Hit by Lorie Ann Grover Review

Title: Hit

Author: Lorie Ann Grover

Age Group: Teen/Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Series: Standalone

Star Rating: 1 out of 5 Stars

I borrowed this book from my local library and reviewed it.

This book was the December pick for one of the library book clubs I go to, and to say that I was leery is an understatement. I don’t necessarily mind books that bring religion into the narrative, especially if it doesn’t take over. But Hit just really fell flat for me. The concept of the plot was interesting, and I liked that the book went between Sarah and Haddings, but a lot of the characters seemed really flat and one-dimensional. The pacing was kind of slow, though I really liked the format. I don’t know, I was expecting more from this intriguing little book, but honestly it just wasn’t for me. The prose was often so overwrought I found myself rolling my eyes or wanting to rip my hair out, and honestly the idea of Sarah being in a relationship with an older mentor who was supposed to be looking out for her best interests seemed a little far-fetched, even for a young adult novel. I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling this book; it really fell short for me.

Sarah is a girl who longs to be seen as more than just a teenage girl; she wants to be acknowledged as an adult and a person in her own right. She’s sick of her parents controlling her every move, and of being treated like a child. She barely feels understood even by her closest friend. But when she meets the charismatic, handsome Mr. Haddings, she immediately feels as if she’s known him for more than just a semester. And despite his protests, she knows that he feels the same spark. But all of her hopes are shattered when she gets hit by a car, a car that is driven by the man she feels so drawn to. Broken and nearly beaten, Sarah must find a way back to herself, even through unimaginable tragedy, and Haddings must find a way to make his unforgivable actions right, even as he fights his attraction to a girl out to his reach.

As I said previously, this book… There were just a lot of problems with it. First of all, a lot of the prose was just so ridiculous. It went from spare and simplistic to melodramatic and eyeroll inducing, and the change in language was distracting. Most of the characters, even Haddings and Sarah, seemed flat, never going so far as to be characters in my mind; I couldn’t even mentally hear their voices. The relationship between Sarah and Haddings seemed more predatory than anything else. And the car crash seemed to just amplify that they were poorly drawn characters; it felt like Sarah was obsessed with her teacher, which could’ve been forgiven if said teacher had actually attempted to rebuff her advances. And for the most part, I didn’t mind the religious undertones, but there were times when it seemed to overtake the whole book. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was definitely more than the result. It could’ve been good, but it just was… meh. It was a brave attempt at a contemporary coming of age story with a mystery at its center, but Hit just wasn’t for me. The bottom line: Flat characters, overwrought dialogue, and a ridiculous forbidden romance made Hit a book that I didn’t like; I wanted to, but it just wasn’t for me. Next on deck: All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater!