The Hit by Melvin Burgess

March 10, 2014     erinbook     Book review

 

The Hit by Melvin Burgess


Release Date: February 25, 2014
Publisher: Chicken House
304 Pages
Received: NetGalley ARC
Format: E-ARC


Rating: 

3.5 Stars
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Description: Live the ultimate high. Pay the ultimate price. The shocking return to YA by the author of SMACK.
 
A new drug is on the street. Everyone’s buzzing about it. Take the hit. Live the most intense week of your life. Then die. It’s the ultimate high at the ultimate price. Adam thinks it over. He’s poor, and doesn’t see that changing. Lizzie, his girlfriend, can’t make up her mind about sleeping with him, so he can’t get laid. His brother Jess is missing. And Manchester is in chaos, controlled by drug dealers and besieged by a group of homegrown terrorists who call themselves the Zealots. Wouldn’t one amazing week be better than this endless, penniless misery? After Adam downs one of the Death pills, he’s about to find out.
 
Review: For the most part I really enjoyed this book. It’s an interesting statement on the way people knowingly do self destructive things. People happily take a drug that they know will kill them for the chance to have one perfect week. What does that say about how pleasure is seen? However, I do have some things to say that are less than stellar about the book.
My biggest hang-up is that one of the main characters is just plain stupid. Adam is an idiot. He’s reckless and he puts everyone around him in danger. Lizzie, his girlfriend, isn’t much better. She goes along with Adam’s idiocy and in some ways encourages it. I don’t find them very likable, mostly just annoying. And really that’s sad because he rest of the story, the world, and the other characters are interesting and make it worth the read. I just wish the two main characters were written as well.
The book is very slow at first and a bit hard to get through. However, if you give it a chance you get some very weird and enjoyable characters, not to mention the fantastic baddie. I’d say give it a chance but don’t have huge expectations going in.
Have you read The Hit? Let me know what you thought in the comments!
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