NO ONE READS THE FINE PRINT.

The good news is that the USA is finally out of debt. The bad news is that we were bought out by Valor National Bank, and debtors are the new big game, thanks to a tricky little clause hidden deep in the fine print of a credit card application. Now, after a swift and silent takeover that leaves 9-1-1 calls going through to Valor voicemail, they’re unleashing a wave of anarchy across the country.

Patsy didn’t have much of a choice. When the suits showed up at her house threatening to kill her mother then and there for outstanding debt unless Patsy agreed to be an indentured assassin, what was she supposed to do? Let her own mother die?

Patsy is forced to take on a five-day mission to complete a hit list of ten names. Each name on Patsy’s list has only three choices: pay the debt on the spot, agree to work as a bounty hunter, or die. And Patsy has to kill them personally, or else her mom takes a bullet of her own.

Since yarn bombing is the only rebellion in Patsy’s past, she’s horrified and overwhelmed, especially as she realizes that most of the ten people on her list aren’t strangers. Things get even more complicated when a moment of mercy lands her with a sidekick: a hot rich kid named Wyatt whose brother is the last name on Patsy’s list. The two share an intense chemistry even as every tick of the clock draws them closer to an impossible choice.

Delilah S. Dawson offers an absorbing, frightening glimpse at a reality just steps away from ours—a taut, suspenseful thriller that absolutely mesmerizes from start to finish. (Cover and synopsis from Goodreads.)

A Crazy World

I really enjoyed the other book I’ve read by Delilah S. Dawson, Servants of the Storm, but that book was more of a paranormal story than I’m usually into. But Hit was much more of my kind of story, since it’s a near-future dystopian, and I’m more of a fan of sci-fi or high fantasy rather than paranormal. But Hit has such a cool concept that I was really excited to read it.

I mean, in this book, the main character Patsy shoots someone on page 10 (of the ARC)! Dawson totally went there with this book! And I really appreciated that. I also appreciated the fact that Patsy changes so much in this book, but she remains a good person. She really reacts realistically when she shoots someone (or as realistically as I would imagine, since I’ve never shot anyone), and she constantly struggles with this situation that she has found herself in. She also feels guilty throughout the whole story for her choices, even though she really feels like they were the right choices at the time.

Which really is what this book is all about. The choices that we all make, and how they not only affect us, but affect the people in our lives, our towns, and our world. Yeah, it’s a crazy plot about a girl who becomes a bounty hunter in a world without any kind of police force, where the society is on the brink of anarchy, but it’s really about choice, and making informed decisions (like reading the fine print).

Favorite Quotes*

I normally don’t include quotes when I read an ARC, because the lines may have changed in the finalized version of the book, but I wanted to mention a couple of quotes from Hit. First, I love this feminist line: “Whatever. I don’t owe him pretty.” And I love how this quote sums up the physical aspect of panic attacks: “But my body doesn’t know the difference between real and useless panic, and in this moment, my heart doesn’t either.”

My rating for Hit by Delilah S. Dawson:

4 big stars, maybe close to 4.5. I have to say I’m super happy that this is going to be a series, because if it wasn’t, I would have been left with SO many questions. But since this will be a series, I know that those questions will be answered in the sequels. And I’m really looking forward to reading more about Patsy, Wyatt, and Matty!