I truly appreciate a teen assassin novel. The story was interesting and the character known by many names was fun to follow through her adventure. My biggest complaint is basically just that the story was but predictable and followed the trope of the spy/espionage/assassin storyline and there were a couple or moments that were like, “yup. Saw that coming a mile away.” The idea of an agency that is training young girls to be assassins is not new (Hanna anyone?) but the messaging by gum and the character development of Wendy/Harper was a nice treat. Ultimately… who are we? Who people say we are, or do we get to choose? I’m sure it’s different for everyone, but Wonder Rush does a nice job of exploring that notion.

Wendy Lockhart is a teenager. Wendy Lockhart is also an assassin. Wendy is her 24th identity. She changes identities after each mission. As Wendy she has a best friend she actually likes and a foster brother she cares about. Unfortunately, her time as Wendy is coming to an end and she will move on to her next mission.

On that mission, Wendy discovers that the agency might not be what she thought it was and her targets might not be the bad guys she was told they were. As she discover the truth about the agency she decides she needs to take it down.

I loved this book. Wendy is an interesting character who you can’t help but love. The idea behind the agency is interesting and compelling. The storytelling is excellent. The author connects the dots in a variety of flashbacks that slowly fills the reader in on vital information. The side characters are great. Some inherently good, some inherently evil, and some a pleasant shade of grey. The story wraps up well, but the final sentence of the book leaves an opening for more.

A great book for teens and adults. Fans of the Gallagher girls series will especially love this. Highly recommend.

I’m not sure yet if I would buy this in for our shop or not. The story line is interesting and hits the market of teen assassins. The adult manipulation and misguided ‘do-gooder’ element is novel and the line of getting rid of nasty people before they do more damage kind of believable. As is the abuse that this results in when an innocent teen is killed.
Saying this, the violence is very normalized. People are being murdered very nonchalantly which I think causes a huge desensitization. Then again, this is the way of a lot of online games, I’m just not sure that i agree with it.

I did read the whole book and fairly quickly too. I liked the narration with various personalities, but also thought it a bit slow in places. Overall, I enjoyed it. My reservations link back to the normalization of the violence, especially in a teen market,