Randomly Me . . . & You, with Lashanta: Random Lit... Mortis by Hannah Cobb

Synopsis

In an underground school rife with duels and deadly classes, Jane hides in the shadows

to stay alive. She is the invisible assassin. But as she prepares to graduate from Mortis,

Jane stumbles across secrets that reveal dark truths about her school.

Will she embrace the darkness, or betray the school that raised her--and the boy she loves?

Once Jane sets herself against her school, there is no turning back, because in Mortis,

failure always means death

My Review

I must admit, when I began reading this book, I found myself asking, huh? I felt a slight pull to keep reading, yet I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. Then I was completely sucked into a vortex and when I finally emerged I realized I’d unknowingly lost six hours of my life. The good part about that, I didn’t even mind.

My overall impression of Mortis is that it was quite intriguing. Most of the characters were well developed and there was just enough description to make me feel as though I was an integral part of the story. What I liked most was that it didn’t dissolve into a teenage love triangle. I believe this was simply because Jane spent so much time questioning herself and her mysterious mentor that she neglected to focus on the dazzling men in her life, Felix and Nathan. I also enjoyed the fact that there wasn’t an over-abundance of make-out sessions and teenagers with out of control hormones. Although they were trained from infancy to be deadly assassins, there was still something childlike about them. Jane was undecided (at least in her mind) on whether or not she loved Felix, based off of Willy’s perception of love, but that didn’t automatically lead her to swoon helplessly to Nathan (although I felt an air of attraction from her where he was concerned – not that I could blame her).

The main thing I didn’t like was that for a good portion of the novel, Jane was basically “dead-on-her-feet.” She was injured to the point of near death and yet she was able to stand against two of the strongest adversaries she would ever face; a bit unrealistic, but then again this was a world of sorcery and kill or be killed. Another thing that frustrated me was I felt cheated by the lack of information on Willy’s character. She disappeared so much and Jane only questioned this to herself instead of aloud (the way a true best friend would do). I also wanted more information on Nathan’s character; how can he see Jane when others can’t and how do his purple eyes play into that? What makes him captain material (as compared to Felix’s obvious leader characteristics)?

Hannah Cobb was able to formulate a perfect balance of give and take that kept you wanting more. I forward to reading more from her.