HIT LIST
By Jack Heath
Novel
February
The book that I read was a really good book to read and always found myself asking what will happen next. It is one of those books where you can’t stop reading it.
Ashley Arthur and Benjamin are teen thieves; as well as being best friends. They steal artefacts to give them back to their rightful owner. The teen thieves are working for Mr Buckland and hiding from the law. Ash discovers an SOS in the library fax machine.’Wait. She turned back, staring down at the fax machine. Something had caught her eye. A sheet of paper in the printout tray of the fax machine. Something was typed across it in 12-point Times New Roman, the default font for practically every application on every computer in the world:
HELP ME
37.4215,-122.0855
ALICE B’
This SOS sent Ash and Benjamin on a mission to save this stranger. They work out she is being kept locked up by Google.’I said Alice was being held at the Googleplex, their headquarters. My guess is, they don’t even realize it.’ That led them on a quest to find Alice. Soon, some other people are after Alice too: A deadly assassin, a gang of murderous mercenaries, a thief who can walk through walls and a detective with a grudge. Ben and Ash are left trying to find a way to get to Alice first. But when their heard Peachey (a hit man) is released from prisons, Ash needs to find a way to hide from him and find Alice at the same time. Ash and Benjamin soon find out that this task in short, is breaking into the largest Intelligence Agency in the world. It is a seriously dangerous place to be.
The four characters that interested me was: Ash, Benjamin, The ghost(Laim) and Detective Damien Wright. Starting with Ash. She also never gives up and I can relate in a way when I was on a school trip we did this activity called”The Horizontal Bungee”, which is where you try and reach a lollipop sticking out of the ground while you are have a elastic rope stuck to your back. I wasn’t going to give up until I reached that lollipop and I did. Ash wouldn’t give up when fighting Wright.
Ash had a great friendship with Benjamin.
Benjamin went to the dance and took the place of a another person; a football player. I did some acting and it made think about when I was stepping into characters. Benjamin finds the ghost fascinating because he can walk through walls and not be caught. The ghost is a boy called “Liam” who can steal. Liam injected Benjamin with a little bit of tetrodotoxin( a chemical that paralyses people, stops the breathing, lowers the body temperature, and slows the pulse down until it’s undetectable). This made me think about how Laim betrayed Ash and the pain she felt. I felt the same pain, when I was betrayed by one of my closest friends and she got people to start spreading rumors about me. Wright caught Ash at the Googleplex and suspected her of murdering Mr Buckland. This showed that Wright will stop at nothing to get Ash caught. Like Ash, I have guilty of hurting someone but the teachers found that it wasn’t me. In the end, Ash gives herself in and Wright is surprised because she’s never done that before. I can relate, I once owned up to calling another kid names.
The message I took away from this book is that friendship is really strong but even the smallest thing can break that connection. In this book Ash and Benjamin have this amazing friendship and also trust each other. This lesson can be used in the wider world.Ash gave herself in and that made Benjamin very sad. As people we lose friends, and that can break some people, because it might be your best friend. We know the power of friendship but we don’t know what can destroy it. I think this is a very valuable lesson and more people need to know what can break a friendship. I learnt this lesson from a time when I said something as a joke and someone took it the wrong way and didn’t want to be friends with me any more.
All the characters are facing the challenge of getting to Alice first, but they have to stay away from someone as well. This story has everyone in a crazy chase. From Ash looking for Alice and staying away from Peachey, to The ghost looking for Alice and staying away from Wright. In the Hit List all the characters are facing challenges, trying to hide from the character that wants them dead or locked up. Everyone has an enemy. This sends every character into chaos. This challenge I have experienced on a lot of occasions. Once I was looking for a person who I wanted to play tennis with, but I had to stay away from someone who I had won a match against. This challenge is common in everyday life. If someone gets mad at you they become the person you are trying to stay away from and someone who you want to see becomes the person you are looking for. This make me feel scared.
The title was a good fit but it could also be called Alice B. Alice B would be a exiting title because that’s what everyone wants because they’re looking for her. Hit List is good title because Ash and Benjamin have a list of people and places that they can find artefacts and who the artefact belongs to. Both titles would fit; it depends on what you think the plot is more about. Is it the SOS Ash found in the library or the fact the fact that Ash and Benjamin steal artefacts and give it back to it rightful owner. The title caught my attention.
I would recommend this book to Level 2 student because, the character are very believable. If you like a crime drama this is a book you could read and I really enjoyed. This book left me on the edge of my seat and wanting to keep reading to find out what happen next. I found myself experience what the character were at the same time. My opinion on this book is that if your looking for easy read and something that can have many opinion. I have felt all these different emotion throughout the book. This book was the type of book that pick up and then you don’t want to put it back because it makes you want to open it and read what the story is about. If read the back of the book your sense of wonder will being.
This gave me so much joy reading this book and I believe. This book would be on top ten best book.