Audiobook: The Prey by Andrew Fukuda

Read by Sean Runnette

Synopsis: With death only a heartbeat away, Gene and the remaining humans must find a way to survive long enough to escape the hungry predators chasing them through the night.  But they’re not the only things following Gene.  He’s haunted by Ashley June who he left behind, and his burgeoning feelings for Sissy, the human girl at his side.

Their escape takes them to a refuge of humans living high in the mountains.  Gene and his friends think they’re finally safe, but not everything here is as it seems.  And before long, Gene must ask himself if the new world they’ve entered is just as evil as the one they left behind.  As their enemies close in on them and push Gene and Sissy closer, one thing becomes painfully clear: all they have is each other…if they can stay alive.

My thoughts: I was looking forward to this book as soon as I finished the first one. The book had a very strong beginning and end. The middle was a little weak for my taste but it still kept me hooked in. I was quite captivated with this audiobook.

This book concentrated more on Gene's interactions with other humans versus with the vampires. This to me was a little weak because I wanted to know more about what was happening with the vampire hunters instead of old men trying to control a female society. Don't get me wrong, this society was interesting and frankly, it was quite messed up. The rules and sexist standards had my blood boiling. I just wanted something really bad to happen to the elders of this community. It was a reminder on how easily human society could go backward.

The characters continued to be great in this book. I enjoyed Gene's character more, especially how he slowly learned how to act more like the human he was instead of pretending to be a vampire. My favorite character turned out to be Sissy. She was a very strong, level headed girl. I loved the way she stuck to her loyalty for the boys and how she kept standing up to the elders. I wonder what Fukuda will do with these two characters in the next book.

The action scenes were quite intense, just like in the first book. I do have to warn you that some of the scenes were quite graphic when describing how the vampires died. If you could stomach through this, then the rest will take you on a roller coaster ride.

The ending left me speechless and had me jumping in frustration when there was a cliff-hanger. I got even more frustrated to learn that the third book does not come out until November of this year. Now, I have to be patient.

Thoughts on the performance: Sean Runnette did it again. He did a wonderful job in reading this book. In the first audio, I could not picture him as Gene because he sounded too mature to be a teenager but I got used to him. With this audio, I did not notice the age difference. He knew how to change his voice for certain characters and he did a fabulous job in representing the elders. His voice picked up during the action scenes and lowered down during the suspense ones. I quite enjoyed his performance.

In summary, I really liked this book. I still preferred the first book because it was all about the vampires, but I did like the way the story took a turn with the second one. I rate this: