Audiobook: The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

Read by Sean Runnette

 Synopsis: Don’t Sweat.  Don’t Laugh.  Don’t draw attention to yourself.  And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.

Gene is different from everyone else around him.  He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood.  Gene is a human, and he knows the rules.  Keep the truth a secret.  It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.
When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him.  He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

My thoughts: I am glad that I stumbled upon this audiobook at my library. My favorite mythological creature/monster had always been the vampire but lately in today's literature, the vampire has changed from being a monster to a sexy, heart-throbbed, undead boyfriend. In Andrew Fukuda's story, the vampires stayed true to their dark side, which made the plot quite intense.

When imagining the world that Fukuda created, it was quite scary. The world was run by vampires. Humans were known as Hepers and were at the brink of extinction. If a vampire got the slightest sense that a Heper was around, the vampire would immediately become feral and kill the Heper at all costs. My heart was constantly speeding fast worrying about the main character of the story because of his constant interaction with the vampires.

One thing that this book reminded me of was of The Hunger Games. Whenever there was a small supply of Hepers, the people (aka the vampires as they were considered) will host a Hunt where a few lucky individuals were randomly selected to participate in the event. The participants were trained on how to hunt the Hepers. The goal of the game was to make sure that you were not killed by the other players and you killed the most Hepers. The essence of the hunt sounded very similar to the Hunger Games.

Thoughts of the performance: Sean Runnette did a fantastic job in portraying the main character Gene and bringing the story to life. He knew how to emphasize on the important parts to make things more dramatic and terrifying. I was captivated with Runnette's voice, which I hope to get to listen to him on other audios.

Overall, I was quite pleased with this audio. I got the chance to listen to a story with actual vampires and I was introduced to a new series that I am looking forward to continuing. This would have received a perfect rating if it weren't for a few aspects of the book that were questionable (such as Gene never getting sick after eating raw meat), but I did quite enjoy it. I give it: