Loved 2016’s The Call but couldn’t handle that cliffhanger of an ending? I’ve got good news for you – author Peadar O’Guilin has written a sequel, The Invasion.
At the end of The Call, Nessa, Anto, and their classmates successfully fend off a Sídhe invasion instigated by their treacherous classmate, Connor. While Ireland is not yet free from its Sídhe curse, Nessa and Anto are looking forward to building what future they can. They survived, which is more than a lot of people can say.
But before the two can reunite, Nessa is arrested for treason, and Anto is conscripted into an elite military force tasked with quelling the escalating Sídhe attacks. It turns out that the Sídhe and human realms are closer than ever before, which means that the Sídhe aren’t giving up on taking over Ireland – for good.
I enjoyed returning to O’Guilin’s savage Ireland to learn more about how the war between human and faerie would unfold, and I was pleased to find that there was just as much strange magic and gruesome conflict as in The Call. I did find that I wasn’t as engaged with the characters this time around, likely because Nessa and Anto are removed from the boarding school environment. Most of the people they had a deep connection with have already died, and neither of them has time to forge those kinds of relationships in the midst of all the chaos that has broken out. I also felt that the book concluded a bit abruptly (it appears that there may be no third book in the series) and left a few threads of the story unresolved, especially since Nessa and Anto are kept apart throughout the novel. Even so, there was lots of exciting action and creative quirks to make reading The Invasion well worth my time.
Final verdict: You’ll want to read The Invasion to find out what happens to Nessa, Anto, and the others. Even though the sequel doesn’t have quite as much spark as the original, O’Guilin’s worldbuilding will draw you in and keep you reading!
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.
