Book Review: Nobody

There are people in this world who are Nobody. No one sees them. No one notices them. They live their lives under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away. 

That’s why they make the perfect assassins.

The Institute finds these people when they’re young and takes them away for training. But an untrained Nobody is a threat to their organization. And threats must be eliminated.
Sixteen-year-old Claire has been invisible her whole life, missed by the Institute’s monitoring. But now they’ve ID’ed her and send seventeen-year-old Nix to remove her. Yet the moment he lays eyes on her, he can’t make the hit. It’s as if Claire and Nix are the only people in the world for each other. And they are—because no one else ever notices them. Quoted from Goodreads

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I love the concept of this book.  It's not that it's new, exactly, but this is the first time when I've personally seen an entire plot based on the idea.  Honestly, I have a lot of mixed reactions. I really enjoyed parts of it, especially the last third, but there were other things that irritated me.

So, the good?  It had an excellent ending.  It wasn't perfect or tied up in a neat bow, but it was satisfying and I wouldn't change a thing about it.  It had action, suspense, sacrifice, confrontation, a deal with the devil, etc.  If you get to the ending, this book redeems itself.

Okay, that made the book sound like it was bad.  It wasn't.  At the same time, this is one of the most severe cases of insta-love I've ever run across.  Nix is trying to kill Claire for the first quarter.  Then he realizes she's just like him, and suddenly he can't.  He believes her to basically be a soul-sucking monster, but then is instantly in love with her when he finds out she's not?  Same thing for Claire.  The guy who stalked her and almost kills her goes from attractive assassin to the great love of her life in about six hours.

To be fair, neither of these characters has experience anything remotely approaching friendship even.  For example, Clair's parents have to leave notes around the house to remind them that she exists at all, so I get that they're messed up and why actually being seen by someone would be amazing.  That's fine, but I wish there would have been a little bit more to their relationship besides good looks and similar ability.

I also had a little bit of a problem with the pacing in the beginning.  You know from the blurb that Nix is going to go after Claire and that she isn't the monster he is told she is, but it takes almost a fourth of the book for him to realize that.  I get the need to establish background with these characters, but because I knew he wasn't going to kill her, it didn't build up any kind of suspense for me. I just kept waiting for them to meet and start taking down the Institute.  

Still, I don't want to discourage you. Like I said, I did enjoy this book.  It has a fabulous concept and an amazing ending that I loved.  You just have to get through the beginning and past the insta-love to the action at the end.  There are a few cute scenes between Nix and Claire I appreciated and wished they would have come before they started making out and deciding they have found their one true love.

This book was a fun 3 stars for me.  Honestly, if we were taking the beginning, I would probably have been 2, but the last half would have been 4.  Again, A+ for concept.  I just wanted the first half to live up to the last half.