"Boy Nobody" A Story Like No Other

Boy NobodyTitle:  Boy Nobody
(Boy Nobody #1)
Author:  Allen Zadoff
Format:  ERC
Length:  337 pages
Publisher:  Little Brown & Co BFYR
Rating:  5 Stars

Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school, in a new town, under a new name, makes few friends and doesn't stay long. Just long enough for someone in his new friend's family to die -- of "natural causes." Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, and moves on to the next target.

When his own parents died of not-so-natural causes at the age of eleven, Boy Nobody found himself under the control of The Program, a shadowy government organization that uses brainwashed kids as counter-espionage operatives. But somewhere, deep inside Boy Nobody, is somebody: the boy he once was, the boy who wants normal things (like a real home, his parents back), a boy who wants out. And he just might want those things badly enough to sabotage The Program's next mission  -Goodreads

  My Thoughts

This read is the place where every great spy/assassin movie that one has ever watched meets well written YA.
For this assignment his name is Ben, for the last, he was someone else, from somewhere else.  Sent to do a job, complete his mission quickly and quietly and get out.
Allen Zadoff does an excellent job of maintaining his agent's ambiguity by not giving proper names to his agency, The Program, or his handlers, Mother and Father.

Though Ben's role as an assassin is the plot twist that initially hooks the reader; it is Ben's inner struggle with his loneliness and questions about his past that serve to hold one for the long haul. 
 On the surface, things seem very cut and dry, but the further beyond said surface you delve with Ben,
the more you see the struggle to stay afloat beneath.

His assignment was supposed to be simple.  Get close to his daughter...and kill the mayor of New York.  
A pice of cake.
At least until he meets her.
She is a girl after his own heart.  The one that he could break all the rules for.  The one he could tell the truth to.  The one who makes him question everything.
The one who could kill him.
 This is a read that keeps the reader guessing, never quite sure what's coming or what action will lead to what reaction, and from whom.
The five day window for Ben's assignment sets a breakneck pace for this story, making each occurrence all the more important to the outcome of the saga.  This rapid story pacing also gives the author license for a rather believable case of insta-love.
The trick to enjoying this read.
1.  Open book.
2.  Clear your mind
3.  Start to read
4.  Hang on for the ride
5. Trust NO ONE


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