In a city taken over by monsters, teens train to become hunters of these monsters... but one girl's training leads her down a darker path than she could have ever imagined. Fifteen years ago, The Vanishing happened in Manhattan, New York. The city was plunged into darkness and monsters known as Deathlings have plagued the city ever since. To defeat these monsters, people are trained to rigorously fight and kill them and they must compete and win the Tournament to make it amongst the ranks of the prestigious Deathling Hunters. Rei Reynolds has dreamed all her life of becoming a hunter, she's been hunting illegally outside of school hours, but her skills have not gone unnoticed. When the tournament comes around she finds herself face to face with her ex, Kieran Cross, a skilled rival and the ex-boyfriend who broke her heart out of nowhere. Rei's parents were murdered and she's been living with her aunt, a Master of the prestigious school that is involved in the Tournament... and the person who has hired Kieran to be her new assistant. As the tournament progresses Rei finds herself questioning everyone and everything she's every known as the secret of the Deathlings and how they came to be and what exactly is happening to the city begins to cause her to unravel. Who can she trust? Can she trust the system that she thought was meant to protect her or will the secrets of those in power cause her to break free? Will she finally find out Kieran's secrets and why he is so determined to protect her but why he broke her heart? This is the first book in a series and it gives off Hunger Games x Maze Runner vibes. The story is a urban fantasy that involves teens joining a deadly competition to fight against monsters while there is a group of higherups who run society watching them. The book has a pretty slow start and doesn't pick up until the 40% mark and I honestly didn't care much for the second chance romance between Kieran and Rei. The world building is really interesting and I am intrigued by the monsters/society structure that the story has going on. I liked the tournament aspect but I felt like a lot of the characters could have been fleshed out better because not a lot of them were all that memorable. I am curious to see where the next book goes and how the story progresses for Rei after the events of this book. Overall if you like urban fantasy novels with young adult tournaments and monster survival fights, definitely give this a go!

Spoiler

Rei discovers that her sister is a halfling ( she consumed some of the deathling) and she ate their father (he sacrificed himself) and that her aunt (adopted mom) knew that her sister has turned. Rei also discovers that the deathlings can be part human. Kieran broke up with her because he wanted to protect her and he had a lot of other stuff going on but he's always loved her and is still in love with her. Rei also has her Token ( a magical artifact) taken by the board of Directors and they threaten to kill her if she exposes what she's learned about the things happening

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, Viking Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*