I was both granted complimentary access to The Calling as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Goddess Fish Promotions and also approved for a review copy through NetGalley. Thank you to everyone involved in both places who decided I would be a good choice for this book! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

The Calling is set in the future when humanity was forced underground in order to survive and has since lived a very controlled, The Giver style utopian/dystopan life where the quality of your genetics determines everything about your future. A sickness that plagues these underground people is being purged from the gene pool as cases appear. Meanwhile, when a team of young scientists goes to the surface they encounter other humanoid beings. Are they dangerous? Is life as they know it about to end?

I actually had the opportunity to feature this book on my blog a few months before my scheduled review stop and I was so disappointed not to have room in my schedule for a review back then. Look at this gorgeous cover! And it's listed as YA Sci-Fi! How could I not take the opportunity to check it out?

What I loved:
This version of the future is so interesting! This book is full of rich world-building that probably calls for a second read just to appreciate everything, and yet none of it gets in the way of the plot or any character development. I'm fascinated by all of the species living in this bleak future, both below and above ground, and I can't wait to read on and find out more. Although the eugenics type system going on is an atrocious thought for reality, it's a sci-fi trope I love to read, and OShea has put an interesting spin on it.

What I didn't like:
Too many POVs! Honestly, a lot of characters started to blend together simply because my mind gave up on keeping the POVs straight. I'm not a fan of 4+ POV systems to begin with, but since this book is advertised as YA I really didn't expect to juggle quite so many brains. I also personally felt like this book ran a little long for a YA title and there were definitely much earlier points where the "to be continued" moment could have happened. I do love the point it cuts off on, so I guess it's worth it. Maybe fewer POVs but keeping the same cut-off point might have shaved off 50-100 pages without losing too much. I also really didn't like how extremely heteronormative and patriarchal the book's underground society is. I understand this society is all about perpetuating the species, but there were definitely multiple passages that made it clear husbands are above and in charge of their wives, and with so many different POVs I'm dubious about the lack of hints about anyone having non-het feelings toward anyone else.

Overall this is a strong start to what sounds like a great sci-fi series, and this sci-fi nerd is here for it! Bring on book two! I recommend this book to all fans of science fiction, not just the YA subcategory, and I actually wouldn't recommend this to particularly young or low-level YA readers as it felt more mature than I expected a YA title to be.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good book. It reminded me a lot of "the 100" I enjoyed it a lot. I think the plot could have been flushed out. I felt I was left with a lot of questions. But overall, I enjoyed it.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

I was so excited about the premise of this one, and I think that it lived up to my expectations! The world was really interesting, and I enjoyed the adventures the characters went on. I think that there were a few too many characters overall, and I got to be a bit too much to keep up with all of them. I think we could have removed a few, and reduced the length of the book, while keeping a strong story. Overall though, this was a great story!.

As other reviewers have mentioned, being compared to The 100 is why I picked up The Calling. I wasn't drawn into the story and I did not finish it, unfortunately. And it isn't like The 100 at all. I do not have any feedback to give as it was a DNF. Thank you for the opportunity to review the book.

thanks to netgalley for the e-arc!

i was excited to read this book for the “the 100” premise but it turned out being a bit boring. the writing was okay and the story was not bad, but i felt very disconnected with the characters and could not care less what they ended up doing. the world felt a little bland and poorly thought-out. just expected more.

I felt The Calling was a creative novel about humankind's future after an ice age. A group of people bury themselves underground to avoid the ice age and come out during it. They encounter other creatures who turn out to be evolved humans. The interplay between the evolved humans and the recently released buried humans was interesting.

These characters were great! I enjoyed the story ad how it weaved a story of humanity. I need the next book right now! The multi-perspectives were perfect for this story. I need more.

My thanks to Backlit PR, and Branwen OShea.
I loved these characters. I mean an astounding, deep love. Both Earth humans, and Stars.
I'm angry I guess because this series is named after humanity.
I've often thought it odd that our species talks of humanity. But, as much as we speak of it, we will never live up to it. We, me and you are human. Humanity is an ideal.
I love this story. I wish to read the next book.
But, I'm not sure how much further I can go.
Humans. Humanity. Bummer dude.

3/5🌟: the premise reminded me of "the 100" which made me really excited. unfortunately, i ended up being a bit bored. the writing style was good, the topic was interesting! but everything was super hetereonormative and that's not really a future i'm looking forward to. and i have to say, sometimes i'm a huge fan of multiple perspectives, but in this book it was so annoying: there were too many names, characters and perspectives to keep up with and honestly, with multiple perspectives there comes a great chance that i'll pick a favourite and dislike the others..