I don't usually like books like this, and I certainly don't like books that are in the middle of a trilogy when I haven't read the first book. The Guardian Children's books site sent this through with Itch Craft, and I'm like one of my friends: colours put me off a book. Seriously Orchard Books, why the hell did you print the side of the book yellow?! That's the main reason I put this off my reading list for a while. I have, however, picked it up again, despite cringing at the colour scheme.

But this book was really hard to follow. This is my feeble grasp at the plot. (ahem)

This kid, Boy Nobody I'm guessing, works for The Program. The Program is either a Government agency that aims to kill people that work against it, or it's own organisation in it's own right that aims to kill people that go against the Government. The Program has started to doubt this person in how he operates (I know he's a boy, I know that much!), so they give him a new mission to test his loyalty completely: infiltrate Camp Liberty, where he discovers tons more secrets about who he is and who he works for.

I'm extremely mixed about this book, no word of a lie. Maybe it's best to start with the negatives.

First, please decide where you want this book set. One minute you're in Manchester, the next you're in a place called New Hampshire. Both could be futuristic Britain, but then in one chapter your characters are in a Best Buy! I did a search on this and yes, both are places in America, but to my confused brain, please clarify!

Second, it's incredibly hard to follow a storyline when, for half of the story, your character is nameless, and then on a random page, you decide to call it Daniel. Then in comes a Howard! Avid readers of this series will probably scream at me because I'm just too ignorant to find out the preceding plot (in their mind), but I hated the fact that none of the characters had actual names, just pronouns! (Father, Mother, I, Me etc.) My pet peeve in a book.

However, Allen Zadoff fangirls, it is now time to commend Zadoff for his work. Stick with the storyline and you kind of find an Alex Rider crossed with Young Sherlock Holmes weird concoction, and 400 pages, in this case, were well printed.

Apart from the characters being unnamed (silently fumes in the corner), they were well depicted and the characters kind of fit together in the plot. Oh, that reminds me: why was there only one girl in this book? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I swear there was just one girl in this book who Boy Nobody sort of nearly got physical with, per se.

My overall conclusion? Unfortunately, this book and it's sequel brothers don't make my list of books that I need to haul soon, but I did enjoy reading this book. Next time bug your publisher to print using a better colour scheme and this review may have existed a lot sooner! Sorry Allen, your book's quite great.

• Find this book on the Guardian Bookshop.

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