#BookReview : The Call of Death by R.J. Garcia / Books Teacup and Reviews

The Call of Death by R.J. Garcia
Publication Date: November 5th 2019
Publisher: Parliament House
Genre: Paranormal / YA Romance
Pages: 268
Stars: ★★★★★

Fourteen-year-old Hannah Priestly crashes into a terrifying future. She wakes up in her dorm room now knowing the name of an infamous serial killer, Norman Biggs. He will attack her in the future unless she and her three male friends can change fate.
Hannah is an obsessive-compulsive California girl dropped off at an English boarding school by her celebrity mother. Hannah has difficulty understanding algebra, let alone her increasingly dark visions. Rory Veer is Hannah’s smart, easy-going and romantically challenged friend and school crush. When Norman Biggs unexpectedly appears in Rory’s reality, terror is set in motion. It is Rory who must acknowledge a past he has denied if the mystery is to be unraveled.

*** Note: I received this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to author. ***

The Call of Death was paranormal YA, part horror, part romance and suspense. It revolved around Hanna and her psychic ability. The book was about friendship, romance, doing right thing, using gift to help others, bravery, and good vs evil.

Writing was gripping, thrilling and captivating. Characters and events were well described. It was first person narrative from Hanna and Rory’s perspective.

Book started with Hanna’s nightmare from future where she found herself in hospital, brutally injured with name of attacker, Norman Biggs- a serial killer who was following her since she was fourteen studying in London. Normally we ignore this kind of dream saying it is just aftereffect of horror movie or novel but what if it turns out real? With Hanna it did! She and her friends tried to change the future, save other innocent people… and so their horrifying journey started along with confusing feelings of love and friendship.

Hanna was 14-yrs-old American, studying in London. She was smart, brave and caring. Her reaction to her dreams and feelings were realistic. She wasn’t afraid of being labelled crazy or losing friends because of her visions. She trusted her friends and even told her mother and brother about it. She tried to fit in but at the same time she mostly didn’t care what people were thinking about her. I liked how she developed as the horrors of her vision came to reality. She was real hero of the story.

Hanna’s gift was quiet interesting. It created suspense, made me think from the very beginning, how they were going to change future or stop Norman. As they changed the course of future her dreams changed that added more uncertainty. They were terrifying. At first she was clueless how she could help, tried to take police’s help but it didn’t work. When Rory somehow came in center of the horror, she did all she could to save her only love.

In 3 years Hanna had 3 male best friends- Rory, Christian, and Paul. They were that school gang that you always see together, help each other in all situation. They even gave Hanna’s nightmare benefit of doubt and saw truth in it eventually. Their friendship was brilliant throughout the book. Paul and Christian both liked Hanna. But once they knew she liked Rory, they respected it. They supported them and helped them all the time.

Rory was in love with Hanna for long time but he worried Hanna wouldn’t reciprocate his love and moreover he didn’t know how to be boyfriend that messed his relationship with Hanna and hurt her more than once. I agree with Hanna, he was smart and genius but when it came to relationship he was stupid. He didn’t fully believe Hanna’s visions until he came face to face with it. I liked how Hanna brought him to his senses both with their relationship and his life after tragedy. He wasn’t the hero you would expect in romance but he was brave.

Hanna and Rory’s relationship was slow and to be honest bit frustrating in the beginning. Hanna was clear with her feelings but Rory was confused and he didn’t know how to be boyfriend or take first step. If I was Hanna I would have moved on. That on and off thing in relationship are quiet tiring but I guess young love are like that. I’m sure I was like that. I enjoyed how all of their mixed feeling caused confusion and added bit drama that gave otherwise dark story a light touch.

Both friendship and romance was important part of this psychic mystery. There was other school dramas and underlying it all, abusive relationship and childhood. How some monsters create evil and foster it. It made me think why some will live in abusive relationship and even produce babies with those monsters called husband.

Climax was both tense and thrilling. I’m glad at least one of two people acted calmly and took right decision at right time. They all showed tremendous bravery even though none of them were fighter. I liked how it ended and how this horrifying events developed them into strong and brave characters.

Overall, it was interesting, thrilling and wonderfully written paranormal YA romance. I recommend it to fans of this genre.

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What do you think about the book and my review?
Have you read this book already or any book by this authors?
Are you going to add it to TBR?
Have you ever had premonitions that came true?