ARC Review: Hit

Title: Hit (Hit#1)

Author: Delilah S. Dawson

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: April 14, 2015

Rating: ☆☆
Source: ARC from Simon & Schuster

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NO ONE READS THE FINE PRINT.

The good news is that the USA is finally out of debt. The bad news is that we were bought out by Valor National Bank, and debtors are the new big game, thanks to a tricky little clause hidden deep in the fine print of a credit card application. Now, after a swift and silent takeover that leaves 9-1-1 calls going through to Valor voice mail, they’re unleashing a wave of anarchy across the country.

Patsy didn’t have much of a choice. When the suits showed up at her house threatening to kill her mother then and there for outstanding debt unless Patsy agreed to be an indentured assassin, what was she supposed to do? Let her own mother die?

Patsy is forced to take on a five-day mission to complete a hit list of ten names. Each name on Patsy's list has only three choices: pay the debt on the spot, agree to work as a bounty hunter, or die. And Patsy has to kill them personally, or else her mom takes a bullet of her own.

Since yarn bombing is the only rebellion in Patsy's past, she’s horrified and overwhelmed, especially as she realizes that most of the ten people on her list aren't strangers. Things get even more complicated when a moment of mercy lands her with a sidekick: a hot rich kid named Wyatt whose brother is the last name on Patsy's list. The two share an intense chemistry even as every tick of the clock draws them closer to an impossible choice.

Delilah S. Dawson offers an absorbing, frightening glimpse at a reality just steps away from ours—a taut, suspenseful thriller that absolutely mesmerizes from start to finish.

My Review

Hit, the first book in the Hit series, is the first book that I've read by YA author, Delilah S. Dawson, and I'll admit that I was a little worried about how I would like this one when it showed up on my doorstep. Hit is not a book that I would pick for myself, but there have been times when I've been known to really enjoy a book outside of my comfort zone and even pick up similar titles. Unfortunately, the execution of the concept and plot was not enough to warrant a pleasurable read for me, and I was not able to find anything mesmerizing about it.

Hit evokes memories of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series because minors are being forced to murder, but in this novel, they are murdering people who have outstanding credit card debt. Seventeen-year-old Patsy Klein (I kid you not) is given an ultimatum to kill others save her mother or watch Valor National kill her mother and then kill her. She agrees to become an indentured assassin, and is given a list of ten names.

The chapters in this book are about Patsy's journey to find and present each name on her list their three choices:

1. Pay off their debt in cash immediately
2. Become an assassin for Valor National
3. Be killed

I felt like each chapter (save for a few) followed very similar plotting patterns, and the book started to become extremely boring. Many of the chapters are long... and I mean long. Some of them are about forty to fifty pages! I didn't want to read when I had the time, and when I was reading, I wanted to put the book down because the long chapters really slowed the progress of the plot.  The few chapters that were different when it comes to plotting and execution brought new life to the book, but it wasn't really enough to save the book for me. If it weren't for the totally expected game-changer at the end of the novel, I probably would have given this book a one-star rating.

I know I read an uncorrected proof, but I found numerous inconsistencies while reading, and it really aggravated me. I can only hope that these errors and inconsistencies are found and corrected in the final printing because quite a few of them are very noticeable, and they had me questioning what happened beforehand many times. I even had to flip back to make sure that I actually understood what I had already read.

I definitely don't think that Hit is a terrible book, but it could use some refining. I'm sure that many people will love this new novel and will devour it for its new and strange concept, but it just wasn't for me. I can even forgive the inconsistencies (at this point), but I really can't look past the lack of thrill and on-the-edge-of-my-seat excitement that I was expecting for a book about a teenage assassin. I probably won't be continuing this series to see how things develop and change for Patsy.

 

Delilah S. Dawson writes whimsical and dark Fantasy for adults and teens. Her Blud series for Pocket includes Wicked as They Come, Wicked After Midnight, and Wicked as She Wants, winner of the RT Book Reviews Steampunk Book of the Year and May Seal of Excellence for 2013. Her YA debut, Servants of the Storm, is a Southern Gothic Horror set in Savannah, GA, with another YA from Simon Pulse in April 2015, a pre-dystopian called HIT. Her Geekrotica series under pseudonym Ava Lovelace includes The Lumberfox and The Superfox with The Dapperfox on the way.

Delilah teaches writing classes at LitReactor and wrote the Island of Mesmer world for Storium.

Delilah lives with her husband, two small children, a horse, a dog, and two cats in Atlanta.