nobody by jennifer lynn barnes giveaway

Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes was a one night read for me – the fast-paced action with a hint of sci-fi kept me glued to the page well past midnight (on a weeknight, no less!).  Egmont USA has been kind enough to allow me to host a giveaway for both a hardcopy of Nobody and a newly released paperback of Every Other Day. Check out my review of Nobody and the summaries of both books below.  Also feel free to check out Jennifer on twitter (and the great folks at Egmont).  Giveaway at the end of the post!

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 ever notices them.

Every other day, Kali D’Angelo is a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She goes to public high school. She argues with her father. She’s human. 

And then every day in between... she’s something else entirely. 

Though she still looks like herself, every twenty-four hours predatory instincts take over and Kali becomes a feared demon-hunter with the undeniable urge to hunt, trap, and kill zombies, hellhounds, and other supernatural creatures. Kali has no idea why she is the way she is, but she gives in to instinct anyway. Even though the government considers it environmental terrorism. 

When Kali notices a mark on the lower back of a popular girl at school, she knows instantly that the girl is marked for death by one of these creatures. Kali has twenty-four hours to save her, and unfortunately she’ll have to do it as a human. With the help of a few new friends, Kali takes a risk that her human body might not survive... and learns the secrets of her mysterious condition in the process.

Would you like to win a hardcover copy of Jennifer Lynn Barnes' new release Nobody and a paperback of Every Other Day? Simply fill out the FORM! One winner will receive both titles.  Giveaway open to US & Canadian mailing addresses only, and will end on February 24th, 2013 at 11:59pm EST.  Winner will be selected randomly and notified via email.  Good luck!

Fine print: All books are provided by the publisher (Egmont USA); I did not receive any compensation for posting this giveaway.

nobody

If you’ve ever taken public transportation in a city during rush hour, you’ve probably noticed the soullessness and anonymity that grips people and turns them into waking zombies.  They’ll ignore anything, put on headphones, turn away, shuffle on… These non-interactions always make me feel a little lonely, even if I am one of the horde.  I am there too with my ever-present phone or book – but I always do a quick scan to see if anyone will smile, make eye contact.  It reminds me a bit of the outsider-ness of high school, and it may well be what inspired Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Nobody – the question ‘What if you were, for all intents and purposes, invisible?’  What if no one noticed or cared?  And then… what if that were a sort of superpower?

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 ever notices them.

Claire has always been good and sweet, and this summer she is hoping that it will finally make a difference to her parents, or to anyone, really.  Nix is a trained killer who has unnatural abilities, nightmares, and anger issues.  These two Nobodies have spent their entire lives isolated, suffering in different ways from the fact that they are a type of extremely rare, unnoticeable being.  When Nix is dispatched by the Institute to kill Claire, no one is more surprised than he to find that she isn’t what he was led to believe – and that discovery will spark something massive, something that will change Nix and Claire forever.

The concept of a Nobody as a non-human entity is intriguing.  I assume that most teens have felt like outsiders from time to time (I certainly did), and in a way, this story is based on the same premise, only multiplied by several thousand degrees.  Nobody has an appeal that reminds me of the X-Men universe, and the movement, omnipresent danger, romance and teenage assassins all mashed together are almost irresistible.  If you can follow the leaps of probability, it’s a thrill ride of read.

On the other hand, if you are the sort who likes to sift through the world-building for plausible infrastructure, Nobody may strike some sour notes.  The reach of the Society, Nix’s tattoos, insta-like – these inexplicable bits/weaknesses may turn some readers off.  I wasn’t bothered until after I’d finished the book, which goes to show that it is possible to finish in one gulp due to spot-on pacing and a take-no-prisoners plot.

As for characters, Nix is the broken but honorable killer, and Claire the sheltered, frustrated, quiet one with untapped inner strength.  While their maturity might not have been as believable in a contemporary young adult novel, their unique upbringing and Nobody nature allow for some leeway.  One of the book’s themes was that there are no blameless adults, and very few (if any) blameless teens.  This is an adventure-thriller, but it also takes a hard look human nature, often showing the dark, dangerous side.

Barnes’ prose flows between seamlessly between thought, action and speech.  It won’t win any awards for beauty, but it accomplishes its purpose: to create an atmosphere full of danger, to make you care for the characters, and to pull the reader along into the conflict of a world other than his/her own.

Recommended for: fans of young adult thrillers and dystopian/paranormal fiction, those who enjoyed Neal Schusterman’s Unwind and Kathy Reichs’ Virals, or anyone who imagined Kiersten White’s Paranormalcy a little bit darker and deadlier.

Fine print: I received an ARC of Nobody for review from Egmont USA.