Review Detail

Picking up where The Cage left out, The Hunt finds Cora, Lucky, and Mali demoted to working at a safari-themed hut where Cora is an entertainment captive, Mali is a guide, and Lucky is an animal wrangler. Nok and Rolf have been moved to an oversized dollhouse where they’re observed by scientists interested in Nok’s pregnancy. Leon, the only one to escape, finds himself working for Mosca black-traders who can’t be trusted. When Cassian offers to train Cora to develop and use her psychic abilities – and to enter a competition called The Gauntlet that would prove humans worthy and save their lives – she must decide if she can trust the Kindred who has already betrayed her once.

I was really excited for this book since I enjoyed the first one and I was eager to see how the character would react to the huge reveals that happened and how they would come back from going a little ‘Lord of the Flies’ in the first book. There were so many questions that needed to be answered and likely more questions that would come up while reading this sequel.

The book was told mainly through Cora’s POV but the other four teens all got a few chapters to themselves. I liked that we still got to check in with the others since everyone was so separated. Cora had a lot she went through in the first book and she wasn’t done being put through tests in this one. The environment they were place in during the first book where they were mostly just observed seemed like a cakewalk compared to the safari and the dollhouse. There was a sleaziness to the some Kindred who frequented the Safari and Cora was supposed to entertain them by singing or dancing or playing with them. She wanted out, she wanted to get her friends out, and the only way seemed to be trusting Cassian again. She pushed herself in her training, knowing she was their best hope. Trusting Cassian again was difficult, both for her and for me as a reader, and I liked that it wasn’t a trust that would be easily rebuilt. He would have to work for it.

There were many small moments where I felt a connection to all the characters. From Lucky being concerned about the animals the Kindred hunted with tranquilizer guns so as not to kill their entertainment, to Nok and Rolf being worried about bringing a child into this world – if they even got to keep the baby after it was born. I worried for Leon working with people who would betray him for the right price. There wasn’t a moment to relax. There wasn’t a moment to feel like they were safe. Every time I felt lulled into any kind of sense of security, it was false. These kids could not catch a break.

The whole concept of the series is strange and I really love it. Being kidnapped by an alien race to be observed the way scientists on earth observe their own experiments, and said alien race just might be on the brink of some kind of civil war that involves the worthiness of humans. Strange and creepy and definitely something I don’t regret picking up. The sequel was even more of a roller-coaster ride than the first was so I can only imagine what the third will be like. I definitely think I’ll like where the plot seems to be heading and I’m excited for it. But these cliffhangers might kill me!