Hunting Lila

by Sarah Alderson

17-year-old Lila has two secrets she's prepared to take to the grave. The first is that she can move things just by looking at them. The second is that she's been in love with her brother's best friend, Alex, since forever. After a mugging exposes her unique ability, Lila decides to run to the only people she can trust - her brother and Alex. They live in Southern California where they work for a secret organisation called The Unit, and Lila discovers that the two of them are hunting down the men who murdered her mother five years before. And that they've found them. In a world where nothing and no one is quite as they seem, Lila quickly realises that she is not alone - there are others out there just like her - people with special powers -and her mother's killer is one of them…

• ISBN10: 0857071955
• ISBN13: 9780857071958
• Publish Date: 4 August 2011
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leigha]

A telekinetic young woman loves her brother's best friend in this young adult fantasy.

I love books featuring psychics, but this one is not for me. It felt too juvenile. The first half of the book centers around the relationship (or lack there of) between Lila and Alex. Lila's thoughts are 70% boy crazy and 30% psychic. I didn’t necessarily mind the romance between her and Alex. In fact, I think it did a better job building the romance between them than most little-sister-loves-big-brother’s-best-friend tropes. However, the book should have spent as much time showing the development of Lila's psychic ability in addition to building the romance.

The second half of the book builds up the driving conflict and secondary characters. While the conflict and various antagonists are intriguing, it never developed into an enticing story. The romance, plot, and characterizations all need a little more work. And I have no real driving desire to read the second book in the series to see if the author does a better job. I suspect Lila and Alex eventually live happily ever after.

tl;dr With a boy crazy narrator and a convoluted plot, this book scaled a little too juvenile for me.

[Jo]

Until very recently, I had heard very little about Hunting Lila. I may possibly have been living under a rock, because at publishing events, people wouldtalk about how good it is, but I'd not seen much talk of it online. I didn't even have a copy on my TBR pile, I'd heard so little about it. But recently I've been stalking the blogs run by Brodie and Lisa, Eleusinian Mysteries and Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me, who have featured several posts about Sarah Alderson's novels in their joint February Valentine's Event. The deleted scenes and character Q&As - as well as the ladies' enthusiam for Alderson's novels - covinced me I had to read them, so I picked up Hunting Lila. It was fantastic! This book is just so awesome, I'm not really sure where to start, so much to talk about!

With the first half of the book, I was surprised with how contemporary it seemed, despite Lila's ability. She keeps her strange ability a secret, and makes up excuses as to why she's suddenly visiting her brother Jack, and Jack and Alex are quite secretive about what it is The Unit does. Although Lila wants to find out because of strange things that have been happening - why on earth are there SUVs guarding the house? - the fantasy element is kept underwraps for a good while, so we get to the characters as normal people. Which is just awesome, because hello, Alex! Lila has been in love wih him for pretty much her whole life, and it's not hard to see why - the boy is hot! He's protective, strong, sweet, and just absolutely lovely, with the physicique that comes with being in the military! Alderson is just fantastic at writing hot guys, because the pages just sizzle whenever Lila is with him, even though he's completely oblivious. The effect he has on Lila - and us readers - i just... wow. I want me some Alex!

Then the fantasy element hits with full force. Jack and Alex are trying to catch Lila and Jack's mother's murderer, Demos, and oooh, he's a bad man. And he has an ability too. One, it seems, that make him unbeatable. Even before we see him, we're scared of him, simply because of the way everyone who knows about him talks about him. He is Dangerous - yes, with a capital D. Throughout reading Hunting Lila, I was constantly reminded of the American TV show, Heroes.There are bad people with abilities, and there is an organisation set up to stop them. Hunting Lila is just as fast paced and just as exciting as Heroes, if not more so. Even though they have different abilities, Demos is just as freaky as Sylar.

But just when you're thinking "oh my god, can things get any worse?" BAM! Alderson chucks in a twist! I did not see it coming at all! The excitement level is hitched up a notch, and you're worrying for completely different reasons! Your emotions are turned up on their head, and you don't know what to feel or who to trust, and you're scared for the one's Lila loves, because oh dear god, things get dangerous! And then BAM! Another twist! The biggest twist ever! You're thrown back against your seat with the wind knocked out of you! And then a cliffhanger that leaves you dying for more! And yes, I am using far too many exclaimation makrs, but that's because I am just so in love with this book!

If you haven't read this book yet, you seriously need to go out and get it right now, because Hunting Lila goes above and beyond amazing! I cannot recommend this book enough!

From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog