjoyed Nessa, a disabled and strong

fighter, and her friendship with hot-headed and witty Megan.

This story is set in Ireland in a time where the Sidhe are taking teens and children for three minutes to their world called The Grey Land. Time doesn't exist there and they have their fun with them. Killing, eating, twisting limbs. Whatever they desire. Afterwards, what's left is returned to where they were taken for all to see. It is in this world that Nessa, Megan, and more are training to survive "the call".

I cannot wait to read more in this series and learn more about Nessa and her life.

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LibraryThing member Cherylk

I was really excited to pick up this book and start reading it. Yet, I found myself struggling to read the book. I started this book at night. The next two nights I could only read about 2 chapters and then I grew tried and put the book down. I could barely even comprehend what I was reading. I

thought that it was just me and the wrong time of the night to be reading this book. So, I picked up this book again during the day and proceed to start reading it again. Sadly, it was not me. This book was not for me. The time spent at the school was boring, so after a while I jumped ahead to when the Sidhe appeared in the story and it was a race to survive. Yes, the story did pick up some but I still had a hard time getting into the story due to the fact that I had no interest in any of the character and therefore did not care what happened to them.

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LibraryThing member scatlett

Very interesting take on the Fae-human interaction story. Characters are strongly drawn and the plot was well done. Nicely done stand alone work.

LibraryThing member thelibraryladies

I think that a lot of people have started associating YA science fiction with the idea of the dystopian society, and that the plot is a group of teenagers who have decided to fight back against it. With books like “The Hunger Games”, “Divergent”, “The Testing”, and “Matched” all

being hits in their own rights, I think that if a plot has any smatterings of their themes, it will automatically be lumped in with them. I know that I almost made the mistake of doing this with “The Call” by Peadar Ó Guilín. After all, it takes place at a school where teenagers are being trained for the fight of their life, a test that will in all likelihood leave them dead and mangled. “Oh how ‘Hunger Games'” I thought to myself. But man, was I wrong. And I’m ashamed that I was willing to be even slightly dismissive of it.

On paper, sure, it sounds like a familiar trope. But “The Call” is one of the most original YA novels I’ve read in a long time, for a number of reasons. The first is that our main character, Nessa, is a polio survivor, and has to walk with the aid of crutches as one of her legs has been permanently damaged by it. Diversity in YA literature is important, and that includes people with disabilities. From what I know about Polio (having read about it and knowing someone who is a Polio survivor), Ó Guilín did a really good job of portraying Nessa and her strengths and limitations, and while he never used her disability in a ‘let’s all feel sorry for her’ kind of way, he also was honest with how hard it would be, especially in a situation where you have to be able to run and fight. Nessa is a very well rounded character beyond that as well, as she is headstrong and stubborn, but has insecurities that could apply to not just her and her situation, but many teenage girls from lots of backgrounds. She has her problems with her friends, she has her problems with love and relationships, and she has her problems with her family (though they are pretty removed from this story in general). She is a seriously great female protagonist for a YA fantasy novel, always rooted in realism and never treading towards some superhuman and unrealistic ideal. I especially loved her friendship with her best friend Megan, a sarcastic and snide girl who is the perfect foil to her, but very clearly and fiercely has her back. And huzzah and hurray, there is no love triangle to be found here, as Nessa only has eyes for one guy, the pacifist and quiet Anto. Anto as a character isn’t as interesting as Nessa or even Megan, but the arc that he does go on is a pretty good one, and luckily he isn’t there just to be the ‘boy who sees her for what she’s worth isn’t it sweet’ kind of gig. Given that this is supposedly the start of a series, I would be very curious to see where Anto goes, both for himself and with Nessa.

