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The Hit

 

Title: The Hit

Author: Melvin Burgess

ISBN- 978-1-908435-33-0

Out in April!

Imagine the most amazing drug in the world, with the greatest price. For one week, your intelligence, your strength and appearance becomes superhuman and your senses of taste, smell sight and hearing are heightened. However at the end of the hit is one colossal come down; death. The drug binds itself to the human brain and within a week the user is dead. Soon the drug becomes so popular that suicide rates among young people have tripled in a year, particularly after a famous singer, Jimmy Earle, dies suddenly, spectacularly at the end of his concert due to the drug. A teenage couple, Lizzie and Adam are at the concert and witness the riots that follow, encouraged by the Zealots a revolutionary gang who are handing out hundreds of free ‘death’ pills on the streets of London. At one point Adam would never have dreamed of suicide, but from that night on his life begins to spiral downwards dramatically. He never feels good enough for his rich pretty girlfriend, Lizzie who is constantly encouraged by her parents and friends to dump him. On the day they promise to lose their virginities to one another Adam finds out the terrible news that he will never see his brother again; now he must give up school in order to work as his father is handicapped and his brother Jess had been the main source of income. He feels he is on the brink of losing everything anyway, and is tempted by the ultimate high followed by escape from life. It’s up to Lizzie to save him from the worst decision he could possibly make. However she has her own problems as the Christian Ballentine, the heavily medicated, unbalanced son of an immensely powerful drug dealer has taken an interest in her and he refuses to give up. The Ballentines are linked with the drug ‘death’ and with the Zealots, but who is in control? 

                This book is dramatic and difficult to put down, however I would have preferred it longer, or split into a few books in order to learn more about the characters and focus on the events; I had to read the end a couple of times before I actually understood everything- it all happened so quickly! Nevertheless it’s an amazing storyline and it will have you on the edge of your seat!

I would rate this 8/10!

Humans

Title- The Humans

Author – Matt Hang

ISBN- (hardback)- 9780857868756

ISBN-(paperback)- 9780857868763

Out soon!

Sorry there is no picture as the book has not been published yet.

This book will change the way you think about life, the human race and the universe. What if aliens really did exist and were more advanced and intelligent than us? And what if they walked among us disguised as humans, influencing events in order to control the progression of the human race? This is not a story about Professor Andrew Martin of Cambridge University, a workaholic who ignores his family in order to solve the greatest mathematical riddle of our time- the pattern of prime numbers. In doing this he has unlocked the secret to technological advancement which will send the human race hurtling towards the future. This story is not about Professor Andre Martin, however, this story is about the alien, who after he had been killed, took over his body in order to prevent the answer to this riddle falling into the clutches of a civilisation who were not ready. Thrown into his disguise, this alien’s only guide to earth was what lay in the pages of that the ‘Cosmopolitan’, consequently his first event on earth involves being arrested for public display of nudity.    Soon, however he begins to blend in, and he begins to proceed with his task; to kill anyone who may have any knowledge of Andrew Martin’s solution. His kind have no emotions, relationships or favouritism, they strive for knowledge, and the greatest good for the greatest number, working to preserve their race rather than themselves. They also view humans as inferior, disposable beings. Therefore when the fake Andrew Martin becomes a little attached to his wife Isobel and their son Gulliver, as he tries to help them deal with the problems caused by the real Professor, who abandoned and ignored them, the situation becomes more complicated. Despite his initial hatred of his disguise, human food and tastes, he finds himself growing strangely fond of peanut butter, poetry (especially Emily Dickinson), and David Bowie’s Space Oddity’ which ‘tells you nothing about space, but is very pleasing to the ears’. Suddenly Andrew Martin has become a much better father, husband, and allround human being than he ever was, but can he save his newfound family by the fate his kind has in store for them? Or will he finally ‘remember who he truly is and what his ‘kind’ is fighting for’.

                This is a humorous charming, often tragic depiction of humanity; desperate, often selfish, but loving. I would fully recommend it for a life-changing read. Remember, (from 97 pieces of advice for a human), No. 25: ‘there is only one genre in fiction, that genre is a book’

I would rate this as a 9/10!