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The Hit
Take it. Live it. F*** it.
A new drug is out. Everyone is talking about it. The Hit. Take it, and you have one amazing week to live. It's the ultimate high. At the ultimate price.
Adam is tempted. Life is rubbish, his girlfriend's over him, his brother's gone. So what's he got to lose? Everything, as it turns out. It's up to his girlfriend, Lizzie, to show him...
A new drug is out. Everyone is talking about it. The Hit. Take it, and you have one amazing week to live. It's the ultimate high. At the ultimate price.
Adam is tempted. Life is rubbish, his girlfriend's over him, his brother's gone. So what's he got to lose? Everything, as it turns out. It's up to his girlfriend, Lizzie, to show him...
303 pages, Paperback
First published April 4, 2013
67 people are currently reading
1,932 people want to read
About the author
Melvin Burgess
86books431followersMelvin Burgess is a British author of children's fiction. His first book, The Cry of the Wolf, was published in 1990. He gained a certain amount of notoriety in 1996 with the publication of Junk, which was published in the shadow of the film of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, and dealt with the trendy and controversial idea of heroin-addicted teenagers. Junk soon became, at least in Britain, one of the best-known children's books of the decade.
Burgess again courted predictable controversy in 2003, with the publication of Doing It, which dealt with underage sex. America created a show based on the book, Life As We Know It. In his other books, such as Bloodtide and The Ghost Behind the Wall, Burgess has dealt with less realist and sometimes fantastic themes. In 2001 Burgess wrote the novelisation of the film Billy Elliot, based on Lee Hall's screenplay. Polyphony is typical for his most famous novels.
Burgess again courted predictable controversy in 2003, with the publication of Doing It, which dealt with underage sex. America created a show based on the book, Life As We Know It. In his other books, such as Bloodtide and The Ghost Behind the Wall, Burgess has dealt with less realist and sometimes fantastic themes. In 2001 Burgess wrote the novelisation of the film Billy Elliot, based on Lee Hall's screenplay. Polyphony is typical for his most famous novels.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 360 reviews
March 28, 2013
The Hit is about a boy called Adam, who isn’t exactly with happy his life. The girl he likes doesn’t seem to be too impressed with him and his brother is gone. When he hears that there’s a new drug in town, called Death, he’s tempted to try it. It will give you one amazing week� and then you die.
I thought the concept of the book sounded very interesting, but soon after I started reading, I was quite disappointed. The main characters, Adam and Lizzie, are some of the ‘flattest� characters I’ve ever read about, which made me not care about them at all. They are pouty, angry and read more like an adult’s image of a teenager than actual teenagers. Some decisions they made seem to be completely random (Adam has a plan to get Lizzie pregnant because she is rich, but when she hear about it and gets angry, he just drops it and it’s never mentioned again) and a lot of the story line seems to be present just to shock the young readers. It feels like the book was written for 10-years-old, but with topics for teenagers.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when an author hints at a certain ‘secret detail� so often that there is NO POSSIBLE WAY you can miss it. It takes all the mystery from any possible ‘revelation� and frankly makes it seems like he is talking down to his audience. I don’t care if the intended audience is younger than I am, it doesn’t hurt to make them work a little bit and surprise them once in a while.
The only thing I enjoyed about this book were the two ‘bad guys�, the rich and psychotic Christian and his body guard Vince. Vince reminded me a lot of Butler, from the Artemis Fowl series, which might have helped my appreciation for him. Christian keeps Lizzie hostage and mistreats her in some really messed up ways. What makes his character interesting is that he is extremely unstable and can go from perfectly harmless to crazy axe murderer in a matter of seconds. I mostly enjoyed Vince’s presence in the story because I couldn’t quite figure out who’s side he’s was on. I guess I liked both characters because they were the only unpredictable factors in the book.
In conclusion, The Hit is a very fast read with some interesting ideas, but it left me extremely frustrated with almost every aspect of the plot and writing.
I thought the concept of the book sounded very interesting, but soon after I started reading, I was quite disappointed. The main characters, Adam and Lizzie, are some of the ‘flattest� characters I’ve ever read about, which made me not care about them at all. They are pouty, angry and read more like an adult’s image of a teenager than actual teenagers. Some decisions they made seem to be completely random (Adam has a plan to get Lizzie pregnant because she is rich, but when she hear about it and gets angry, he just drops it and it’s never mentioned again) and a lot of the story line seems to be present just to shock the young readers. It feels like the book was written for 10-years-old, but with topics for teenagers.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when an author hints at a certain ‘secret detail� so often that there is NO POSSIBLE WAY you can miss it. It takes all the mystery from any possible ‘revelation� and frankly makes it seems like he is talking down to his audience. I don’t care if the intended audience is younger than I am, it doesn’t hurt to make them work a little bit and surprise them once in a while.
The only thing I enjoyed about this book were the two ‘bad guys�, the rich and psychotic Christian and his body guard Vince. Vince reminded me a lot of Butler, from the Artemis Fowl series, which might have helped my appreciation for him. Christian keeps Lizzie hostage and mistreats her in some really messed up ways. What makes his character interesting is that he is extremely unstable and can go from perfectly harmless to crazy axe murderer in a matter of seconds. I mostly enjoyed Vince’s presence in the story because I couldn’t quite figure out who’s side he’s was on. I guess I liked both characters because they were the only unpredictable factors in the book.
In conclusion, The Hit is a very fast read with some interesting ideas, but it left me extremely frustrated with almost every aspect of the plot and writing.
May 23, 2013
I wanted so badly to be able to give this book 5 stars. And not only because it was my birthday book. And it has my surname in. Even if it's the bad guys. My name isn't exactly common and doesn't pop up in print often.
is one of my firm favourite authors and his books always shock, filled with controversy. But this book didn't quite live up to my expectations, and perhaps it's my own expectations which have disappointed me. I couldn't help but compare The Hit to , they're by the same author and focus on the same type of gritty world of drugs and crime and nastiness. Don't get me wrong, this book is awesome. It's really good, fast paced and shocking.
The beginning reminded me a lot of , with the huge influential pop-star doing something crazy and attention grabbing to secure his immortal memory.
There was something about the overall finish of this edition (perhaps it's different for others) which felt sloppy and rushed. There were bits like this: "What are going to do" "She was aware that were really rather hidden" "there'd only ever had". I think that the fantastic fast pace of this book covered up more of these sloppy lapses of sense, but when they popped up they seriously distracted me. I found myself reading the same paragraph over and again in-case I had misread and the dodgy sentences would make sense, but no :( Maybe it's because it used to be my job working in pre-press to check for errors that I spotted them and you'll have better luck.
That aside, this book has some delicious imagery. He was wearing a suit so sharp you could have tied his lapels to your shoes and skated on them. This is the magic on which this book is really built.
There are surprises and twists and turns.
This book is brutal and violent. What else could it be? From suicidal EVERYONES to fanatical Zealots to gangsters, add a bit of rich versus poor and you have an explosion waiting to happen. This book is terrifyingly plausible, this world could very well be our future. What if this is real?
I have to say, I didn't like Adam much. He was so selfish. A total dickhead. And that's being nice. I was glad when his world started falling down around him because he deserved it, and he needed that disappointment. I liked Lizzie though. Yeah, she was spoiled, and Adam pushed her into one hell of a corner, but she had her head screwed on right. I felt to awful for her at points in the book, and I was always rooting for her. I want to know what'll happen to her now - she's still got so much to experience.
I didn't like that the victims in all of this, those innocent of crime who hadn't taken Death, were seemingly ignored. Even Lizzie expresses her fear of being attacked by Deathers, gang raped, murdered. But that all seems to have been forgotten at the end. Viva la revolution and all that.
I wouldn't take death. I know how it feels to live bang on the breadline and even below, but I value my life too much. I value my friends and family. What about you?
Drink a red bull while reading this. Or a Jagerbomb. Something nasty.
is one of my firm favourite authors and his books always shock, filled with controversy. But this book didn't quite live up to my expectations, and perhaps it's my own expectations which have disappointed me. I couldn't help but compare The Hit to , they're by the same author and focus on the same type of gritty world of drugs and crime and nastiness. Don't get me wrong, this book is awesome. It's really good, fast paced and shocking.
The beginning reminded me a lot of , with the huge influential pop-star doing something crazy and attention grabbing to secure his immortal memory.
There was something about the overall finish of this edition (perhaps it's different for others) which felt sloppy and rushed. There were bits like this: "What are going to do" "She was aware that were really rather hidden" "there'd only ever had". I think that the fantastic fast pace of this book covered up more of these sloppy lapses of sense, but when they popped up they seriously distracted me. I found myself reading the same paragraph over and again in-case I had misread and the dodgy sentences would make sense, but no :( Maybe it's because it used to be my job working in pre-press to check for errors that I spotted them and you'll have better luck.
That aside, this book has some delicious imagery. He was wearing a suit so sharp you could have tied his lapels to your shoes and skated on them. This is the magic on which this book is really built.
There are surprises and twists and turns.
This book is brutal and violent. What else could it be? From suicidal EVERYONES to fanatical Zealots to gangsters, add a bit of rich versus poor and you have an explosion waiting to happen. This book is terrifyingly plausible, this world could very well be our future. What if this is real?
I have to say, I didn't like Adam much. He was so selfish. A total dickhead. And that's being nice. I was glad when his world started falling down around him because he deserved it, and he needed that disappointment. I liked Lizzie though. Yeah, she was spoiled, and Adam pushed her into one hell of a corner, but she had her head screwed on right. I felt to awful for her at points in the book, and I was always rooting for her. I want to know what'll happen to her now - she's still got so much to experience.
I didn't like that the victims in all of this, those innocent of crime who hadn't taken Death, were seemingly ignored. Even Lizzie expresses her fear of being attacked by Deathers, gang raped, murdered. But that all seems to have been forgotten at the end. Viva la revolution and all that.
I wouldn't take death. I know how it feels to live bang on the breadline and even below, but I value my life too much. I value my friends and family. What about you?
Drink a red bull while reading this. Or a Jagerbomb. Something nasty.
February 12, 2014
2.5 STARS
And the moral of the story is:
I think.
Had this ended differently it would have been a 3. Had this ended differently and owned up as a parody, I may have given it a reluctant 4. But since it did neither and just epically failed in the delivery of a message with a massive potential for philosophical depth and introspection, I’m just leaving it at a chortling 2.
Manchester is burning. With the growing discontent towards society’s status quo, the growing margin between the rich and the poor and the masses� loss of hope for the future, people are taking to the streets, staging violent protests, starting riots and planting the early seeds of a revolution. In the middle of all of this is the underground group called The Zealots and Death, a pill that promises the biggest high there was, a week before it claims your life. The Zealots have found a way to manufacture the expensive and obscure pill on their own and has been giving them out for free in the protest rallies fuelling the growing insurrection with drugged out teenagers, hell bent on experiencing life to its fullest in their last weeks.
Adam is a loser. He’s a mediocre football player rejected from Manchester U and City; his poor family treats him as a mediocre son compared to his brilliant older brother Jess; he’s a mediocre boyfriend for his rich and beautiful girlfriend, Lizzie who he loves very much.
Which I found really fascinating because I haven’t read about a gold-digging, loser as hero before.
When a letter arrives at home claiming his brother Jess was a Zealot member and has died in one of the violent protest rallies, Adam’s life goes on a tailspin. With the loss of Jess� contribution to the household finances, his parents are going to pull him from school and send him on to find a paying job. Adam refuses to accept this fate and sets off to find his brother. In his search he comes across a bunch of Death pills and as an act of supreme turdness and desperation-induced idiocy, took one. He then makes a bucket list of sorts and persuades the equally idiotic Lizzie to join him in his one-week of living life to the fullest, burning out than fading away.
I think Kurt Cobain turned on his grave just about now.
I had a tough time embracing the idea of a revolution seeking for change using a drug that puts an end to a person’s future. If I was a discontented person who protests to change society’s current status quo I don’t think my impulse choice will be to take a drug that will prevent me from seeing that change. The story relies heavily on the premise of teenagers as stupid lemmings who will make this choice because of their inherent selfishness and shallow philosophy.
Half the time it felt like I’m being encouraged to laugh at the teenagers and their naiveté. And while I have to admit Adam’s moronic bucket list and Lizzie’s misguided stupidity was quite funny, I felt the spirit of it all was mean and awful leaving me feeling wretched afterwards.
I’m quite confused what exactly the Death Pill does. I thought it was going to be along the lines of that drug in Limitless except you die after a week but the book just cryptically describes it as enhancing you - mentally, physically and sexually. Lizzie begs to differ on the sexually department and t beg to differ on the mentally aspect. Physically is up for debate because Adam and Lizzie managed to rob a liquor store WITHOUT CARRYING ANY WEAPON. What’s more weird was it wasn’t made out to look as though Adam was oozing with threat and danger out of his pores that everyone just cowered in fear. There was just a lot of scared shouting, really. At best the pill seems to improve your skin texture enough to charm your stupid, rich girlfriend to finance your bucket list.
Initially, I thought writing Adam and Lizzie as outstandingly terrible protagonists, independent of each other and as a couple, was clever. I was hoping for the worst for either of them all throughout. Without the pill, Adam was already a prime grade, freeloading asshole of a boyfriend trying to scheme his way into Lizzie’s comfortable lifestyle. With the pill, he became a self-centred, selfish asshat who guilts Lizzie into committing ridiculous acts of “living life to the extreme� in the last week of his life. The fact that Lizzie agrees to doing this with him, playing the part of the sheltered princess who delights in chaos and living vicariously through Adam was just icing on their clusterfuck of a cake. I was torn between being appalled and laughing in disbelief over her massive levels of heroic stupidity as she attempts to find an antidote for her “beloved� Adam (who doesn’t want it at that point by the way) by approaching an insane gangster in exchange for sex.
I can’t look even look at that without giggling uncontrollably.
I did like two things about this book: Jess� dressing down of Adam calling him out on his slacker mentality (that was GLORIOUS) and Christian.
Christian is the 45-year old son of Ballantine, the gangster who controls the sales and distribution of The Death Pill before The Zealots learned to manufacture it on their own. He likes to wear baggy jeans, a baseball cap and shirts with naked girls printed on them. Oh and he has a skateboard. And a bodyguard slash nanny who makes sure he takes his anti-psychotic milk. He’s the guy Lizzie agrees to be porn for and by God, THAT was a majestic villain. He has this nasty habit of turning his enemies into para or quadriplegics by severing their spinal cord.
And yes, he’s certifiably insane but I took joy from his horrifying ways in exacting pain to these dreadful characters. He was such a Joffrey to Lizzie’s Sansa Stark and Vince’s Sandor Clegane (for the record, I love Sansa, I am only approximating Christian’s torture of Lizzie.) He’s probably the only reason I stuck around and finished this nastiness because I really wanted him to triumph over this bizarrely entertaining yet catastrophic bullshit fest.
This is my first read from this author and I’ve heard great things about his other book. I found the writing in The Hit adequate, the humour, be it intended or not, was blatant. I just wished it ended there and ditched the bigger message and left the preaching of the tired adage of “carpe diem� to those who can execute it better.
