[BOOK REVIEW] The Calling (Endgame #1) by James Frey

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20510241-the-calling

SYNOPSIS:

Twelve thousand years ago, they came. They descended from the sky amid smoke and fire, and created humanity and gave us rules to live by. They needed gold and they built our earliest civilizations to mine it for them. When they had what they needed, they left. But before they left, they told us someday they would come back, and when they did, a game would be played. A game that would determine our future.

This is Endgame.

For ten thousand years the lines have existed in secret. The 12 original lines of humanity. Each had to have a Player prepared at all times. They have trained generation after generation after generation. In weapons, languages, history, tactics, disguise assassination. Together the players are everything: strong, kind, ruthless, loyal, smart, stupid, ugly, lustful, mean, fickle, beautiful, calculating, lazy, exuberant, weak. They are good and evil. Like you. Like all.

This is Endgame.

When the game starts, the players will have to find three keys. The keys are somewhere on earth. The only rule of their Endgame is that there are no rules. Whoever finds the keys first wins the game. Endgame: The Calling is about the hunt for the first key. And just as it tells the story of the hunt for a hidden key, written into the book is a puzzle. It invites readers to play their own Endgame and to try to solve the puzzle. Whoever does will open a case filled with gold. Alongside the puzzle will be a revolutionary mobile game built by Google’s Niantic Labs that will allow you to play a real-world version of Endgame where you can join one of the lines and do battle with people around you.

Will exuberance beat strength? Stupidity top kindness? Laziness thwart beauty? Will the winner be good or evil? There is only one way to find out.

Play.
Survive.
Solve.
People of Earth.
Endgame has begun.


Publication Date: January 1, 2014

Date Read: April 14, 2015

Publisher: HarperTeen

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 477

MY REVIEW

Action-packed. Intriguing. Page-turner.

Let's talk about the characters. There are people who are chosen to be a player in Endgame. They're 12. These people will have to find the first key also called Earth Key. The one who wins will be saved from death and also the people from his/her line. The characters especially Sarah Alopay, Jago Tlaloc, Chiyoko Takeda are so badass and skilled because right from the beginning of their lives they are practicing to fight for Endgame.

Endgame is real. Endgame is now

All of the 12 players have their own POVs in this book which is good, for us to know their journey and their plans as the story unfolds but sometimes I felt confused because they're so many and at the same time their names are hard to memorize and weird. 

Our future is unwritten What will be will be.

This is the first big book that I have ever read and it took me a month to finish this not because it's just big but also because when I read Endgame, I became addicted to TV shows. This book is amazing, intriguing, action-packed and a page-turner because it is so good and there are many scenes from the book that made my heart beating so fast! 

They said that this is a Hunger Games copy but I think it's false and not true because even though there are elements that are the same, after I finished reading it I thought that these two are quite different because Endgame is more dark for me and the setting is not just in a place. It's so fun and interesting to follow the players progress as they travel to every different countries they have gone to.

The finale was intense and shocking. I am thrilled. I couldn't stop reading in the last thirty pages because of excitement and I want to know more. Now that the Earth Key has found, the first part of Endgame was done, what will happens next? Is the second part will be bloody as the first book? I really want to read the second book now but unfortunately it it not yet announced.

Ratings: 5/5 Stars