K.I.A. - Alexander Charalambides

Description

Hildegard lives in a real-life dollhouse, surrounded by prop houses and actors who play friends, teachers and foster parents. Only one man ever seemed real, and after his disappearance, she’s had enough playing along. As Hildegard makes her final preparations to run away from home, a swarm of black clad soldiers appear, controlling the police and swarming across her home town. She can evade them for now, but after learning their mission, she decides to play along one last time, following them to Truman, a lonely military academy on a freezing aleutian island. Hildegard knows it for what it is: just another prop, but not everyone feels the same way. Through the hell of endless drills and marching, Hildegard befriends the stealthy Grace and bloodthirsty David, and enlists them in an effort to unravel the plan of the man called G and his monstrous menagerie of inhuman soldiers.

Review

This book is pitched as a YA novel, however don't let that fool you into thinking it is any less than a full on thriller, worthy of a read by any adult.

I was really drawn to the book from the description - and was intrigued to find out what it was all about. When we first meet the lead character Hildegard she has stopped taking medication and is aware that there is more to her adoption than meets the eye.

She plans to run away from home and find answers and avoid being enlisted into Truman, a military academy. But then on a routine visit to the hospital she sees from her window a group of people arrive with guns. Now while you would have thought her instinct would be to wonder what is happening, Hildegard pulls all the wires out of a fuse box - it's at that moment you realise this is not going to be a boring novel.

However, instead of eventually running away Hildegard actually submits to being enrolled into Truman. Again not being a shrinking violet she teams up with two fellow pupils Grace and David, getting into some very serious scrapes that James Bond would be proud of. Each time she went a little further my stomach was in knots - what was going to become of her.

The book is really well written and I enjoyed the writing style. There is just enough intrigue for you to wonder how is this all going to end. Then it did end - and I was left thinking what just happened. Did I miss a page? So I went back to the beginning thinking I had misread some of the "file" notes. Still trying to figure it out but maybe it's going to have a sequel?

I'm giving this book five out of five stars .

My thanks to Alexander for supplying me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.