ARC provided by Chicken House Scholastic thru Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased and honest review. Quotes may not appear on the final edition.
One week was time enough to do everything in the world so long as you lived hard enough, fierce enough, young enough, true enough. The rest of it was just waiting to die.
And the moral of the story is:
I think.
Had this ended differently it would have been a 3. Had this ended differently and owned up as a parody, I may have given it a reluctant 4. But since it did neither and just epically failed in the delivery of a message with a massive potential for philosophical depth and introspection, I’m just leaving it at a chortling 2.
Manchester is burning. With the growing discontent towards society’s status quo, the growing margin between the rich and the poor and the masses� loss of hope for the future, people are taking to the streets, staging violent protests, starting riots and planting the early seeds of a revolution. In the middle of all of this is the underground group called The Zealots and Death, a pill that promises the biggest high there was, a week before it claims your life. The Zealots have found a way to manufacture the expensive and obscure pill on their own and has been giving them out for free in the protest rallies fuelling the growing insurrection with drugged out teenagers, hell bent on experiencing life to its fullest in their last weeks.
Adam is a loser. He’s a mediocre football player rejected from Manchester U and City; his poor family treats him as a mediocre son compared to his brilliant older brother Jess; he’s a mediocre boyfriend for his rich and beautiful girlfriend, Lizzie who he loves very much.
I love you. What did it mean? It meant: I want to spend my life with you. I want you to give me your life. Please love me back.
Which I found really fascinating because I haven’t read about a gold-digging, loser as hero before.
When a letter arrives at home claiming his brother Jess was a Zealot member and has died in one of the violent protest rallies, Adam’s life goes on a tailspin. With the loss of Jess� contribution to the household finances, his parents are going to pull him from school and send him on to find a paying job. Adam refuses to accept this fate and sets off to find his brother. In his search he comes across a bunch of Death pills and as an act of supreme turdness and desperation-induced idiocy, took one. He then makes a bucket list of sorts and persuades the equally idiotic Lizzie to join him in his one-week of living life to the fullest, burning out than fading away.
I think Kurt Cobain turned on his grave just about now.
I had a tough time embracing the idea of a revolution seeking for change using a drug that puts an end to a person’s future. If I was a discontented person who protests to change society’s current status quo I don’t think my impulse choice will be to take a drug that will prevent me from seeing that change. The story relies heavily on the premise of teenagers as stupid lemmings who will make this choice because of their inherent selfishness and shallow philosophy.
It’s finally, finally dawning on people how bad things really are, that so many kids are prepared to off themselves just so they can have one crazy week.
Half the time it felt like I’m being encouraged to laugh at the teenagers and their naiveté. And while I have to admit Adam’s moronic bucket list and Lizzie’s misguided stupidity was quite funny, I felt the spirit of it all was mean and awful leaving me feeling wretched afterwards.
”Kill someone?� she exclaimed. “You want to leave me with a murder charge?�
“No!� Adam shook his head. “OK, I hadn’t thought it through, I mean, only if it was someone who really, really deserved it. Hitler or someone.�
“Hitler’s dead, Adam. We’re not going to meet Hitler.�
I’m quite confused what exactly the Death Pill does. I thought it was going to be along the lines of that drug in Limitless except you die after a week but the book just cryptically describes it as enhancing you - mentally, physically and sexually. Lizzie begs to differ on the sexually department and t beg to differ on the mentally aspect. Physically is up for debate because Adam and Lizzie managed to rob a liquor store WITHOUT CARRYING ANY WEAPON. What’s more weird was it wasn’t made out to look as though Adam was oozing with threat and danger out of his pores that everyone just cowered in fear. There was just a lot of scared shouting, really. At best the pill seems to improve your skin texture enough to charm your stupid, rich girlfriend to finance your bucket list.
Initially, I thought writing Adam and Lizzie as outstandingly terrible protagonists, independent of each other and as a couple, was clever. I was hoping for the worst for either of them all throughout. Without the pill, Adam was already a prime grade, freeloading asshole of a boyfriend trying to scheme his way into Lizzie’s comfortable lifestyle. With the pill, he became a self-centred, selfish asshat who guilts Lizzie into committing ridiculous acts of “living life to the extreme� in the last week of his life. The fact that Lizzie agrees to doing this with him, playing the part of the sheltered princess who delights in chaos and living vicariously through Adam was just icing on their clusterfuck of a cake. I was torn between being appalled and laughing in disbelief over her massive levels of heroic stupidity as she attempts to find an antidote for her “beloved� Adam (who doesn’t want it at that point by the way) by approaching an insane gangster in exchange for sex.
It was the old story. Boys went to the rescue with a gun in their hands, girls with their knickers in their pockets. This way, she thought, at least no one was going to get hurt�
…He tutted irritably and came in again for another kiss, same as last time, full of wet tongue - a nasty porn kiss, she realised. But what had she expected? Romance? She had agreed to be porn for him.
I can’t look even look at that without giggling uncontrollably.
I did like two things about this book: Jess� dressing down of Adam calling him out on his slacker mentality (that was GLORIOUS) and Christian.
Christian is the 45-year old son of Ballantine, the gangster who controls the sales and distribution of The Death Pill before The Zealots learned to manufacture it on their own. He likes to wear baggy jeans, a baseball cap and shirts with naked girls printed on them. Oh and he has a skateboard. And a bodyguard slash nanny who makes sure he takes his anti-psychotic milk. He’s the guy Lizzie agrees to be porn for and by God, THAT was a majestic villain. He has this nasty habit of turning his enemies into para or quadriplegics by severing their spinal cord.
And yes, he’s certifiably insane but I took joy from his horrifying ways in exacting pain to these dreadful characters. He was such a Joffrey to Lizzie’s Sansa Stark and Vince’s Sandor Clegane (for the record, I love Sansa, I am only approximating Christian’s torture of Lizzie.) He’s probably the only reason I stuck around and finished this nastiness because I really wanted him to triumph over this bizarrely entertaining yet catastrophic bullshit fest.
This is my first read from this author and I’ve heard great things about his other book. I found the writing in The Hit adequate, the humour, be it intended or not, was blatant. I just wished it ended there and ditched the bigger message and left the preaching of the tired adage of “carpe diem� to those who can execute it better.
ARC provided by Chicken House Scholastic thru Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased and honest review. Quotes may not appear on the final edition.
June 3, 2013
So, I'm not the market for this book, but I thought it was great. The average rating is only 2.9, which is just highly suprising to me. That's a whole lot of disappointed readers!
This was my first Burgess book, so I had no preconceptions, and it seems like the fair to middling reviews are frequently from people who find this compares unfavourably to some of his other works. In this case my ignorance was a distinct advantage.
I thought the MCs were compelling and completely believable. Again, I am not the target market, and there's a whole lot of people saying "Teenagers are nothing like this!" but I bought every character hook, line, and sinker: even the secondary ones. Especially the secondary ones.
The book is an extrapolation of the Peasant's Revolt / Corn Law opposition / Haymarket Square Riots/ 80s Poll Tax Opposition / 1990s WTO protests / Occupy Movement etc etc ad infinitum. With a Banksy reference stirred in.
What I felt was the masterstroke of the book was
If I had a Young Adult I would push this book on them. And they'd probably hate it :(
This was my first Burgess book, so I had no preconceptions, and it seems like the fair to middling reviews are frequently from people who find this compares unfavourably to some of his other works. In this case my ignorance was a distinct advantage.
I thought the MCs were compelling and completely believable. Again, I am not the target market, and there's a whole lot of people saying "Teenagers are nothing like this!" but I bought every character hook, line, and sinker: even the secondary ones. Especially the secondary ones.
The book is an extrapolation of the Peasant's Revolt / Corn Law opposition / Haymarket Square Riots/ 80s Poll Tax Opposition / 1990s WTO protests / Occupy Movement etc etc ad infinitum. With a Banksy reference stirred in.
What I felt was the masterstroke of the book was
If I had a Young Adult I would push this book on them. And they'd probably hate it :(
August 25, 2016
i read this 4 years ago actually but didnt feel, like leaving a review, dont know from what i remember despite the interesting consept it was rather boring and the hero and heroine were both rather horrible people, when you think abought it, especilly hero, such a selfish guy
May 11, 2013
I absolutely loved reading when I was very young, but when I went to high school things changed and I found myself rarely reading until the age of 18! However, there was one book during that period that I did read, one that was recommended to me by a teacher and it was a book that quickly became a favourite. That book was Junk by Melvin Burgess, a young adult story based around drugs. When I heard about The Hit, another book with a storyline based around drugs, I was full of excitement - could it possibly be better than Junk?
I absolutely loved the idea of this book. Burgess has created a fictional drug called, quite simply, Death. If you take Death, you will have a euphoric week, everything feels great, but at the end of this week, you will die. There is no antidote to the drug, so once you take it, there is no going back. The Hit is set in the future in the UK, it's not an unrealistic future but it is a dark and difficult time with people struggling to live well. After a very popular singer takes Death, the drug becomes popularised and is handed out to rioting crowds of people. Death is the most interesting concept in this book, making you ask yourself, would you take it? I wanted some morality, some gritty issues, something that could draw me in and make me want to know everything about this drug, but unfortunately, I didn't really get that.
This book isn't really about Death, it actually takes a bit of a back seat. Mostly, this is a book about Adam and Lizzie getting in trouble with a (Death) drug dealer - cue lots of chasing and violence. I'm sure there will be some suspense for some people, but frankly I didn't care enough about the characters to be sitting on the edge of my seat. The slightly more political side of this book, the group of protestors named The Zealots was slightly more interesting - I liked reading about them, but again, I'd have liked to have learned more about them.
The story revolves around our protagonist, Adam, who decides to take Death. I didn't particularly like Adam, I didn't like his 'bucket list' and found him to be somewhat selfish and superficial - lets just say that if he was a real person, I wouldn't want to be friends with him. His girlfriend, Lizzie, fell just as flat as Adam, I just found them both uninteresting. The story itself would've felt a lot stronger if the characters had stronger personalities. The only character that I felt vaguely interested in was Christian, a very powerful, but also very ill man. Christian was a brilliant villain, he was psychotic and fixated on damaging people's spinal cords, attempting to paralyse them if they don't do what he wants - it sounds extremely vicious and it was, but for me it was good to actually feel something (even this repulsion!) when reading this book.
Overall, The Hit was unfortunately a big disappointment for me. I did read the whole thing as I hoped for more information regarding Death and yes, I did want to find out the outcome. Mostly though, I read the whole book because I refuse to not finish a book I've started. I can't say that it was enjoyable, but it certainly wasn't the worst book I've read. The concept was brilliant and I just wish that the execution had been better. If you do want to read a good book by Burgess, just pick up a copy of Junk which is, in my opinion, far superior to The Hit.
I absolutely loved the idea of this book. Burgess has created a fictional drug called, quite simply, Death. If you take Death, you will have a euphoric week, everything feels great, but at the end of this week, you will die. There is no antidote to the drug, so once you take it, there is no going back. The Hit is set in the future in the UK, it's not an unrealistic future but it is a dark and difficult time with people struggling to live well. After a very popular singer takes Death, the drug becomes popularised and is handed out to rioting crowds of people. Death is the most interesting concept in this book, making you ask yourself, would you take it? I wanted some morality, some gritty issues, something that could draw me in and make me want to know everything about this drug, but unfortunately, I didn't really get that.
This book isn't really about Death, it actually takes a bit of a back seat. Mostly, this is a book about Adam and Lizzie getting in trouble with a (Death) drug dealer - cue lots of chasing and violence. I'm sure there will be some suspense for some people, but frankly I didn't care enough about the characters to be sitting on the edge of my seat. The slightly more political side of this book, the group of protestors named The Zealots was slightly more interesting - I liked reading about them, but again, I'd have liked to have learned more about them.
The story revolves around our protagonist, Adam, who decides to take Death. I didn't particularly like Adam, I didn't like his 'bucket list' and found him to be somewhat selfish and superficial - lets just say that if he was a real person, I wouldn't want to be friends with him. His girlfriend, Lizzie, fell just as flat as Adam, I just found them both uninteresting. The story itself would've felt a lot stronger if the characters had stronger personalities. The only character that I felt vaguely interested in was Christian, a very powerful, but also very ill man. Christian was a brilliant villain, he was psychotic and fixated on damaging people's spinal cords, attempting to paralyse them if they don't do what he wants - it sounds extremely vicious and it was, but for me it was good to actually feel something (even this repulsion!) when reading this book.
Overall, The Hit was unfortunately a big disappointment for me. I did read the whole thing as I hoped for more information regarding Death and yes, I did want to find out the outcome. Mostly though, I read the whole book because I refuse to not finish a book I've started. I can't say that it was enjoyable, but it certainly wasn't the worst book I've read. The concept was brilliant and I just wish that the execution had been better. If you do want to read a good book by Burgess, just pick up a copy of Junk which is, in my opinion, far superior to The Hit.
April 17, 2013
I bought this book because Bookdepository had made quite a fuss about it, and it sounded promising and exciting (note to self: do not trust their promotions).
Unfortunately, not the case. It was a very unconvincing read, and I did not care about the characters at all, everyone was such a prick; besides, the ending was so cheesy and predictable. Well, of course, it has a morale and all (life is so precious, yada, yada), but it was too young-adult for me (should have made a note of it prior to purchasing the novel), and the plot, while I get where a lot of it was coming from, was just over-the-top.
If it says on the cover Take it, and you have one amazing week to live. It's the ultimate high, I'm expecting this. I didn't get this.
So, does this book have the X factor? It's a no for me.
Unfortunately, not the case. It was a very unconvincing read, and I did not care about the characters at all, everyone was such a prick; besides, the ending was so cheesy and predictable. Well, of course, it has a morale and all (life is so precious, yada, yada), but it was too young-adult for me (should have made a note of it prior to purchasing the novel), and the plot, while I get where a lot of it was coming from, was just over-the-top.
If it says on the cover Take it, and you have one amazing week to live. It's the ultimate high, I'm expecting this. I didn't get this.
So, does this book have the X factor? It's a no for me.
September 29, 2020
Wow... so where do I start?
This is one of those books you find at your middle school library, and you read it, don't particularly like it, but the concept still haunts you 10 years later bc it was so bizarre.
I am also noticing a trend in UK literature/movies. It always follows some teenager dissatisfied with their life/not wanting to end up like their parents and the impending existential crisis that follows.
I suppose that's what I get for choosing a book solely based on the audiobook narrator. Samuel Roukin, it was a pleasure to spend some more hours of my life listening to you read to me, but this..?
This is one of those books you find at your middle school library, and you read it, don't particularly like it, but the concept still haunts you 10 years later bc it was so bizarre.
I am also noticing a trend in UK literature/movies. It always follows some teenager dissatisfied with their life/not wanting to end up like their parents and the impending existential crisis that follows.
I suppose that's what I get for choosing a book solely based on the audiobook narrator. Samuel Roukin, it was a pleasure to spend some more hours of my life listening to you read to me, but this..?
March 25, 2017
I bought this book as soon as I saw it in online bookstore. I didn‘t know one of my favorite writers wrote a new book. I immediately ordered it and waited to get it. When I got it, I started reading it while walking home from post office. Melvin Burgess is one of my favorite writers since I was a teen. I read all his books that are translated in Lithuanian. Even now, when I‘m adult, I still like to read his books. I buy every new book that appears in Lithuania like crazy and read it as fast as I can.
It‘s not the highest class book, but it has something in it that made me read it non-stop for two days. A plot is very intriguing, just thrilling! Somebody should make a movie by this book, it would great action movie. I had fun reading this for two days, it was amazing weekend!
It‘s not the highest class book, but it has something in it that made me read it non-stop for two days. A plot is very intriguing, just thrilling! Somebody should make a movie by this book, it would great action movie. I had fun reading this for two days, it was amazing weekend!
August 7, 2016
What starts off as an interesting premise quickly descends into needless, gratuitous, and lazily-written sex and violence - the author wants to match Guy Ritchie movies and Japanese ero-guro manga, but has no idea how to set up an engaging action scene.
April 26, 2017
Făcând abstracție de anumite lucruri, per total e o carte cu un mesaj puternic ce este înțeles de orice cititor datorită stilului simplist în care este scrisă.
Recenzie:
Recenzie:
April 12, 2015
It is an OK book. I'd give it 2.5 ratings.
It's about a boy named Adam who apparently is still a kid (15 years old) and Burgess should have made him 20 of age, because the whole chaos he goes through in the book = impossible. Gunshots, so much blood involved, rape, sex, pedophilia, murder, illegal driving.
So Adam and his girlfriend, Lizzie, they're both young teens and I'm sorry, I have an issue with the age.
My second issue would be the storyline. If you expect the story to be about the nature of the drugs (of which i did), forget it. It's not at all about it. It's more of how Adam gets entangled with the creator of Death pill. And how these Deathers want revolution to happen, doing protests to the government and what not. I have to give credit on the flow of the book, it's actually good.
Of course, the cliche thing about death in a book is that... *spoiler alert*
The pill is a fake and thats what I had expected. And I was right. Cliche! Burgess should have let them die. Then that would put the book to rest in peace.
Also, during my reading, some characters were left hanging that made you think "what has happened to ....?" so some unanswered questions. The ending seemed very rushed & I wasn't really that happy with the ending to be honest.
Nevertheless, you should give it a read, who knows you might disagree with me at some point. But, reviews are reviews & each person has their own opinion on things.
It's about a boy named Adam who apparently is still a kid (15 years old) and Burgess should have made him 20 of age, because the whole chaos he goes through in the book = impossible. Gunshots, so much blood involved, rape, sex, pedophilia, murder, illegal driving.
So Adam and his girlfriend, Lizzie, they're both young teens and I'm sorry, I have an issue with the age.
My second issue would be the storyline. If you expect the story to be about the nature of the drugs (of which i did), forget it. It's not at all about it. It's more of how Adam gets entangled with the creator of Death pill. And how these Deathers want revolution to happen, doing protests to the government and what not. I have to give credit on the flow of the book, it's actually good.
Of course, the cliche thing about death in a book is that... *spoiler alert*
The pill is a fake and thats what I had expected. And I was right. Cliche! Burgess should have let them die. Then that would put the book to rest in peace.
Also, during my reading, some characters were left hanging that made you think "what has happened to ....?" so some unanswered questions. The ending seemed very rushed & I wasn't really that happy with the ending to be honest.
Nevertheless, you should give it a read, who knows you might disagree with me at some point. But, reviews are reviews & each person has their own opinion on things.
January 27, 2016
2.5 stars.
This book was like an episode of Pretty Little Liars; nothing but a massive anti-climax.
It had so much potential to begin with and the beginning was enjoyable even, hence the 2.5 star rating, and then it turned into a story that I was reading just for the sake of finishing it. The characters were shallow, the plot was predictable and the ending was dull and anti-climactic. Yawn.
This book was like an episode of Pretty Little Liars; nothing but a massive anti-climax.
It had so much potential to begin with and the beginning was enjoyable even, hence the 2.5 star rating, and then it turned into a story that I was reading just for the sake of finishing it. The characters were shallow, the plot was predictable and the ending was dull and anti-climactic. Yawn.
August 22, 2015
~ Buddy read with Elena ~
DNF'D at p87.
This book had the potential to be good, but unfortunately it fell flat.
I found the book boring and I didn't connect with any of the characters.
Sadly I didn't enjoy this book.
DNF'D at p87.
This book had the potential to be good, but unfortunately it fell flat.
I found the book boring and I didn't connect with any of the characters.
Sadly I didn't enjoy this book.
June 22, 2016
I really liked the idea that you would have the best week of your life but need to die after it, yet i think there was more potential.
May 10, 2020
Burgess' The Hit provided an interesting concept in its blurb and successfully appealed to a modern-day audience, especially with the 21st century's rise in drug culture. It promised a gritty story that would have been able to evoke a large range of emotions from a reader as it portrayed a world in where the creation of entirely lethal drugs to be taken for recreational purposes was plausible. However, it failed to hit the spot. The book wasn't bad; it just wasn't good either hence the three-star rating.
That being said, the concept of the book was really the only thing I enjoyed and I would love for it to be revisited by perhaps a different author with a more capable skill-set when it comes to writing dystopian fiction or perhaps an author who hired a better editor and didn't leave silly mistakes in such as "She saved out lives" and "passsed" and such sloppy mistakes were much more frequent and noticeable towards the end of the book, almost as if it was being rushed.
Moving onto things that I really didn't like about the book; the characters. Both Adam and Lizzie remind me of the type of characters you would find on Wattpad back in 2011. Neither had any redeeming qualities and neither of them managed to make me care about them or what happened to them (which in the end, wasn't much anyway) and despite Burgess' attempt to make Adam's loyalty to Lizzie something endearing, it just fell flat. But Christian was by far one of the worst characters; he wasn't realistic, he was just unhinged and by the end of the book, completely predictable.
I really did want to love this book because I thought the idea behind it was truly original, but it just focussed on all the wrong things and left many questions, especially about this revolution that was never actually resolved or properly explained. The only way this storyline could ever be saved is if it was rewritten, with more focus on the revolution and what that entails and how life changes after or there is a sequel in which their lives are followed after the "announcement" of the revolution. If anything, he should take a leaf out of Margaret Atwood's book, The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, but until then, it sits at a disappointingly average three-stars.
That being said, the concept of the book was really the only thing I enjoyed and I would love for it to be revisited by perhaps a different author with a more capable skill-set when it comes to writing dystopian fiction or perhaps an author who hired a better editor and didn't leave silly mistakes in such as "She saved out lives" and "passsed" and such sloppy mistakes were much more frequent and noticeable towards the end of the book, almost as if it was being rushed.
Moving onto things that I really didn't like about the book; the characters. Both Adam and Lizzie remind me of the type of characters you would find on Wattpad back in 2011. Neither had any redeeming qualities and neither of them managed to make me care about them or what happened to them (which in the end, wasn't much anyway) and despite Burgess' attempt to make Adam's loyalty to Lizzie something endearing, it just fell flat. But Christian was by far one of the worst characters; he wasn't realistic, he was just unhinged and by the end of the book, completely predictable.
I really did want to love this book because I thought the idea behind it was truly original, but it just focussed on all the wrong things and left many questions, especially about this revolution that was never actually resolved or properly explained. The only way this storyline could ever be saved is if it was rewritten, with more focus on the revolution and what that entails and how life changes after or there is a sequel in which their lives are followed after the "announcement" of the revolution. If anything, he should take a leaf out of Margaret Atwood's book, The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, but until then, it sits at a disappointingly average three-stars.
January 26, 2020
Vai zinot, ka atlikušas ir tikai septiņas dienas, ko nodzīvot - cilvēki uztvertu dzīvi savādāk?
March 13, 2018
Episch en filosofisch hoogstandje. Zeker weten het lezen waard!
January 5, 2020
"Patiesībā vienīgā vērtība ir pati dzīve."
January 16, 2023
good idea, bad execution.
October 22, 2014
My thoughts on Melvin Burgess� The Hit are so muddled I don’t even know where to begin. I ignored the average rating on ŷ and requested this months ago because I loved the sound of the blurb. I mean, a drug that keeps you high for a week before you die? And a protagonist who takes it?! The book sounded so damn original and had such high potential that I thought it couldn’t be that bad.
Oh, how very, very wrong I was.
WHAT I LIKED
1. The premise: The Death Pill, as this new drug is known as, was originally created as a way for people who were close to death to go out with a bang � they take it, they have one sweet week, and die happy. It was an interesting concept, even if it didn’t make much sense because a lot of the details weren’t talked about at all.
2. There is no second thing.
WHAT I DISLIKED
1. The protagonists: Can I just say that both Adam and Lizzie are probably the dumbest set of characters I have come across? They may not have been completely annoying (emphasis on may not), but their stupidity just blew my mind. What would you do if your boyfriend took a drug that would kill him in a week and asked you to help make his life freaking awesome at your cost? Meaning, (a) robbing a shop, (b) having a threesome, (c) murdering someone? I hope you said “I’d dump him!� because that is exactly what Lizzie did NOT do. Granted, they ended up not killing anyone OR having a threesome, but those two (along with a bunch of other stupid stuff) were high up on Adam’s bucket list. And Lizzie agreed to go along with it. I just � ARE. YOU. A. MORON? As for Adam, I would have expected him to be more considerate than that, but he turned out to pretty much be a five year old in a teenager’s body.
2. The world building: If you know me, you know that I greatly appreciate it when the setting of a story has a considerable amount of depth to it. There was nothing like that in this book. The only things we are told is that there is a new drug circulating England, and that an underground terrorist group known as the Zealots are causing a massive uprising in Manchester. Why? Something about people being unhappy with the current government. And that is it. There’s literally no background of this futuristic world, and no concrete reasons to the political aspect of the country to make the world building realistic. Considering that the entire story took place because of this political riot, it was just something I couldn’t accept.
3. Rationality: A minor point, but thought I’d just throw it out there anyway � so apparently, once you take Death, your skin magically heals itself and you’re made handsomer than you were before. Oh, and people find you more attractive, so they’ll be more willing to sleep with you and you can complete your fabulous bucket list. Yay! Yeah, um, someone please tell me where’s the logic in this? How can a drug that was first created for the sole purpose of letting dying people enjoy their last days suddenly become some beauty pill as well?
4. The ending: Look, if The Hit had ended differently, I might have knocked my rating up a little. The ending was SO predictable. I had high hopes that the author would pull something original, but he ended up doing just waht I expected. You failed the last challenge, book.
In the end, The Hit was a massive disappointment, and a complete waste of time. The only reason I kept reading was because I hoped that it would get better. As you can probably tell, it didn’t. Melvin Burgess� other works may be masterpieces, but unfortunately, this will be the first and last book I’ll ever read by him. Don’t let the awesome blurb fool you, guys!
Rating: � 1/2
This review also appears on my book blog, !
Oh, how very, very wrong I was.
WHAT I LIKED
1. The premise: The Death Pill, as this new drug is known as, was originally created as a way for people who were close to death to go out with a bang � they take it, they have one sweet week, and die happy. It was an interesting concept, even if it didn’t make much sense because a lot of the details weren’t talked about at all.
2. There is no second thing.
WHAT I DISLIKED
1. The protagonists: Can I just say that both Adam and Lizzie are probably the dumbest set of characters I have come across? They may not have been completely annoying (emphasis on may not), but their stupidity just blew my mind. What would you do if your boyfriend took a drug that would kill him in a week and asked you to help make his life freaking awesome at your cost? Meaning, (a) robbing a shop, (b) having a threesome, (c) murdering someone? I hope you said “I’d dump him!� because that is exactly what Lizzie did NOT do. Granted, they ended up not killing anyone OR having a threesome, but those two (along with a bunch of other stupid stuff) were high up on Adam’s bucket list. And Lizzie agreed to go along with it. I just � ARE. YOU. A. MORON? As for Adam, I would have expected him to be more considerate than that, but he turned out to pretty much be a five year old in a teenager’s body.
2. The world building: If you know me, you know that I greatly appreciate it when the setting of a story has a considerable amount of depth to it. There was nothing like that in this book. The only things we are told is that there is a new drug circulating England, and that an underground terrorist group known as the Zealots are causing a massive uprising in Manchester. Why? Something about people being unhappy with the current government. And that is it. There’s literally no background of this futuristic world, and no concrete reasons to the political aspect of the country to make the world building realistic. Considering that the entire story took place because of this political riot, it was just something I couldn’t accept.
3. Rationality: A minor point, but thought I’d just throw it out there anyway � so apparently, once you take Death, your skin magically heals itself and you’re made handsomer than you were before. Oh, and people find you more attractive, so they’ll be more willing to sleep with you and you can complete your fabulous bucket list. Yay! Yeah, um, someone please tell me where’s the logic in this? How can a drug that was first created for the sole purpose of letting dying people enjoy their last days suddenly become some beauty pill as well?
4. The ending: Look, if The Hit had ended differently, I might have knocked my rating up a little. The ending was SO predictable. I had high hopes that the author would pull something original, but he ended up doing just waht I expected. You failed the last challenge, book.
In the end, The Hit was a massive disappointment, and a complete waste of time. The only reason I kept reading was because I hoped that it would get better. As you can probably tell, it didn’t. Melvin Burgess� other works may be masterpieces, but unfortunately, this will be the first and last book I’ll ever read by him. Don’t let the awesome blurb fool you, guys!
Rating: � 1/2
This review also appears on my book blog, !
June 7, 2014
Um - a very hard book to judge. Here is why.
This book has:
1. Horrific violence.
2. Unlikeable characters.
3. Skin-crawlingly awful villains.
4. A scarily believable setting, and
5. Good plotting.
I gave it three stars because I did not enjoy it. But I found it both thought-provoking and compulsively readable. It's a much more believable dystopian world than, for example, the one in the "Divergent" series.
As the story begins, 17-year-old Adam is at a concert with his girlfriend. Rumor has it that the singer has taken Death, a drug that gives takers a hyped-up existence for a week and then kills them. He is supposed to die onstage, at the climax of the concert - and he does. A riot follows, during which young Adam finds himself in possession of one of the Death pills. Eventually, he takes it, starting up a chain of events that will lead both kids into terrible danger and change their lives forever - if, indeed, there is an antidote. Otherwise, they will both die in a week.
As I said, a lot of interesting questions here - about the cult of death (It's no accident that the singer is named for James Dean), personal responsibility, ethics and morals, and how and why we grow up. Adam comes to realize that he actually wants the sort of "boring" life his parents have lived, as ordinary working people. And that's an enormous amount of growth for this self-absorbed, impulsive young man. But can he survive long enough to achieve this worthy goal?
This would be an easy booktalk, and it has a lot going for it. However I found the story, like the protagonist, difficult to like.
(Note: On my star rating and the protagonist: one of the things on Adam's "bucket list" when he takes Death is to kill someone. Really? You only have a week to pack in all the rest of your life and THIS is one of your goals?! I lost all sympathy with the boy at that point, and I really hope this isn't an accurate read on how normal adolescents think. Lizzie, his girlfriend, is a slightly more thoughtful person, but neither kid seems to have been taught any ethics or morals at all.)
This book has:
1. Horrific violence.
2. Unlikeable characters.
3. Skin-crawlingly awful villains.
4. A scarily believable setting, and
5. Good plotting.
I gave it three stars because I did not enjoy it. But I found it both thought-provoking and compulsively readable. It's a much more believable dystopian world than, for example, the one in the "Divergent" series.
As the story begins, 17-year-old Adam is at a concert with his girlfriend. Rumor has it that the singer has taken Death, a drug that gives takers a hyped-up existence for a week and then kills them. He is supposed to die onstage, at the climax of the concert - and he does. A riot follows, during which young Adam finds himself in possession of one of the Death pills. Eventually, he takes it, starting up a chain of events that will lead both kids into terrible danger and change their lives forever - if, indeed, there is an antidote. Otherwise, they will both die in a week.
As I said, a lot of interesting questions here - about the cult of death (It's no accident that the singer is named for James Dean), personal responsibility, ethics and morals, and how and why we grow up. Adam comes to realize that he actually wants the sort of "boring" life his parents have lived, as ordinary working people. And that's an enormous amount of growth for this self-absorbed, impulsive young man. But can he survive long enough to achieve this worthy goal?
This would be an easy booktalk, and it has a lot going for it. However I found the story, like the protagonist, difficult to like.
(Note: On my star rating and the protagonist: one of the things on Adam's "bucket list" when he takes Death is to kill someone. Really? You only have a week to pack in all the rest of your life and THIS is one of your goals?! I lost all sympathy with the boy at that point, and I really hope this isn't an accurate read on how normal adolescents think. Lizzie, his girlfriend, is a slightly more thoughtful person, but neither kid seems to have been taught any ethics or morals at all.)
August 19, 2014
Eine neue Droge aus Manchester. Erfunden, um todkranken Menschen noch eine Woche Leben zu geben. Aber dann kommt der Tod mit Sicherheit. Eine Woche Kraft gegen sein Leben. Doch eine Art Untergrund-Mafia "die Zeloten" bringt Jugendliche dazu eine Revolte zu beginnen. Ausgelöst durch den Selbstmord eines bekannten Rockstar-Tennie, gerät das ganze aus dem Ruder und die Massen übernehmen die Stadt - Plünderungen, Morde und übermenschlich starke Teenager auf 'Death' haben ihre Liste für die 'perfekte Woche' abzuarbeiten.
Mittendrin in diesem Chaos kämpfen Adam und Lizzie ums Überleben und für eine gemeinsame Zukunft. Ohne es zu wissen, stehen sie an einer wichtigen Weiche, wie die Vorkommnisse ausgehen werden. Wird die Politik gestürmt? Bricht die Wirtschaft zusammen? Wird es wieder Tage geben, an denen man nicht "mehr Stunden für weniger Geld arbeiten muss, dafür, dass die Reichen immer reicher werden"?
Ein dystopischer Roman, der nichts auslässt, vor nichts zurückschreckt und keinen Euphemismus vortäuscht. Nichts aufgeblähtes, sondern alles kommt hart auf hart. Sogar das siegreiche Ende hat einen herben Nachgeschmack, weil die Entwicklungen - sowohl die Beziehung der beiden Protagonisten, als auch die gesellschaftlichen Umschwünge - erst am Beginn stehen und Verwüstung und Scherben hinterlassen werden.
Jede Handlung, die unseren Alltag bestimmt, wird in diesem Buch in Frage gestellt oder aus einer Perspektive gezeigt, die alles andere als schön ist. Wie wir auf Umwägen den Handel unterstützen, gegen den wir als Wohlstandsgesellschaft vorgehen wollen - Mafia, Kartelle, Korruption... Eine erschreckende Vorstellung für mich, aber auch eine Ernüchterung, zu erkennen, wie Nahe uns ein Zusammenbruch, eine Revolution sein kann, ohne, dass wir es bemerken.
Melvin Brugess schafft es trotz seiner Direktheit nicht langweilig zu werden und seine Ironie wirkt nie überspitzt, aber punktgenau getroffen. Vielleicht hat er nicht den gehobensten Ausdruck, aber den braucht ein Werk wie diese ja nicht und er fördert die Vorstellungskraft und den Antrieb, sich durch diese grausame Welt hindurchzulesen...und daraus zu lernen.
Mittendrin in diesem Chaos kämpfen Adam und Lizzie ums Überleben und für eine gemeinsame Zukunft. Ohne es zu wissen, stehen sie an einer wichtigen Weiche, wie die Vorkommnisse ausgehen werden. Wird die Politik gestürmt? Bricht die Wirtschaft zusammen? Wird es wieder Tage geben, an denen man nicht "mehr Stunden für weniger Geld arbeiten muss, dafür, dass die Reichen immer reicher werden"?
Ein dystopischer Roman, der nichts auslässt, vor nichts zurückschreckt und keinen Euphemismus vortäuscht. Nichts aufgeblähtes, sondern alles kommt hart auf hart. Sogar das siegreiche Ende hat einen herben Nachgeschmack, weil die Entwicklungen - sowohl die Beziehung der beiden Protagonisten, als auch die gesellschaftlichen Umschwünge - erst am Beginn stehen und Verwüstung und Scherben hinterlassen werden.
Jede Handlung, die unseren Alltag bestimmt, wird in diesem Buch in Frage gestellt oder aus einer Perspektive gezeigt, die alles andere als schön ist. Wie wir auf Umwägen den Handel unterstützen, gegen den wir als Wohlstandsgesellschaft vorgehen wollen - Mafia, Kartelle, Korruption... Eine erschreckende Vorstellung für mich, aber auch eine Ernüchterung, zu erkennen, wie Nahe uns ein Zusammenbruch, eine Revolution sein kann, ohne, dass wir es bemerken.
Melvin Brugess schafft es trotz seiner Direktheit nicht langweilig zu werden und seine Ironie wirkt nie überspitzt, aber punktgenau getroffen. Vielleicht hat er nicht den gehobensten Ausdruck, aber den braucht ein Werk wie diese ja nicht und er fördert die Vorstellungskraft und den Antrieb, sich durch diese grausame Welt hindurchzulesen...und daraus zu lernen.
August 6, 2015
The Plot: Does it have one? The basic gist - the novel is set in a vaguely dystopian society. There are no real details as to the corruption and no real figureheads to unseat. A group called the Zealots want to bring about revolution. There is a new drug on the streets called Death. You take it, live a crazy good life for about a week, then you die. This designer drug is uber expensive, except the Zealots figure out how to make it cheap and slightly alter its composition. So, our main characters, Adam and Lizzie, take Death (either willingly or by force). There are the Zealots, the evil, insane, sadistic drug dealer, Christian, and the idiotic teenagers all running around. I'm guessing the overall point is to convey that by taking the drug and regretting it they appreciate life more and help to bring about revolution at the same time.
The Characters: I loathed each and every one. There is no character development. Adam is unhappy with the responsibilities put on him in comparison to his brother, Jess. He logically concludes that getting Lizzie pregnant (since her family has some money) is a good life choice. Followed by taking Death, making a disturbing Bucket List, and causing mayhem in general, Adam seems to learn very little. He doesn't respect women, or anyone else for that matter. Adam may not be dying, but his future is bleak. Lizzie is not much better, coerced into horrible situations because of Adam. Again, there is a lack of depth to a character who brutally beaten and sexually violated.
