From Goodreads: Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.

Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.

When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

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This is a must read novel!  A completely different take on vampires, Fukuda has created an intriguing, captivating, fast paced novel that readers won’t be able to put down.  Going into the novel, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but like Fukuda’s previous novel, Crossing, it grabbed my attention from the get go, spurring me on until the very last page, when I screamed in agony over the cliffhanger that I’ll have to live with for the next year, until I can get my hands on the sequel of this compelling novel.  Alas, it’s so worth it.

Fukuda is a phenomenal writer, and I loved how he created this story using traditional vampire lore, changing a few aspects to make his story work, but holding true to the main ideas: sunlight can kill, human blood is for drinking, excessive speed is a must, though changing a few other traditions, such as looks—not all vampires are perfect, or beautiful by any means.  I liked this aspect; it gave the vampires a more human quality, though they are vastly different based on the ways they interact with one another. 

As I said, I was intrigued from the beginning, and I highly enjoyed the fact that this novel is flipped.  While many books today deal with a lone vampire, or lone werewolf, etc., infiltrating the human world, Fukuda’s brilliant novel does the opposite.  Gene, a lone human, is infiltrating the vampire world.  With virtually no humans left, Gene is on his own—his entire family was wiped out by vampires.  But Gene knows how to stay under the radar; his father taught him well before being infected, and Gene has survived for a very long time.  However, all that begins to change when he is chosen to hunt the last of the humans for sport.

I was really blown away by this novel. Words cannot express how much I loved it, and even though there was a cliffhanger, it was the perfect place to stop.  My interest is definitely piqued based on the ending, and though a few events are left unresolved, I am actually quite pleased with how everything turned out.  Yes, I am dying for the sequel already, but it’s worth the wait.  Five stars.   

St. Martin’s Press was extremely gracious in allowing me to read an ARC of this novel, via Netgalley, prior to its release on May 8, 2012.