"Dark YA that is scarily realistic"

By: Delilah S. Dawson

Genres: Young Adult | Young Adult Science Fiction

Posted: June 19, 2015

When a strange person from Valor National Banks shows up at Patsy's house and holds a gun to her in-debt mother's chest, Patsy agrees to their deal: save her life by becoming a bounty hunter assassin for the bank for five days, targeting ten people. When the ten people Patsy must kill are all somehow tied to her, she must repeatedly make the horrible choice of kill or be killed. When it comes to the final two people on the list, her ex-best friend and the brother of the guy she is somehow falling for, Patsy will have to make the toughest decisions of all.

HIT by Delilah S. Dawson is one of the darkest young adult books I've read. No matter how terrifying dystopian or post-apocalyptic novels are, it is the stories that are still in the end of a country or end of the world that make you want to crawl under the covers and hide. HIT's premise is horrifyingly realistic, revolving around the extreme control banks have over nations. This makes the setting of a silent upheaval in the middle of a normal neighborhood with 'rich' and poor areas turn into a nightmare scene that Dawson nails.

Patsy is the kind of protagonist I love: morally ambiguous, strong, big-hearted, and full of faults. Her emotions are realistic and sincere, and I easily found myself lost in her world and circumstances. I also love the insight given to each of the people on Patsy's bounty hunter list. They each represent acquiring large amounts of debt in different ways that are certain to get readers' minds spinning. The perfect dashes of romance also offer a deeper look at humanity and the conditions in which humans can form a connection and find someone they like.

Readers who can stomach serious, psychological questions should grab HIT immediately. Though I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for something light, this is hands down one of my favorite books of the year. Delilah S. Dawson creates a world all too familiar with characters ready to show you their heart or shoot your own.

Book Summary

In order to save her mother, a teen is forced to become an indentured assassin in this sizzling dystopian thriller.

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 voicemail, 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 anarchy 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.

Hit by Delilah S. Dawson

Hit

by: Delilah S. Dawson

Simon Pulse
April 1, 2015
On Sale: April 14, 2015
Featuring: Wyatt; Patsy
336 pages
ISBN: 1481423398
EAN: 9781481423397
Kindle: B00KU4O14C
Hardcover / e-Book

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