Series: Blackbird Duology (bk. 1)
Genera(s): Mystery Thriller/Realistic Fiction
Subjects: suspense, action, memory, amnesia, murder,
identity,
Setting: Los Angelus, California
POV/Tense: 2nd person POV, present tense: a
girl with amnesia
Age/Grade Level: Teen
Length: 245 pgs.
HC/PB: Hardcover
List Price: $17.99
Publisher: HarperTeen
Summary/ product description: “This twisty, breathless
cat-and-mouse thrill ride, told in the second person, follows a girl with
amnesia in present-day Los Angeles who is being pursued by mysterious and
terrifying assailants.
A girl
wakes up on the train tracks, a subway car barreling down on her. With only
minutes to react, she hunches down and the train speeds over her. She doesn’t
remember her name, where she is, or how she got there. She has a tattoo on the
inside of her right wrist of a blackbird inside a box, letters and numbers
printed just below: FNV02198. There is only one thing she knows for sure:
people are trying to kill her.
On the
run for her life, she tries to untangle who she is and what happened to the
girl she used to be. Nothing and no one are what they appear to be. But the
truth is more disturbing than she ever imagined.
The Maze
Runner series meets Code Name Verity, Blackbird is relentless and
action-packed, filled with surprising twists.”
My Review: Blackbird is a fast paced book filled with
non-stop action. The story went where I did not expect it, and I’m almost
disappointed that it’s not sci-fi, but it did have a Born Identity feel to it.
Our main character has no memory of her life. She doesn’t know her name. She
starts calling herself Sunny when a guy at a supermarket asks her. This guy,
Ben, helps her when she tells him about her predicament. There’s a slight romance with Ben. Sunny/She’s
been framed for robbery and is being hunted down. There is a lot of mystery and
action scenes. It keeps you wondering what’s going on and who’s in on it. Who
can she trust?
The one extremely unique thing about this book is that
it’s written in the 2nd person (and present tense). I have not read
a 2nd person book since elementary school, and that was a
choose-your-own-adventure book. I’m surprised that all the You’s didn’t annoy
me. It read pretty well. It puts you in the character’s shoes. This book would
not work well in 3rd person. It would have been okay in the 1st
person. Using 2nd person was a big risk for the author.
Because this is a duology (2-book series), it ended
with a bit of a cliff-hanger. We find out a little about the main character’s
past, but we still don’t have a name and nothing is really resolved. I kind of
wish it was just one longer standalone. I like short books, but sometimes a
book is just too short.
I want to relate this book to other things, and I hope
they’re not spoilery. It made me think of The Purge: Anarchy, and also Arrow.
And then The Forsaken series by Lisa M. Stasse. Also if you like action
thrillers in YA, like Don’t Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon or Find Me by Romily
Bernard, then give Blackbird a shot.
Cover Art Review: I love the title treatment and the
girl photo. I wish it were metallic, though.
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