The Invasion increases the fear in the already terrifying Call series

Please check out my last review for a more detailed description of the plot of The Call series, of which this is the second and final book. In short, this series is set in an Ireland where humans and fairies (or Sidhe) are mortal enemies, and teenagers are called to the land of the Sidhe to die horrible deaths or face mutilation as vengeance for the crimes of all humanity. The sequel follows Nessa, our main character from the first book, and fellow survivor Anto, in separate but equally terrifying journeys through a Sidhe invasion of Ireland.

The second book only intensifies the stress and terror of the story, which I didn’t think was possible as the first was consistently tense and horrific. Even though these things make the book extremely propulsive, I also found that I had to take a break and read something light at times (in this case, the new Lumberjanes and Squirrel Girl trades) because it was just too much. As I said in my previous review, this series is like the Hunger Games on crack.

The one criticism I’ll give this book is that I felt the author used one trick a few too many times: stating that a character would see or experience something much worse than what they had just seen or experienced, but leaving it at that. This works once or twice as a hint at the horrors that are unwritten in the book, but after that it stops being as effective. However, that’s a minor flaw and may just be something I personally am bugged by. And to be fair, perhaps the author just didn’t want to fill the book with too many horrors and wanted to occasionally give the reader a break from having what happened to a character described in detail.