Review: Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson

Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson
Published: 4th August 2011
Publisher: Simon&Schuster children's books

Goodreads description:

17-year-old Lila has two secrets she's prepared to take to the grave. The first is that she can move things just by looking at them. The second is that she's been in love with her brother's best friend, Alex, since forever. Or thereabouts.After a mugging on the streets of South London goes horribly wrong and exposes her unique ability, Lila decides to run to the only people she can trust - her brother and Alex. They live in Southern California where they work for a secret organisation called The Unit, and Lila discovers that the two of them are hunting down the men who murdered her mother five years before. And that they've found them. Trying to uncover the truth of why her mother was killed, and the real remit of The Unit, Lila becomes a pawn in a dangerous game. Struggling to keep her secrets in a world where nothing and no one is quite as they seem, Lila quickly realises that she is not alone - there are others out there just like her - people with special powers -and her mother's killer is one of them...

My thoughts:

Lila was so authentically teenage that I occasionally hated her, until I remembered I was exactly that way as a teenager too (and kinda still am, let's not lie). She was that character so like you that you don't like her. Her feelings and reactions towards Alex were so genuine. I could totally relate to how she felt, it felt like I was the girl confronted with the hot older guy I had a massive crush on. Her jealousies and insecurities and thought processes were some of the most authentic I've read in a while.  I gotta say I don't have mushy feelings for Alex (or Jack) but it was totally cool to see Lila's love justified rather than just the "I love him endlessly" we get in a lot of teen novels nowadays. He reminded me somewhat of the Alex in Angel/Angel Burn. 

I loved the concept of this novel, it was very much x-men inspired and I love me some x-men. I loved the conflict in this, of Lila not knowing who or what to believe, but at the same time I kinda felt it was a bit too easily resolved, you know? I kinda spent the first half of the novel wondering when the action was going to happen but thee second half of the novel was pretty action packed. 

There were a couple of pretty massive revelations towards the end of this novel, a couple to be expected but one that really did knock me for six. I've seen rave reviews for this book and I can understand why. It has everything; a relatable female MC, a smokin' love interest, a government conspiracy, a supernatural element. Unfortunately for me, despite  this perfect combo there was just something missing, but I can't quite say what, but it just didn't grip me as much as I expected it to. I really enjoyed it both in concept and actuality, I think this is a fairly unique concept in YA but because I've read a lot of adult novels along the same lines I wasn't totally blown away. 

If you're looking for something that bit different, minus all the tired cliche's of some YA this is definitely the book for you. It's exciting and suspenseful and I am looking forward to the sequel.

4/5