”You learn many things with a knife in your shoulder. You learn how to save your life. Or how to die. But that’s what it means to be a soldier. You train for situations like that, and you hope that when they arrive--if they arrive--you will be ready.”
I enjoyed Boy Nobody quite a bit. It wasn’t without its faults, but the essence of the novel was truly one that I liked. It was over the top and filled with action, with a male protagonist that had the emotional stability of a sociopath, but he was still likeable. And it's pretty freaking cool that Allen Zadoff could walk that line, and do it so well.
Our boy soldier/assassin/patriot/psychopath is Benjamin (not his real name). He was forced into The Program at the age of 12, after another boy soldier/assassin/patriot/psychopath killed his parents. Benjamin is given the option to join or die, and the well, even with his choice, initially to die with his parents, it ended up being JOIN. In other words, he doesn't really get a choice.
Now 16, Benjamin has been with The Program for 4 years, and he is given missions by two individuals - Mother and Father. They run The Program and they’re little psychopaths with military efficiency. The soldiers/assassins/patriots are given secret apps on their phones and some awesome spy shit to accomplish their missions, which involve death, and Benjamin, he does it damn well. He’s a highly trained soldier after all.
And I loved when Benjamin was that character. The assassin, the borderline sociopath. I loved seeing his mind work in an efficient order only. I liked that I was clearly reading in a male point of view, and one with his feelings having been removed from the equation. It was nice to read.
Then his newest mission is given to him by Father, and there’s a bit of a shift in the character when a girl becomes involved. Samara. She’s his new target. She’s his in to get close to the mayor of NYC who happens to be the man he needs to kill. And Benjamin and Samara, while they spat a bit, since it’s over the course of 4 days, I’m calling their pseudo-weird relationship on insta-lust. It was definitely not love, but it was freaking cheesy, and their interactions had me eye rolling a bit.
Maybe it’s because I was happy with my psychopath being a psychopath and seeing him with emotions just annoyed me, but first reading their interactions was a bit hard to swallow on the realistic scale. And I get why that relationship needed to happen. It did end up giving Benjamin an added depth to his character, and I'm sure it's going to play a more significant part in future books. However, it felt rushed, and because of that, I just don't think it was done well.
Other than that though, I really liked this story. I thought Allen Zadoff did a great job with this first book in a series, and I’m absolutely looking forward to reading the next novel in the series, [b:I Am the Mission|18634740|I Am the Mission (The Unknown Assassin, #2)|Allen Zadoff|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1399328324s/18634740.jpg|26431028].