Number of pages: 312
Number of times read (including the time before this review): 1
Rating (out of five stars): 1
I went into The Call looking for a creepy horror book set in Ireland. What I got was a boring, forgettable book that could have been set anywhere if they hadn’t have mentioned where they were as often as they did.
I’m not normally a fan of horror books (I value whatever good sleep my depression allows me), but the last book that gave me nightmares (Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge) was so enjoyable that I wanted to give another creepy book a try. Maybe I’ve been desensitized, but The Call wasn’t scary, it was boring. I guess humans being twisted into monsters is supposed to be terror inducing, but it was more strange than creepy.
The writing doesn’t exactly help here. It keeps the reader at a distance. It’s very cold and emotionless, not the flowing suspenseful writing necessary for a horror book. The writing needed to suck the reader in, not push them further away from the story with every page.
Being distantly Irish, I was incredibly excited to read a book set in Ireland. However, there were no real descriptions that distinguished The Call as being set in Ireland, other than the mention of Dublin. You could have told me that The Call was set in my small tourist village, and I would have next to no evidence to prove you wrong.
Nessa is a very forgettable character. There was one point where I went to sleep having made significant progress in The Call, only to wake up and completely forget who she was. I appreciated her as a disabled character in YA, but other than that, there wasn’t much to her. She is just as cold and emotionless as the writing, which didn’t exactly make me want to root for her.
Overall, The Call was disappointingly bland, earning 1 star out of 5.
For the Lover of Books 
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. I wanted to like this one. It had epic folklore potential. Oh ughhhhhh. Wonderful review, though, Moria!!
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Thank you! I tried my hardest to like it, it just didn’t work out.
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YA Horror is a pretty disappointing subgenre for me. Those that I’ve read felt very bland and I was never scared, but maybe that’s just not being in the mood to be scared.
I’m not really surprised you didn’t find it great. Feels very tropey with that whole “disappearing and finding yourself in a strange location where you’re in danger” thing going on. I read it in the Maze Runner, Nil, etc.
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I’m not sure I would call it tropey. The writing is everything in horror novels, and the writing lacked the power and substance it needed to pull this story off.
It’s more fantasy than horror, but Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge gave me nightmares for weeks when I read it last year (I can’t remember if I mentioned it in the review, so I apologize if I did).
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Oh okay! In that case I might just be too judgemental for the genre. I prefer adult horror so.
You did! I don’t usually see horror in fantasy but that it gave you nightmares says a lot. Is it a fast read?
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Apparently it’s 436 pages, so it probably isn’t a fast read. I don’t remember how long it took me to read it.
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