Review: Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson

Hunting Lila (Lila #1)
by Sarah Alderson
Published: August 5, 2011




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.

After a mugging 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 organization 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.

In a world where nothing and no one is quite as they seem, Lila quickly realizes 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…

Well, this definitely started out good. I’ve always liked reading books about psychic powers – telekinesis, mind control, mind reading, etc. The concept promises action ninety-percent of the time so I was very excited to start Hunting Lila. And I did like it; the powers thing, the plot. The rest, however, I did not find very appealing.

So Lila, the main character, is a telekinetic. No one knows and she’s kept it hidden for a long time, that is, until she was mugged and accidentally used her powers to protect herself, very nearly impaling the bad guy. She freaked out so she ran to her brother in LA without telling her father. Her brother, Jack, along with his bestfriend, Alex (whom Lila is forevah inlove with), works in the Marine Corps and further into the story, Lila found herself in the middle of his brother’s dangerous work that involves the reason behind their mother’s death.

Lila can be very funny that’s why I liked her during the first few chapters. But she’ll sooner or later get into your nerves. That was my main problem with this book. The main character is exasperating. She’s inlove with Alex – I get that now can you please think about something else? And then there’s the fact that she says ‘I’m not an idiot’ but she can definitely be dense. I bet Suki would agree with me (she’s a mind reader). I mean, do you really have to ask the entire WHY’s in the world? Some of the answers are actually staring at you right in your face. Your brother deals with possible terrorists everyday so he wants you to go back to London, not anywhere near him, and you get all heartbroken and angry that he doesn’t love you enough to let you stay and you ask why he has to push you away? Damn, girl.

Meanwhile, in the heart of an exchange with ‘terrorists’..

The road was rutted, unmade and it was pitch-black out there. The lights from the car dazzled several Joshua trees standing like sentries along the roadside. We rolled along the ruts for ten minutes until we were quite a way into the park. I wondered what on earth had made Demos choose this place in the middle of nowhere.
‘Because it’s the middle of nowhere,’ Suki said.
‘Yeah, OK. Would you please stop doing that?’

But honey, who would point out the obvious to you now? Duh, right? First person POV’s gives direct access to the character’s line of thinking so you’d probably understand why I feel like that towards Lila.

‘I can project – leave my body and go places.’

This time I laughed. ‘You’re telling me you can fly? You honestly expect me to believe that?’ The man was a lunatic. What was I doing listening to this?

See what I mean? Need I remind you, Lila, of your ability to move things with the use of your mind?

‘I need your help.’
I eyed him suspiciously. ‘With what?’
‘We need to stop them, Lila.’
No. I needed to be back with Alex and to go with him and Jack somewhere far away.

Lila has this incredible ability but she doesn’t stop to think things through. She’s all about avenging her mother’s death and hating her killer but when it comes to acting it when given the chance she turns to the opposite direction. She goes headlong into danger but she doesn’t want Alex or Jack joining something they were specifically trained for. She doesn’t even consider that. Other people have to spell it out for her.

‘Everyone ready?’
No. I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t believe I had agreed to help. But what choice did I have? I wasn’t sure there was such a thing as free will anymore.

Selfish much? It’s not like what you’re all doing is just for fun. It’s for you and for people like you. You’re lucky to have found this group willing to stand for who they really are and to protect themselves. And you do have a choice, doofus. You just don’t know which the right one is.

I really liked the twist in the story. We get to meet a whole bunch of other characters and I enjoyed the parts where they are present, hearing their stories. I’d love to know more about them so I’m definitely going to check out the novellas and short stories in the series. I even caught myself smiling in the last chapters until Lila starts to use her brain.

The romance was okay if a little typical. I’m not a hundred percent into it since it makes Lila all the more annoying. There’s plenty of action as well. Hunting Lila can be good; just a shame that Lila has to be the one to tell the story. It didn’t work out for me or I’d love it otherwise.