Thursday, February 28, 2013

Book Review: Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes





Title: Nobody
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
# Of Pages: 400
Publisher: Egmont USA
Publication Date: January 22, 2013
Source: Library
Level: Young Adult
Rating: 2 Hearts





Synopsis

(From Amazon.com)

There are people in this world who are Nobody. No one sees them. No one notices them. They live their lives under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away.

That's why they make the perfect assassins.

The Institute finds these people when they're young and takes them away for training. But an untrained Nobody is a threat to their organization. And threats must be eliminated.

Sixteen-year-old Claire has been invisible her whole life, missed by the Institute's monitoring. But now they've ID'ed her and send seventeen-year-old Nix to remove her. Yet the moment he lays eyes on her, he can't make the hit. It's as if Claire and Nix are the only people in the world for each other. And they are--because no one else can really see them.

My Verdict

From the synopsis I was expecting this fast-paced, teenage assassin adventure, but what I found was a slow moving, overly complicated, sci-fi heavy book that failed to deliver.

Nix is a nobody, a person that is looked through rather than at, who will be instantly forgotten, someone who would make the perfect assassin. Nix always completes his mission no questions asked, but when he gets orders to kill sixteen-year-old Claire, he disobeys his orders. Why? She looked at him, not through him, but directly at him. Turns out, Claire’s a nobody too.

I feel like this plot held a lot of potential that fell flat during execution. The existence of the non-human characters like the nobodies, sensors, and nulls, weren’t really explained beyond “some people are born wrong.”

The story is told through the eyes of both Nix and Claire. Having been told he was nothing his whole life, Nix has a pretty degrading thought process, with a mantra of “You are less than air. Less than shadow.” How depressing is that?

Nix and Claire’s relationship was not one I could relate to or care about. I understand that they were supposed to have this deep connection because they were both nobodies, but their attraction to one another was just too hard to fathom. As Nix had his hands around Claire’s neck about to kill her, she was thinking about how much she liked his touch and wished he would kiss her. Um, hello?!? HE’S TRYING TO STRANGLE YOU, or did you miss that part?

For a 400-page book, I felt there wasn’t enough action or even pacing. Most of it went by really slowly and didn’t really do much to further the plotline. I think a significant cut could have been made without losing anything key.

For some unknown reason, I finished this book, though I’m not completely sure why… 

6 comments:

  1. I really don't like that example of that relationship you mentioned. :(

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  2. Sigh... I was really expecting when I saw that you reviewed Nobody that you were going to like it. The summary does sound amazing and I've been anticipating reading it for awhile. I really hope it's just you because it sounds so good in my head! Nix does sound like he needs to see therapy with that mantra... Haha! I can't help but laugh at the messed up relationship they have. If someone tries to strangle you I wouldn't think wanting to kiss that person is the first thought that would pop in my head. We will see if I read it...

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    1. Sorry to disappoint =( I feel like it had the potential to be great! Haha, yup. I don't think that would be the typical reaction to a strangler =/

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  3. Ugh. That's really unhealthy! I'm being strangled to death, but just look at him! He's beautiful, and I just can't wait to give him a big kiss! Ick. Thank you for the warning, Amanda! ;D Fabulous review!

    Loves,
    Megan@The Book Babe

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    1. Unhealthy indeed! I couldn't really get past that and think their relationship was cute, sweet, or even realistic. Ah well.

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