Just a quick note: my reviews are subjective and represent my personal opinion. It’s not meant as a personal critique of the author or anyone who loves the book—just my take on it, to help others decide if it’s something they might enjoy too.
Also, SPOILER ALERT
Title:
Nobody
Author:
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
- About the author: This author has many popular books, like The Inheritance Games, which blew up on Booktok and The Naturals series, a personal favorite of mine. This book was publish a little over a decade ago now, in early 2013.
Star Ratings
- Overall Rating: (2/5)
- Spice Rating: (0.5/5)
- Impact: (1.5/5)
Disclaimers
- Trigger Warnings: Violence, Isolation, physical and emotional abuse, manipulation, mental illness, memory loss, death and grief, kidnapping, use of weapons with intent of harm, murder. (there’s prob more I missed, so if there’s something specific I would just make a quick search to find it)
- Note on Language or Content: This is a pretty bland book with a few mild swears but overall is its Y/A so it’s pretty clean.
Summary
Claire feels like she’s invisible: she’s in highschool and doesn’t have any friends, her parents regularly forget about her, and she can’t even get the teenager working at the pool to pass her a towel. Claire finally gets noticed and everything starts to make sense, well except for the boy who wanted to kill her, Nix. He tells Claire that they are different, and uniquely genetically unidentifiable by most people; they are Nobodys. Nix is an assassin from The Society who’s sent out to kill the enemies of the Nobody’s, the Nulls. The society, of course, turns out to be evil like in every sci-fi book and they try to kill Nix and Claire so they have to shut it down.
“What’s more dangerous than one Nobody? Two.”
Main Character(s) Overview
Main Character 1:
Claire
- Brief Description: Claire is fifteen and it’s the summer before her sophomore year of highschool. Overall she was an interesting character. I’ve definitely read worse but the way she spoke just gave off her pick me and while also trying to be just another one of the girls. She has a lot of pity for herself but that’s kinda valid because she’s always ignored.
- Development/Arc: I think she does show some development throughout the book, like kinda giving up society’s expectations when she stole the clothes or pushing back at Nix to go on the final mission.
Main Character 2:
Nix
- Brief Description: Nix is seventeen and a trained assassin since birth. Although he has his moments ESPECIALLY at the start of the book, I overall thought he was a good character, like when he built the bookshelf for Claire. But he talks so badly of himself all the time and I personally found it frustrating, but I also understand that he was abused and has mental health issues and has faced some pretty tough trauma so it makes sense.
- Development/Arc: Nix changes over the book, like getting a better understanding of the world and what it has to offer (computers), but also learning to love other people and take care of them. Eventually he gains more trust for people, as he moves on from the past and makes an identity for himself and controls his own decisions.
If it’s not one of the main characters already discussed, who’s my favorite character and why?
I mean I like these two characters, but I don’t feel a strong connection or reason why one of them is really great. It is a rare occurrence but I didn’t have a favorite character.
I Would Recommend It To This Specific Niche
I would recommend it to those who want an Insta-Love, supernatural powers, rebels, repetitive books, books with sci fi elements, and if you feel like you’re a societal outcast.
Favorite Quotes
- “The resurrection of the dream is almost as hard as watching it die” – I thought this was so smart and was a uncharacteristically enjoyable line for this book
- “Emotions? Useless in a fight. The biochemical jolt that came with them? Gold.” – I liked the vibe of this quote
Plot Holes/ My wishes
This book was soooooo repetitive. I felt as though the entire first third literally repeated again and again. It was painful to sit through and read and After Id got the gist I really wished it just kept moving on.
Insta-love…do i need to say more? It’s one of my personal least fav tropes and it just wasn’t pulled off super successfully here, like in a week they became the center of each other’s universes and were in love. Be so for real.
Sometimes the things Claire said made me literally cringe in real life. Like the whole fart comment and then thinking about nothing but Nix morning noon and night got a tiny bit old.
Did I mention it was really repetitive?
The book was pretty predictable and followed a format that i’ve seen in books before: boy is from the good side and girl is evil, then boy falls for girl and joins her side and they both become rebels, then they take down the evil society or kingdom (See Shatter Me series and Red Queen). There is only one part that was slightly unpredictable and she ruined it…
Unpopular opinion but I feel as though it would have been a better book if she left Nix dead… there I said it. Yes, reviving him me]ade Claire happy but I feel like it would have just added a bit more depth and made me like it more if he stayed dead.
And finally, it just kept saying the same things over and over and repeating it.
Extra things I feel like I should mention
I LOVEEEE most Jennifer Lynn Barned books and have huge spots in my heart for them, buttttt this one just didn’t feel as creative or land wasn’t a page turner at all. I read this over two weeks and I felt like I had to force myself to keep going back and finish it.
I’ve Concurred….
I mean if it’s sitting on your shelf and you’ve got the time on your hands, I might say yeah read it or if this sounds like the absolute perfect book to you, then sure. But I feel like my general consensus is that it’s not really worth it and there’s other books that have similar tropes and aspects that are MUCH more worth the read.
That’s it! Thanks for reading to the end and hopefully i’ll update soon.
Xoxo
Izzie
Book Nook Girl 
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