Book Review - Boy Nobody

Boy Nobody
Author: Allen Zadoff
Series: Unknown Assassin #1
Genres: Mystery, Thriller | Young Adult
Release Date: 23rd May 2013
Publishers: Orchard Books
No. Pages: 352
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
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Who is Boy Nobody?
The perennial new kid at school:
New town, new name... new mission.
The perfect assassin:
Kill your target and move on.
No fear. No sympathy. No remorse.

But this time is different. The stakes are deadlier. The memories are surfacing.
Boy Nobody is about to find out who he really is.

I recently started myself a to-be-read jar, and in the jar, I had put the names of books that I felt I was avoiding reading for one reason or another, and February's choice was Boy Nobody. I won't deny it, I wasn't at all happy with choice, but that was what I had expected, that was the whole jar was created for, however, I preceded and tried it, and let me tell you, 5 chapters in, there was no way I wasn't going to finish this book, it was fantastic.

I'm going to open with what I feel most people won't enjoy about this book, the little information we have on who 'Ben' really is. There's probably thousands of reviews out there alongside this book complaining about the lack of descriptions of 'Ben', about his personality, about him as a person, and personally, while I can see why that would frustrate people, I actually completely understood why Zadoff had done it; Ben is undercover, he can't be found out, he must blend in, there must be nothing about him that makes him stand out from any other person on the streets, and I appreciated that. You'd think that this lack of information would affect the connection I formed with our main character, yet it didn't; I was totally connected to 'Ben'; I could feel his pain, his loss, his confusion, I experienced his thought processes, was there during his most powerful action scenes, and I really could connect him quite easily.

If taking to the main character 'Ben' and all the other characters within the story so well wasn't enough, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the plot. I'd never read a thriller type book, and in the past, different genre's have done me well, and so I wasn't totally surprised when this book turned out to be one I instantly enjoyed. It was extremely interesting, enthralling, and the most powerful and full scenes were amazing to read; I would be sat on the bus and I'd start to get uncomfortable because the scene was getting hot, the atmosphere would change, the surroundings around 'Ben' would become darker and more confusing, and I loved that little touch. The secrets surrounding his past also interested me, and if it wasn't for finding out that there's a sequel coming this year, I would complained about how there were plenty of unanswered questions, however, I'm now even more excited to see how Zadoff continues with Ben's' adventures and missions, and how he develops some of his small plot points featured.

Zadoff seriously delivered the goods with Boy Nobody, creating some insane plot twists, fantastic characters developments, and while I struggled to come to terms with the change in past tense to present from flashbacks and memories, the overall experience was fantastic. Zadoff kept me interested throughout the novel, making me not want to put it down or stop reading, enabling me to read it within five hours, and I think it's fair to say I really really did enjoy this. It's not quite a favourite, and it's not quite the full 5 star mission he may have been after, but I seriously did enjoy almost every moment, and I'm most definitely waiting impatiently for The Lost Mission.