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Delilah S. Dawson is an author whose previous work I thoroughly enjoyed. Her adult paranormal romance series fought through my PNR allergies thanks to Ann Aguirre’s wholehearted recommendation, so when Delilah started writing in a genre I actually enjoy, I was over the moon. Her first YA book, Servants of the Storm, certainly had its problems, but it was delightfully creepy overall and I really enjoyed the tone. Hit is a very different book, with a very different dynamic, although no less spine-chilling.

Hit takes us to a near future, the very beginnings of a dystopian society, with most citizens still blissfully unaware. What was formerly known as Valor Savings bank (and now just Valor Savings) bought out the government and all institutions and is now, quite legally, the owner of America. They don’t actually need more money, but they want the debt reduced, so they send out collections agents free to kill people who can’t instantly return what they owe.

Each able-bodied person gets a choice: either work for Valor Savings as their agent for five days (which of course means becoming a cold-blooded killer), or forfeit your life to the bank. The fine print on people’s credit card contracts makes the blackmail and murder entirely legal � not that there’s anyone left to enforce the laws. Presented with the same choice due to her mother’s debt, Patsy makes the decision to spend five days working for Valor Savings. She gets a gun, a mail truck, and a list of ten names.

Patsy is the protagonist of this story, but she is by no means a heroine. She is a killer, and while she might be shaped by her circumstances, her constant claims that Valor Savings left her with no choice sounded like empty excuses. She chose to kill ten people in order to saver herself and her alcoholic mother, she chose to do what they told her to work off her mother’s debt. It was hard to follow her sometimes, seeing how she neatly convinced herself that things were completely out of her hands.

Rebekkah Ross is a fabulous narrator and she saved this book for me at times, especially when it became too hard to sympathize with Patsy. Her voice is well suited for a young character, and her characterization is excellent, even for male voices.

Although it poses many questions, Hit gives us very few answers. We still don’t know the true nature of Valor Savings or their plan, we know nothing of Patsy’s mother and especially her father, and we don’t know whether her plan actually worked. The answers will hopefully be revealed in Strike, but we’ll have to wait until March 2016 to get them.