Hunterland by Dana Claire Narrator: Arielle Delisle, Travis Baldree
Series: Hunterland #1
on February 7, 2023
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Length: 8 hours, 8 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: NetGalley
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Grab your stakes and your rock salt. Monster hunting class is in session. Liam Hunter has warded off hungry vampires, slayed monstrous beasts, and put agonized spirits to rest since he could hold a stake. When trouble comes through the Hunterland message board, alerting them that nurses are dying at high schools across Wisconsin in a string of fishy “suicides,” the Hunter family hits the road to save the day. The trail leads to Falkville Falls, where Liam clashes with Olivia Davis, whose maddening family seems inexplicably embroiled in this haunting mess. Olivia has always mothered her little sister, Pepper. But when the Hunter family opens her eyes to the hidden underworld of real monsters prowling the dark, she realizes she can’t protect Pepper from this newest threat by herself.
Hunterland is the first book in a new series by the same name. It seems like it is supposed to be a lot like Supernatural, Grim or maybe even the new Nancy Drew. Teenagers hunting supernatural things roll into town with their FBI (not really) father after a few suicides happen in a small town. The thing is they aren’t really suicides and something from the paranormal world is doing the killing, they just need to find out what.
Olivia is the daughter of the town sheriff and when we first meet her it is when she is looking at a teacher from her high school who has committed suicide and is hanging in the gym. This is the third suicide of someone at the school and it is starting to seem like there might be something else behind all these deaths. Liam and Jack have been part of Hunterland all of their lives and they are ready to jump into this new mystery. They roll into town with their father looking for who/what is committing these murders. This school isn’t the only one, there have been killings that look exactly the same in other small towns in the area.
The plot of this book was a little all over the place. There is the main story happening with Ghosts, which really would have been enough to carry the story. But then it got a little garbled with Vampires and Werewolves and some turmoil happening between them that involves the Hunter family. Along with meeting one of the original Vampires, that didn’t have anything to do with the suicide looking murders that were happening at the school. It just felt a bit disjointed. Like the author was trying to do this story and 100 pages of the next, all in one book. There was also a bit of a plot hole in this that wasn’t really addressed, unless I missed it, that was distracting for me.
The premise of the book is something that really drew my attention since these are the kinds of stories I completely love. But the book ended up having a few too many YA issues I struggled with. The relationships between just about everyone didn’t make a ton of sense to me. It was clear Liam and Olivia were going to be a thing, but I absolutely hated Liam for most of the book. He was too smug, too harsh, too just trying to be the bad boy and over sexualizing everything. The way he talked to Olivia the majority of the story was just off and why any girl would be drawn to him was beyond me. Then there was Olivia’s relationship to her sister that seemed more like a keeper than just being part of the family.
This book did have a lot happening the entire time and a good amount of action so I was entertained throughout enough not to get too caught up in the YA teen relationship drama happening. I was enjoying at least the paranormal part of the story quite a bit and was interested in Olivia and Pepper’s magical capabilities. I was hoping to explore those a little more in this book but we only get to scratch the surface a bit.
I really wanted to love this story and maybe the next book will weed out a few of the issues we saw in this one. I think the world is really interesting and I’d love to explore the other members of Hunterland along with the set up that was done in this book on the semi war between one of the packs of Werewolves and the Vampires. So there might be some hope in the rest of the series.
Narration:
One of the reasons I picked this up to listen to was Travis Baldree is a narrator for it and I really enjoy him. He did a fantastic job on his PoV and was able to capture all the voices well. His sections I listened to at my normal 1.5x speed and his narration was exactly as good as I expected it to be. Arielle DeLisle is a new to me narrator, even though she has a pretty extensive catalog. I found her performance a bit slow with some strange pauses. I had to up the speed I listened to her PoVs from my usual 1.5x to 1.75x for it not to be distracting. Her diction and change of voices was great, just something with the timing didn’t work quite right for me.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Arielle Delisle
My performing career began as a radio DJ and I quickly moved into commercial production, where I could play, create and problem solve with words and audio. I’ve been able to bring distinct characters to life in audiobooks, and especially love narrating vibrant fantasy and dystopian worlds. I study and perform sporadically with an improv troupe and revel in my unscripted play time on stage. I’ve lived in upstate New York, North Carolina, New Mexico, and finally settled in Phoenix in 2007. I live with my 2 young kids and a tiny, mischievous cat. I love unplanned daytrips, memes, karaoke and I make a killer cheesecake (secret family recipe.) My life is full of interesting people and stories.
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It’s such a great premise! It’s too bad the story itself was disjointed and didn’t really deliver. I’m such a fan of Supernatural and of Buffy I was really hoping this one would be better.
Buffy!!! One of my favorite shows. I think it can get better, there is a lot of room in this to get great.
I saw Supernatural, Grim and Nancy Drew but the YA elements have me backing away. I hope you listen to the next one. Sometimes these improve. I will keep an eye out.
I’m so picky on my YA anymore. 10 years ago I don’t think some of it would have bugged me at all.
I remember enjoying this. Not a 5 star of course….some issues….but I am super intrigued in book 2. I hope someday.
I plan on reading the 2nd book. There is a lot to work with that could make this series so good.
Sounds like my kind of story, but based on your review I probably won’t rush out to read it anytime in the near future. Thanks for sharing this one!