YA Review: Nobody by Jennifer L. Barnes, and also giving away a copy of Every Other Day!

Title: Nobody
Author: Jennifer L Barnes
Series: n/a?
Book #: 1
Pages: 384
Reading Level: YA
Book Rating:
Goodreads Rating: 3.46
Published: Jan. 22nd, 2013

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

Taschima's POV:

What can I say about this title? The ideas in it were interesting (Nobodies and Nulls), some of it lagged on the beginning (plus it was a tad depressing) but it quickly picked up it's pace once our two main characters meet. The cover may be as easily dismissible as a Nobody, but the content grabs as much attention as a full on Null. Overall Nobody is a good title but for me it didn't make me think "fireworks!" more like a good title to pass the time, and well worth the read because it's such a quick one.

Nobodies are people who are forgettable, barely there, less than air. Claire has felt all this and much more her entire life. She is nothing but a reminder sticky note on the back of her parent's front door, not worth more than a "Have a nice summer!" cliche phrase on her yearbook. Always alone, she has never had the chance to share an actual connection with somebody, that is until Nix points a gun at her head. Nix is the boy who is less than shadow. Ever since he was a little boy he has been taught what his value is- zero. He is the Society's weapon and nothing more. And he damn well knows it. He isn't worth other's attention, or even love, so imagine his surprise when his next target looks him right at the eye and screams. The society is supposed to protect humanity from all the evil Nulls in the Earth, and that is why they trained Nix since he was a little boy to hate them and kill them. Only, nothing is ever as easy or black and white as that, is it?

On the other side of the spectrum are Nulls and Sensors. Nulls are the exact opposite of Nobodies. They are attention whores, everybody loves them and do whatever they want. Only they are empty inside, they only care about their needs and wants, screw everybody else. Sensors are people who have the ability to find Nulls and Nobodies. Woopdedo, I guess someone had to.

So you can imagine how depressing this novel is at the beginning. Specially when it comes to Nix. Claire is depressing as well, but damn the girl tries. She tries her little heart out to be something more, to leave a mark on somebody, to matter at least a little bit. Always making promises to herself that next year will be different, only to disappoint herself again. I felt for Claire. Haven't all of us at some point felt like that? Like if you were to disappear the world could go on just fine without you? Like you are not leaving your print? Well, that is on one level what Nobody deals with. It also deals with you being okay with the fact that everyone is alone, once in a while, and that you have to learn how to happy in your own skin. I appreciated this as the introvert I am- extroverts (nulls? ;) )might disagree a tad.

Nix, is well, the tortured hero. Like, seriously tortured. He has a lot of things to deal with in this book alone, and I think he handled it as best as he could. I am not in love with him or anything, but I can see myself respecting the guy. I didn't connect with him like I did with Claire.

The romance in the novel is what people are calling "insta-love". They meet, they have an instant attraction to each other (hello? They are both nobodies! Nobody has ever paid attention to them their entire lives! How do you think you would react?) and then soon they are ready to die for one another. In the context of the novel I think it works. It has valid reasons why it should, not everybody is going to be a fan (specially the people who automatically hiss at the mention of the word) but then again life isn't perfect. I say given the circumstances I am letting the insta love slide (they love each other in less than a week... I am not helping my case am I?).

Nobody is action packed. It only lags a bit at the beginning and after that is a quick read. The ending was entertaining, with a few twists you wouldn't have expected. As to Nobody not having a sequel, has this been confirmed? I mean, it doesn't necessarily need one, but at the same time it totally does. The way things ended left a lot to the imagination when it comes to the future of humanity.

Final Verdict: Quick read with interesting material. You must give it a try, maybe download a sample first and see if it rocks your boat!