Dayle Loves This: The Call and The Invasion (novels)
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Welcome to Dayle Loves This, wherein I recommend books, TV, and movies (and maybe other things) that rocked my world.
If they don’t rock your world, that’s okay. We all have reader/watcher cookies as well as triggers. If you have questions, ask. And please make your own suggestions, and discuss!
I don’t remember how I got my hands on The Call by Peadar O’Guilin. I know we’d moved into Hedgewick, our charming 1929 English cottage, and that I found the book at the wonderful library across the street.
The cover isn’t one that would have grabbed me, so that’s not it. Maybe it was on display, with a tag line that grabbed me? I don’t remember reading about it somewhere, either.
But I’m ever so glad I did pick it up. Because it’s phenomenal. It’s also, in some ways, the most terrifying book I’ve ever read.
Here’s the blurb:
3 MINUTES
You wake up alone in a horrible land. A horn sounds. The Call has begun.
2 MINUTES
The Sidhe are close. They’re the most beautiful and terrible people you’ve ever seen. And they’ve seen you.
1 MINUTE
Nessa will be Called soon. No one thinks she has any chance to survive. But she’s determined to prove them wrong.
TIME’S UP
Could you survive the Call?
The quote on the back is “A must-read for anyone who’s been sleeping too well at night.” (Danielle Vega, author of The Merciless.”)
Agreed.
It’s hard to explain The Call without giving away things. Even the basic information, which is relayed in the first two chapters, is best read without knowing anything ahead of time, which make it all the more chilling.
I can say this: many, many years ago, the kings of Ireland made a pact with the Sidhe. And then broke it.
And the Sidhe are beyond furious.
Previously I recommended Holly Black’s trilogy about the Fey folk, and how capricious and cruel they can be. Those Fey have nothing on the Sidhe in these books. The Sidhe in these books might be beautiful, yes, but cruel doesn’t begin to describe it. They’re psychopaths. The Call is about revenge in the most fucked-up possible way.
I recommend starting the book early on a day when you have time, because you won’t want to put it down until the end.
When I grabbed The Call out of the library recently to reread it before I wrote this, I discovered there was a sequel, The Invasion. While it didn’t grab me in the same way that The Call did—which I think is due to more shifting viewpoints—it’s still gripping, and necessary for emotional closure.
This duology will haunt you for a long time. I’m not promising that, because promises…well….
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