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THE INVASION by Peadar O'Guilin

THE INVASION

From the Call series, volume 2

by Peadar O'Guilin

Pub Date: March 27th, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-04562-8
Publisher: David Fickling/Scholastic

After surviving the Call to the Grey Land and the attempted fairy invasion (The Call, 2016), Anto and Nessa hope to escape the limelight and live a quiet life together in the countryside, but the Irish government has other ideas.

Fourteen-year-old Anto is drafted into a military unit known only as the infestation squad, while Nessa is labeled a traitor to the nation and imprisoned. Cut off from the rest of the world, Ireland has been struggling with a crumbling infrastructure and limited provisions. But for the citizens, the worst is the certainty that at some point during adolescence, all will be called to try and survive for a day in the land of the Sídhe. But the brutal fairies have found a way to travel to Ireland and finally retake it for themselves. Nessa, disabled by polio but blessed by her fireproof skin, is forced to fight again. Anto must face his own demons as he struggles to master his Sídhe-given arm. The action is blood-soaked and brutal, but the angst-filled love story of teens torn apart by war is life-affirming. While the cast is all Irish, it is ethnically, spiritually, and sexually diverse. Students and faculty are South Asian and French. Soldiers are black and Asian. Characters profess to be Christians, atheists, and Celts. One character, Aoife, is openly gay.

Nonstop action, horrific magic, and teen love.

(Fantasy/horror. 14-18)