Review: The Hit by Allen Zadoff

Title: The Hit (Boy Nobody #1)
Author: Allen Zadoff 
Publisher: Orchard Books
Release date: September 4th 2014
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: BookDepository

Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school, in a new town, under a new name, makes few friends and doesn't stay long. Just long enough for someone in his new friend's family to die -- of "natural causes." Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, and moves on to the next target.

When Boy Nobody was just eleven, he discovered his own parents had died of not-so-natural causes. He soon found himself under the control of The Program, a shadowy government organization that uses brainwashed kids as counter-espionage operatives. But somewhere, deep inside Boy Nobody, is somebody: the boy he once was, the boy who wants normal things (like a real home, his parents back), a boy who wants out.

And he just might want those things badly enough to sabotage The Program's next mission...

This book was previously published in 2013 under the name Boy Nobody in UK and in 2014 it reissued under the name The Hit, this book is touted for fans of Jason Bourne and although I haven´t read the novels, I´ve seen the movies and The Hit do have similarities in action, fighting, persecution and infiltration, but the plot is somewhat different.

Boy Nobody is a young killer that when he was twelve years old was "recruited" by a government company called The Program, which trained him and programed him to carry out missions where he must infiltrate a school, befriend or approach the son/daughter of his mission to thereby achieve to be closer to his mark and remove him/her in a clean way that does not seem as a murder, then the Boy Nobody disappears and is moved to his new mission and start again at a new school. When the book begins he´s sixteen years old and gets a new mission to infiltrate and befriend the daughter of a powerful politician, but there is something different about this mission, since his handlers to whom he calls Dad and Mom (this is to avoid suspicion if someone listen to their phone calls), give him only five days to end his mark and for the first time since he´s been on the Program, he´s questioning the whys of things, which can be very dangerous for him.

The story is told from the point of view of Boy Nobody whom in his latest mission is known as Benjamin (not his real name) and through memories we get to see how he ended up in the program and how his handlers only give him the mission, time limit and new identity; and as in his training he was conditioned to follow orders without question and only knows that he´s a soldier and his job is to eliminate traitors. From the beginning we see him analyzing the surrounding area, looking for potential threats, and thinking how his peers expect him to react to different situations, etc. but we see him as an apathetic boy that just follows orders, until something changes with him and he becomes more human ... which could cause problems with the Program.

I really enjoyed reading The Hit, and throughout the book I was questioning all the characters with which Benjamin interacts because nobody seems innocent and all of them seems to have a double agenda; but nevertheless I end up liking Ben and worrying about his welfare. And the ending! I did´n saw it coming, it has a very good plot twist .... and I hope to read soon the next book in the series.

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