The world itself is also very, very original. While I can understand that the militarized training for teens smacks of “Hunger Games” and “Divergent”, this world is far more creative than that. For one, this isn’t a totalitarian regime that is oppressing these kids by using violence and isolation to control them. This is another outside force, in this case the Sidhé, or fairies. And these fairies are not the kind of fairies we think of in sanitized fairy tales. These fairies were banished from Ireland to another world, and they are taking their revenge by sucking up Ireland’s teenagers and trying to kill them. And succeeding 1 out of 10 times. These are the kinds of violent fairies that original folklore spoke of, the kind that would put a death curse on a baby just because they weren’t invited to said baby’s Christening.I think that modern fantasy needs more evil and menacing fairies, and “The Call” really delivered on that. Not only are the Sidhé mysterious and vengeful, they are very, VERY violent. Like, to the point where I was getting pretty disturbed by the kind of stuff that they would inflict upon the teens who were taken by The Call. From skinning them, to mutilating them, to transforming them into hideous creatures out of Giger-esque nightmares, these Sidhé were not screwing around, and it made the stakes feel very, very high. Which in turn made me terrified to see what happened next, but also unable to put the book down whenever a poor, hapless teen was taken by The Call. I also appreciated how Ó Guilín has changed Ireland in subtle ways to reflect how this situation would affect society, with the people knowing English, Old Irish, and Sidhé out of tradition, pride, and necessity, just as I liked how he made it clear that the Sidhé are not the only villains in this story, and in some ways are understandably upset. The best example of this is that by far the scariest villain is not the evil fairies, but a human teenager named Conor. His misogyny and violent obsession with Nessa was just as off putting as the sadistic fairies that chase down teenagers, and the fact that Conor is a very realistic villain in his sociopathy and entitlement made him the most skin crawling of all the antagonists in this book.

I really, really enjoyed “The Call” and I am actually pretty pumped that it sounds like Ó Guilín is going to write more stories in it’s world. Definitely give this a try if you like books like “The Hunger Games”, but know that it stands quite well on it’s own.

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LibraryThing member Jonez

4.5 - storytelling at its finest. A quick yet addictive read. I was surprised at how invested I became in the characters. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Update: This is my second read thru and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. Time to read the second book in the series....

LibraryThing member brakketh

Pleasantly surprised by a young adult story with a heroine with a disability, well written and strong horror themes.

LibraryThing member fred_mouse

Intense. Compelling. Grim.

This novel of an isolated Ireland at war with the Fey is an amazing but heart breaking read. Protagonist Nessa is fighting for survival, but it isn't her disability that is the issue -- all the other teens are in the same fight.

LibraryThing member brittaniethekid

The summary of this book sounded really great, like a Battle Royale involving fairies, but the writing and dialogue was a bit hard to focus on; it's written in a somewhat non-linear narrative with a lot of necessary background information and history left out. I'm not sure if it's because it was

written by an Irish writer so the "accent" is so different from what I'm used to, but it was just difficult for me to get past. I felt like I had walked into the middle of a conversation.

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LibraryThing member HeatherLINC

Well, this turned out to be rather brutal, and I'll never think of fairies (or sidhes in this case) in the same light. These ones were pure evil. The concept of the book was totally unique and I loved that it was set in Ireland, but "The Call" never really won me over. However, I can see it

appealing to YA who like a book that is dark and gruesome.

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LibraryThing member krau0098

I got an advanced reading copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This was an okay book that is a bit like a sci-fi fae-themed post-apocalyptic version of The Hunger Games.

I didn't really enjoy how the story was told and thought it didn't flow all that well. The fact that it's

told in third person along with the style of the writing really distances the readers from the characters. This has the effect of making something that should be engaging and terrifying much lower key and dry than it should have been.

Basically the book follows a general story about this alternate world where teens train to survive The Call. In between these chapters are brief chapters about teens and their experience in the grey world that they are Called to for brief spans of time.

This book ended up being a lot different than what I was expecting from the synopsis. It’s more about these teens and their time at a “survival” school than it is about the Fae. I personally was looking forward to seeing more of this grey Fae world but the characters spend very little time there.

It's an interesting idea. However, I thought the whole story came across as a bit contrived and stiff. The story was very implausible. More background would have made this world really come alive and seem more realistic.

Overall it was okay and a quick read, but I was left feeling like something was missing. The characters are just so cold and so is the story; when I was done I didn't really care much about either. I personally won’t be continuing on with the series and wouldn’t really recommend it.

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LibraryThing member LynnMPK

I really enjoyed this. It's an interesting take on Irish mythology. This book is inventive in the way that it takes gods and legendary objects from mythology and reinterprets them in an interesting (and often creepy and gross) way. I do love me some good old fashioned Fair Folk and would recommend

this to anyone looking for something different.

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