Review of Blackbird by Anna Carey

Release Date: September 16, 2014

Publisher: HarperTeen

Page Count: 256

Format: e-ARC

Genre: YA 

A girl wakes up on the train tracks, a subway car barreling down on her. With only minutes to react, she hunches down and the train speeds over her. She doesn’t remember her name, where she is, or how she got there. She has a tattoo on the inside of her right wrist of a blackbird inside a box, letters and numbers printed just below: FNV02198. There is only one thing she knows for sure: people are trying to kill her. 
On the run for her life, she tries to untangle who she is and what happened to the girl she used to be. Nothing and no one are what they appear to be. But the truth is more disturbing than she ever imagined. 
The Maze Runner series meets Code Name Verity, Blackbird is relentless and action-packed, filled with surprising twists.

*an e-ARC of this book was given to me via Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and honest review*

Blackbird by Anna Carey was a book, that despite a few problems turned out to be a great and enjoyable read. The suspense kept me on my toes the entire time and the feeling of being hunted added to the thriller aspect of the book. I would even go as far as to say that Blackbird was sort of like if you took a thriller movie and turned it into a book.

The whole book itself was unique for me because it was my first time reading this sort of thriller YA or anything similar. Blackbird kept me reading, anticipating what would happen next or if any clues would be presented. Right off the bat the book starts off with an action-infused scene where a train is speeding towards a girl in the middle of the train tracks. Starting from there and continuing until the book ended there was this feeling of being hunted and chased, of being the prey and not knowing who the predator was. The multiple POV's did help with finding out the main character's ("Sunny") situation, giving out clues and information. However, the second person writing was extremely annoying for me and left me confused during some parts of the book. While it was unique as well the book would have just been better off without it. I didn't end up liking the main character too much either, probably because she herself didn't really know who she was. The smattering of romance thrown in there didn't change anything for me either. Take the second person writing off and Blackbird would have gained another .5 star but who knows, maybe it'll be gone for the sequel.

Despite being a type of book I don't usually read, Blackbird still turned out to be good and I plan on picking up the sequel as well. Blackbird would be best for people who like books with action and suspense and don't care too much about the type of writing.

3.5/5 - Good book