Recent Reads - The Shadowing: Hunted

The Shadowing (Hunted) Hunted #1, by Adam Slater

  4 of 5 Stars

Buy It:  Amazon  /  Barnes & Noble

Genre:   Young Adult, Paranormal/Horror

Pages: 208

Publication:   9/13/2011, Egmont USA

Why I Chose It:  I received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Good Reads):   Once every century, the barrier between the human world and the demon realm begins to break down. Creatures gather, anxiously waiting to cross the divide, to bring death and destruction from their world to ours. This time is called The Shadowing.

Callum Scott has always known that there is a supernatural world out there—he’s seen ghosts for as long as he can remember. Lately, he’s had visions of children being brutally murdered by a terrifying creature. Then the visions start coming true, and Callum realizes that he’s being hunted, too.

Driven by a dark destiny, he must stand against the demons that threaten our world.

And The Shadowing is almost here. . .

My Review:  Love. So. Much. Love. This book was amazing and creepy and exactly what I needed following a string of lackluster reads. I picked this book up from NetGalley because the synopsis sounded awesome (the cover does nothing for me. Sorry. I really think a new cover would benefit this book.), but I was apprehensive going in. However The Shadowing did not disappoint.

I don't want to give too much away because there is a lot of stuff the reader should experience on their own. But I will tell you that it's dark, shocking, and all-around full of awesome. And it's DIFFERENT. For one, it's told from the POV of a teenage boy. It was super refreshing to not only find a male mc, but one that I could connect with and root for. I generally read a lot of adult novels as well as young adult, but I've been on a straight YA kick for some time now, so this has been seriously lacking in my reading.

It was sufficiently disturbing and the pacing was excellent. Slater's writing style was good, skin-crawlingly (yeah, I made that word up. So?) good. It was sometimes repetitive, but not enough to distract me from my overall enjoyment of the book. And the plot--again, just so much love. I can't wait for the sequel, Skinned!!

I'm going to go ahead and recommend this book to anyone who likes a darker paranormal story. Those looking for a heavily romanticized read with gorgeous/sparkling supernatural creatures should look elsewhere.

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