Posted on Dark Faerie Tales.Andrew Fukuda’s The Prey is the follow up to the amazing story, The Hunt. The best part about this series is that it is not your average vampire/paranormal story. Where normally, the vampires are the minority, hiding within the human population, this series is the opposite. In The Prey, the humans are the hunted, and Fukuda tells a wonderfully thrilling tale filled with fast-paced action.The Prey takes on a different direction, compared to The Hunt. Still on the run, Gene and others hide from the hunters fearing for their lives. Since they’ve escaped from the Hesper Institute a few days ago, they are constantly looking over their shoulders. Gene has not traveled far enough to see the last of them. They look for the Land of Milk and Honey, Fruit, and Sunshine. A place that The Scientist spoke of, one of safety and other humans. But for Gene, he is going further and further away from Ashley June.Gene struggles with accepting The Scientist and his father. Gene is broken, going against the grain of what he has lived through in the previous years. He is grouped together with hepers who don’t exactly see eye-to-eye with him. He’s smart, but is constantly filled with guilt. Not only with his father, but with many other things. It was nice to see how Gene transitions, slowly opening up and revealing inner thoughts and secrets that he never previously shared before. Gene was realistic, enough so that I believed him to be real.The Hepers, The Hunters, and the Duskers. Each set of characters have their own personalities, traits, similarities, and differences. Some are scarier than others, and Fukuda knows when to amp up the fear. Being hunted isn’t something that is easy to describe, let alone strike some real emotion with, but Fukuda does it and does it well. It’s exciting to go from scene to scene, slowly revealing bits and pieces of a big mystery. Who are they? What are they? Fukuda has answers and he slowly tells you.Fukuda is still as detail oriented as ever, with his fantastic world-building skills. He describes the human senses to the most miniscule detail. He adds more by describe emotions, like fear, and kick starts an adrenaline rush like no other. Fukuda brings the reader to places that would give you chills. The way he describes things and lays it out for you. It’s really creepy, but in a good way.I love how the The Prey is still told through the eyes of Gene. He tells the story in a great way. Fukuda gave him a really good voice, and I appreciated it a lot. The Prey has a lot of excitement, and I think it was best told through a male voice. The pacing was great. I never had a hard time keeping up, nor did I feel like anything dragged on. For those of you who are tired of mushy romantic paranormal stories, The Prey is for you. I promise there will be death, action, and mystery.
