Tuesday 9 August 2011

Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson


4th August 2011, Simon and Schuster
320 pages, Paperback (also eBook)
Review copy 

Young Adult 

Thriller, special powers (telekinesis etc), special forces, rebel force, murderers, kidnapping, fugitives, webs of lies and secrets, the strength of protection from a brother, tragedy, lots of action and tense scenes,  teen romance, occasional moderate violence, 

Summary from Simon and Schuster
17-year-old Lila has two secrets she's prepared to take to the grave. The first is that she can move things just by looking at them. The second is that she's been in love with her brother's best friend, Alex, since forever. Or thereabouts.After a mugging on the streets of South London goes horribly wrong and exposes her unique ability, Lila decides to run to the only people she can trust - her brother and Alex. They live in Southern California where they work for a secret organisation called The Unit, and Lila discovers that the two of them are hunting down the men who murdered her mother five years before. And that they've found them. Trying to uncover the truth of why her mother was killed, and the real remit of The Unit, Lila becomes a pawn in a dangerous game. Struggling to keep her secrets in a world where nothing and no one is quite as they seem, Lila quickly realises that she is not alone - there are others out there just like her - people with special powers -and her mother's killer is one of them…

Nayuleska's reasons for loving Lila - like me she's impulsive, she finds out the answers she wants no matter how long it takes her or what she has to do to get the answers. Considering all that she goes through, she's quite remarkable in landing on her feet. 

How evil/nasty is the enemy? Murderers are understandably bad news. An enemy intent on containing all threats that comes their way is in some ways worse than if the enemy just wanted to kill the threat. 

Are there plenty of plot twists and surprises? Yes! Tonnes. This is chock full of action, both actual and emotional, stacks of intrigue from the first chapter. I really adore this book because of the plot twists, and the strength of Lila's character. 

One of my favourite parts was...when Lila was in or near a bathroom. This sounds odd, but I had great fun reading this book, because as I read, I tweeted and Sarah replied to me. For some strange reason it felt like Lila was often in or near a bathroom. There probably aren't that many occasions, it's something that sticks in my mind. 

I give this a 10/10, I urge everyone to read it, the sequel comes out next year, and Sarah is releasing a totally different novel next year too! 

Make sure you hope over to Sarah's website to learn more about her books. 

Suggested reads

The Medusa Project series by Sophie McKenzie - the latest one is Double-Cross 


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