The Call: The Grey Land Book 1 Commentary
To crudely describe it in two words, The Call by Peadar O’Guilin is an Irish Hunger Games. It’s a story about folklore, surviving gruesome violence, young love, preparing for something traumatic, and what we are willing to trade for our lives. An engaging, fast-paced read, The Call is set in a modern day Ireland as it survives a large-scale attack from a people thought lost to history— the Sidhe, or fairies, who the ancient Irish exiled to The Grey Land, a parallel, hellish dimension, where they have been trapped, planning their revenge against the humans. That revenge comes in the form of The Call— each adolescent will at any random moment disappear out of thin air for three minutes and four seconds. They find themselves in The Grey Land, where hunting parties of Sidhe track them down, torture them, and turn them into grotesque shapes to fit their amusement. If they survive the hunt for a whole day, they return to the Many-Colored Land, or Ireland, though they are forever changed. Ours is a survival story: young Nessa, our protagonist, attends a training college preparing adolescents for The Call. She is disabled and, against everyone’s expectations, knows she must survive The Call. We watch her navigate friendships that could end at any moment, school bullies with a thirst for violence like the Sidhe, and a budding romance against all her best instincts.
On the back of the book, one of the reviews by Daily Mail said, “Wildly imaginative and will appeal to Hunger Games fans.” To be honest, when I first read that, it made me hesitate. Without context, it’s suspicious that any book would try to compare itself to the worldwide phenomenon that was The Hunger Games. But once I started reading, I immediately understood. The YA writing style matched with the plot about teenagers facing their imminent deaths makes it a sensible comparison. However, on the FRONT cover of the book, Buzzfeed writes, “Perfect for Game of Thrones fans.” This is a poor comparison and I’m a bit baffled how they even arrived at that conclusion, other than a cynical corporate attempt to draw in readers from wildly popular content. But the book redeems itself.
Deeply engrossing, magical, and terrifying, The Call is about finding love and friendships amidst a constant threat of violence. The characters around Nessa at the college are delightful, but our hands are not held; we watch them die, too. We learn all about The Grey Land and, eventually, about the Sidhe plot to invade the Many-Colored Land. Will Nessa and her friends survive The Call? Will they betray humanity to save themselves? Will they stand a chance against invasion?
For readers who want horror about Irish folklore, survival stories, and detailed, fantasy world-building, The Call (and hopefully it’s sequel Invasion) is a great match.