Life in a Dystopic United States can be tough, you can go from hunter to hunted very quickly, even if you’ve finished the tasks “assigned” (i.e. your literal kill list) to you by your “employer” (i.e. the new Government, Valor National Bank). You are expendable, just a tool to push their agenda and in the case of this story you are Patsy Klein, the protagonist of Delilah S. Dawson’s Strike (sequel to 2015’s Hit, reviewed here), on the run with your dog Maddy and your boyfriend Wyatt after faking your death and thinking you are free and clear.
When Patsy learns of an underground group going by the name of Citizens for Freedom (CFF), she thinks she may be able to help take down the Valor National Bank. However, once a person meets with CFF, they really have no choice but to join the group as they enforce a pretty strict “With Us or Against Us” policy, where “against” doesn’t end well. Patsy immediately comes to the attention of Leon Crane, the leader of this cell of the CFF, she realizes the enemy of my enemy may not be my ally. Leon sends her and the new recruits of CFF on near-impossible missions to cause chaos and make things go boom, much like a Suicide Squad. Patsy gathers some allies into her growing “splinter cell” of CFF as she continues to butt heads with Leon. She and Wyatt continue to depend on each other, as well as their dog Maddy as they evolve into more than just allies.
The group that forms around Patsy is a group of kids like herself, contracted killers by Valor National, though the diverse group deals with their PTSD differently than Patsy. One young girl keeps mostly silent, one young boy plays it uber-cool, and so on. Dawson did a very good job of building up group of supporting characters who are empathetic, even if they aren’t 100% likeable. As Patsy gets deeper into the CFF, she learns more about her own past and family but also makes an unfortunate trip back to her house, her fist since being “recruited” by Valor.
Dawson also does a pretty impressive job with the Big Bad of this one, Leon. He easily could have come across as a cardboard, redneck bully. However, there’s an intelligence underlying the character and even a bit of charisma. He is a really good foil for Patsy and makes her a stronger character, and helps to strengthen the small band of misfits who surround Patsy and seamlessly and without fanfare appoint her their leader.
The more I was entrenched in the world, the more I felt like I was reading / experiencing a rural Georgia that has much in common with the broken and breaking civilization in John Carpenter’s They Live. Granted, there’s no sign of Rowdy Roddy Piper, but the CFF is like a more sinister version of the group in They Live who makes the special sunglasses over which Roddy Pipe and Keith David spend 20 minutes fighting in a back alley. That movie had a really lived in look and had a great local flavor. Those things can be said about Strike (and Hit), only Delilah Dawson does a better job of local flavor and giving readers a sense that the world is real.
Rebekkah Ross, once again, does a great job narrating the novel. Her intonations, elocution, and emotion added depth to what was great material to work with in the character of Patsy.
In Hit, Delilah Dawson introduced the situation, characters, and world, in Strike, she gave Patsy a tangible enemy and foil. It seems the third book will expand Patsy’s world even more especially based on the enticing way she brought Strike to a conclusion.
© 2016 Rob H. Bedford
Audio Book purchased
April 2016
http://www.whimsydark.com/
Excerpt: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Strike/Delilah-S-Dawson/9781481423427
