Book Review: ‘The Hunter’s Reflection: A Journey of the Soul’ by Bálint Makai

Title: The Hunter’s Reflection: A Journey of the Soul

Author: Bálint Makai

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: 2026

The Hunter’s Reflection: A Journey of the Soul is the debut story by Hungarian author Bálint Makai.

I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest reader of pure literary fiction but the premise for this novella jumped out at me and I knew I absolutely needed to read this story.

The book focuses on Andrew, a big game hunter, who is killed during an operation. He is transported to a cosmic courtroom where the Creator and a jury of animals sentence him to relive the last moments of all the animals he has killed or captured. What follows is a philosophical look at the lives and consciousness of animals and the effect humans have on the natural world.

While we are given hints as to Andrew’s many exploits over the years, The Hunter’s Reflection focuses on six different animals – a domestic cat, an orangutang, a boar/warthog, a dolphin, a chimpanzee, and a whale. Each one places Andrew and the reader into a slightly different perspective. From an animal alone, to part of a group or family, to a parent, to a child. From being killed as a trophy to being captured for entertainment, Makai makes sure to offer a range of horrifying fates that are felt by members of the animal kingdom.

Throughout all of the chapters we feel the emotions of the animals. Their stories all start positive, such as the orangutang male finding a mate or the warthog mother teaching her sons. But then comes the arrival of bullets and nets and cages. We, along with Andrew, feel the animals’ confusion, panic, fear, and desperation as their lives are changed forever by the arrival of humans hellbent on destruction. These sequences in particular were especially powerful to read. I found there was a strong feeling of sadness and wasted potential for all the moments the animals could have experienced and felt had their lives not been cut short.

But, despite the subject matter, Makai chooses not to end his story with despair. As the title suggests, this is a story about reflection. Holding a mirror up to humanity’s actions, this book is about accountability and whether, upon viewing their own soul, a person can truly change. Despite the moral lessons, at no point does the novella ever feel preachy. Rather it presents the reader with these explorations of consciousness and allows us to draw our own conclusions from the emotions we feel.

If I had to give the book one critique it’s that I wish there had been chapter titles to indicate which animal’s perspective we were reading about as sometimes it took me a few pages to identify the exact species.

It is clear that Makai did a lot of preparation for this story. All of the animal environments, their behaviours, and bonds with each other feel very believable and thought out. The Hunter’s Reflection is a book I can see being taught in schools to help new generations understand our impact on the natural world. With a fascinating dive into character and consciousness, this is definitely one to read.

This review was originally published on Reedsy Discovery in July 2026.

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