Hunted is the second instalment of GX Todd’s Voices series when chronicles a post-apocalyptic world in which the population has suffered at the hands of voices in their heads and consequently the world as we know it has been lost and tribal mentality has taken over. Hunted follows the struggles of two tribes: the more cautious group lead by the mute yet respected Albus and the more lawless group led by the grandiose Posy. Both have their own missions and dilemmas: Albus’ group must decide their next moves upon discovering a young boy alone, whereas Posy’s group are now in pursuit of Lacey, the protagonist from the first novel in the series Defender. How long will it be before the groups inevitably clash?
In short, we enjoyed Hunted a lot, however, we didn’t enjoy it as much as Defender. What GX Todd has done with Hunted is (very smartly) shifted the narrative onto other characters in order to keep the world that these characters inhabit fresh, yes, Lacey from the previous book forms part of that narrative, but you concern yourself more with Albus, Posy and the fates of their respective groups, because Todd has chosen to successfully go in that direction. And as a result, the characters have more time to be explored and the quality of the writing demonstrates this; Albus loses no presence amongst the other characters despite being mute; GX Todd has constructed him magnificently.
With this in mind, because there are so many characters within Hunted some characters do lose the limelight as a result of such dominant lead characters. Meanwhile, one slight criticism of the narrative is that it is a touch formulaic in parts; a chapter for Albus’ group, then a chapter for Posy’s group and repeat sometimes means the reader doesn’t give each chapter the attention to detail it deserves because you become concerned with just getting to the end of the chapter.
Hunted is a good second instalment to the series, taking the post-apocalyptic world and seeing it through the eyes of fresh characters to keep the reader engaged. Some slight bumps in the road with character and narrative but nothing that will stop the overall enjoyment of the book.
HUNTED / AUTHOR: G X TODD / PUBLISHER: HEADLINE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