Overall Evaluation:
The cover is appealing to teens. However, it is misleading. I like edgy YA fiction and believe that its important to tackle tough issues; however, this novel just misses the mark. It is a poor attempt at a dystopian-esque novel. There are no likeable characters nor any that I would consider positive role models in any way. I had to force myself to finish this book and that was mainly because of reviewing it for ROYAL. I do not recommend it.
The Characters: I loathed each and every one. There is no character development. Adam is unhappy with the responsibilities put on him in comparison to his brother, Jess. He logically concludes that getting Lizzie pregnant (since her family has some money) is a good life choice. Followed by taking Death, making a disturbing Bucket List, and causing mayhem in general, Adam seems to learn very little. He doesn't respect women, or anyone else for that matter. Adam may not be dying, but his future is bleak. Lizzie is not much better, coerced into horrible situations because of Adam. Again, there is a lack of depth to a character who brutally beaten and sexually violated.
Overall Evaluation:
The cover is appealing to teens. However, it is misleading. I like edgy YA fiction and believe that its important to tackle tough issues; however, this novel just misses the mark. It is a poor attempt at a dystopian-esque novel. There are no likeable characters nor any that I would consider positive role models in any way. I had to force myself to finish this book and that was mainly because of reviewing it for ROYAL. I do not recommend it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2014
Perhaps the future isn’t completely bleak and terrible as Melvin Burgess’s latest teen-lit novel, THE HIT, proposes. While there is despair and bleakness for the youth of Manchester, England, there is also the possibility of love. Of course, in Burgess’s hands, love is very complicated, being 17 is even worse, and both together are almost a total catastrophe.
Adam is the younger of two sons. His brother, the chemist, helps supports the family single-handedly now that their father can’s work due to the accident, which makes Adam the lesser of the two. And Adam dreams of being a soccer star, but he isn’t good enough to make the cut.. And there is Lizzie, the girl of Adam’s dreams and at present, only a friend.
But when rock star Jimmy Earl dies of the drug Death on stage at a concert the two attend, and the city itself seems to fall under the heel of anarchists, the two do more than stay friends. And it is all due to Death. Death lets you live better, happier, stronger, faster and smarter; in fact you suddenly experience life like you would want to. There is a downside to all this goodness; after 7 days, you die.
Of course, in the riots and the calls for overthrowing the government and the swirl of events around them, Adam foolishly takes the drug.
This leads to an increasing horrendous series of events including dealing with the murderous criminals who are the masterminds behind the drug, an increasing insane thug who is protected by his father’s criminal group, radical teens who run amok, and worse of all, the things two people will do in the name of love.
Above all else this is a story of redemption, of discovering the meaning of life and love even as you know you are about to lose both. If you can make it through the dark day there is a glowing night ahead of you, and possibilities abound.
Adam is the younger of two sons. His brother, the chemist, helps supports the family single-handedly now that their father can’s work due to the accident, which makes Adam the lesser of the two. And Adam dreams of being a soccer star, but he isn’t good enough to make the cut.. And there is Lizzie, the girl of Adam’s dreams and at present, only a friend.
But when rock star Jimmy Earl dies of the drug Death on stage at a concert the two attend, and the city itself seems to fall under the heel of anarchists, the two do more than stay friends. And it is all due to Death. Death lets you live better, happier, stronger, faster and smarter; in fact you suddenly experience life like you would want to. There is a downside to all this goodness; after 7 days, you die.
Of course, in the riots and the calls for overthrowing the government and the swirl of events around them, Adam foolishly takes the drug.
This leads to an increasing horrendous series of events including dealing with the murderous criminals who are the masterminds behind the drug, an increasing insane thug who is protected by his father’s criminal group, radical teens who run amok, and worse of all, the things two people will do in the name of love.
Above all else this is a story of redemption, of discovering the meaning of life and love even as you know you are about to lose both. If you can make it through the dark day there is a glowing night ahead of you, and possibilities abound.
September 10, 2014
Picked this up because The Book Depository emailed me with a "Hey there'll only be 500 of these and it's hardback and it's signed" and, being the impulsive idiot I am, I immediatly bought it. I did the same with the TBD Hardback Slipcover edition of China Mieville's Railsea (which I still haven't read).
Now onto the book. I really like the concept - with the Death pills and so on. Had it been set a bit further into the future I think it would have made for a great cyberpunk dystopia premise - as it is, it is set just vaguely near-present, though the overtones of dystopia are still there. I enjoyed the book overall, the characters were well done if a bit erratic (but with the two main characters being teenagers, this makes sense), and the writing was good.
The only thing that let it down for me is the ending. It seemed to wrap up a bit too fast, and it wasn't really a satisfying end of the story. Other than that, it was a good read though.
Now onto the book. I really like the concept - with the Death pills and so on. Had it been set a bit further into the future I think it would have made for a great cyberpunk dystopia premise - as it is, it is set just vaguely near-present, though the overtones of dystopia are still there. I enjoyed the book overall, the characters were well done if a bit erratic (but with the two main characters being teenagers, this makes sense), and the writing was good.
The only thing that let it down for me is the ending. It seemed to wrap up a bit too fast, and it wasn't really a satisfying end of the story. Other than that, it was a good read though.
February 2, 2014
ARC for review
I've never read Burgess's seminal (I was in my early twenties when it was published so my reading material was mostly PROSSER ON TORTS) so I was looking forward to trying my first book by him. I enjoyed it, but was a bit underwhelmed. While I enjoyed the "rage against the machine" spirit and loved the entire idea of a drug that allows an individual to live a great life for a week, then perish, I found the writing choppy and the plotting a bit off (a criminal mastermind would allow his psychotic son to run free? Not if it would pose a potential risk to his criminal enterprise. This entire world-wide phenomenon just happens to center around a very few people?).
I enjoyed it, but didn't love it and wish the plotting had been worthy of the great idea.
I've never read Burgess's seminal (I was in my early twenties when it was published so my reading material was mostly PROSSER ON TORTS) so I was looking forward to trying my first book by him. I enjoyed it, but was a bit underwhelmed. While I enjoyed the "rage against the machine" spirit and loved the entire idea of a drug that allows an individual to live a great life for a week, then perish, I found the writing choppy and the plotting a bit off (a criminal mastermind would allow his psychotic son to run free? Not if it would pose a potential risk to his criminal enterprise. This entire world-wide phenomenon just happens to center around a very few people?).
I enjoyed it, but didn't love it and wish the plotting had been worthy of the great idea.
July 29, 2015
I thought this was a good idea for a story. However, I'm not sure how I feel about the execution. I liked the novel in itself. However, I felt that Adam was kind of whiney, and Lizzie was an okay female character. The idea that a drug will allow you 7 days of greatness for the ultimate price, death was interesting to me. I felt though that the author did not know how to make up a story around it. I felt that a lot of things were just thrown in to add drama. All in all I thought this book okay, and I liked it, kind of. I would recommend it, and I know this review is all over the place, but I can't really articulate my feelings towards this book.
February 25, 2015
To be honest I thought this book was just crap. I loved the idea and basic storyline but not the way it was written. I didn't get attached to any of the characters and I felt like this books was just rushed. I felt this could have been a lot more detailed and stretched out, at the end it felt like the author couldn't conjure up a decent ending so wrote the most boring and predictable thing he could think of.
September 22, 2015
This book revisits the question, "What would you do if you had one week to live?". While the story is exciting and action-packed, I found Burgess' answers to be uninspired and the book predictable. If you're looking for existential insight, pass on this read. If you want a really good take on the answers you'd expect, pick up this ultra violent, thrill-a-second book and prepare for a cover to cover reading session.
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