The Call

Starred review from June 6, 2016
This intense, riveting tale is set in an Ireland that the Sídhe, Irish faeries, have cut off from the rest of the world, plotting to retake their former home through a grim war of attrition that involves kidnapping human teenagers. During the “Call,” teens disappear “for a little over three minutes, but in world, the Grey Land, an entire day has passed, panic and pain in every second of it.” When the stolen teens reappear, they are usually dead and/or horribly mutated by magic. All Irish children attend special centers where they’re taught martial arts, the Sídhe language, and total ruthlessness. Nessa, already relegated to crutches due to polio (Ireland’s isolation means no imported vaccines—or anything else), seems unlikely to survive her Call, but has dedicated everything to doing so. O’Guilin (The Inferior) follows several teens, including Nessa, over into the Grey Land, delivering blisteringly fast-paced and graphic descriptions of the tortures the children endure. This is a bleak, gripping story, one where only the most muted of happy endings is possible. Ages 14–up.

June 15, 2016
Vanessa Doherty is a 14-year-old white lass who attends Boyle Survival College, one of many in Ireland that serve only to teach its youth how to survive the Call of the Sidhe. The Sidhe are magical beings who were, in a distant past, banished from Ireland to live in a hellish netherworld. Seeking revenge, the Sidhe kidnap Ireland's youth via the Call: the dreaded, unexpected moment when an adolescent simply disappears from Earth to land in a dreamlike, horrific underworld full of monsters--and the carnivorous Sidhe. From the age of 10, the Call is the moment every young person trains to survive, even grimly determined Nessa, who is permanently disabled from polio and can only navigate the training on crutches. One by one, students vanish, sometimes forever, into the Grey Land of the Sidhe. O'Guilin creates some suspenseful moments with his concept, but from its onset, the book recalls such predecessors as The Hunger Games or Divergent, in which young people undergo military-style training only to wind up in a bloody carnage, whether it's among themselves or at the hands of their enemies. Where the book excels is in its worldbuilding, which imagines a realistically multicultural, modern Ireland unified by the Call and where the Irish language is no longer spoken and Sidhe is replacing English. Though the plot is not terrifically original, readers will root for the book's disabled protagonist to survive. (Fantasy. 12-16)

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September 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-Set in Ireland, this fantasy horror novel introduces readers to a freaky reality: at any given time, on any given day, a teen's world will go black, and when her senses return, she realizes she is naked and alone. She has been Called to the Grey Land. Nessa, a 14-year-old girl living with the aftereffects of polio, and her best friend Megan attend Boyle Survival College to prepare themselves for their Call. At this boarding school, they learn about the fairy enemies (the Sidhe, based on traditional Irish folklore) and practice survival and defensive techniques. The students who have lived through the Call return disfigured and emotionally broken, but it is through their accounts that others can prepare for the torture they face. Nessa works her hardest so that her limited mobility does not become a deterrent to her survival. Amid a colorful cast of supporting characters-including Anto, her pacifist love interest, and Connor, the egotistical bully-the dangers facing Nessa aren't limited to just those that await her in the Grey Land. The third-person narrative allows readers to identify with each of the characters. The Irish vernacular and vivid descriptions place teens in the heart of the island. Horror fans will love the grotesque world of Sidhe, where monsters and animals are made from twisted human bodies and body parts. Nessa is a resourceful character, often inventing creative ways to survive the same obstacles as her peers in order to prepare herself for the Call. The novel's strengths are its strong imagery and diverse cast of characters, who represent different ethnicities and sexual identities. However, the denouement is too quick and underdeveloped. The language, sex, violence, and world of the Grey Land are more appropriate for mature fantasy fans. VERDICT For those craving a new Hunger Games-esque thriller.-Stephanie DeVincentis, Downers Grove North High School, IL

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017
One by one, the teenagers of Ireland are called to the nightmarish Grey Land of the Smdhe (wicked fae). The teens reappear after only three minutes, but with magically misshapen bodies--or dead. Readers follow a class of fourteen-year-olds, including Nessa, with polio-twisted legs, as they experience the Call in a grisly and gripping plot reminiscent of Battle Royale.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)