America’s best hitman was hired to kill–but when a D.C. government operation goes horribly wrong, he must rescue a teenage runaway and investigate her parents’ murders in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller.
It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn’t seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to pull the trigger. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and is on the run.
Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn’t an ordinary runaway–her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can’t walk away. He needs to help her. Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he’s convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents’ deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.
Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl’s life…and perhaps his own.
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Sexual Content - 2/5
2/5
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Violence - 3/5
3/5
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Language - 2/5
2/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 3/5
3/5
Summary
From: Isaac Scego
Book Title: The Innocent
Book Author: David Baldacci
What do you like about this book:
Summery::
A highly trained assassin with bedazzling fight moves along with someone who forces him to have to think of someone besides himself, on the run from a heartless organization that could be anywhere, at anytime, and kill them both or someone else without the slightest hesitation. Sound familiar? That's probably because it is. Painfully familiar.
At times, David Baldacci's novel The Innocent is a fun, harmless read. Fun for the first half. Harmless for the first two-thirds. It has its moments of cheap thrills and character interaction, and even some sweet moments to smile on. But eventually, and almost inevitably, all these things become old and stale so that when you reach the final chapters, you are ready and rearing for it to finally be over so you can move on to something else.
Now, concerning the "harmless" side of things. Profanity is indeed a problem throughout, but the real concerns more than likely come in the form of its grimmer-than-needed atmosphere of abuse and drugs. And pair that along with a healthy dosage of suggestive material. Baldacci was definitely not aiming to change anyone's life or move anyone's heart with this book. With that goal (or lack thereof) he has succeeded. Entertainment is obviously his main goal. But has he really accomplished this motivation? That subject is highly debatable. Yes, perhaps he should have left the more problematic words, situations, and content out of it; but more than that, I attest that if you are going to write five hundred pages about anything, it should be about something we haven't read before.
Sexual Content::
Robie has an obvious attraction to Anne, and watches her frequently whenever he gets the chance. In one instance, he watches her through a magnifier as she undresses, but pulls away before she can take off her undergarments. They eventually kiss and have sex (they kiss and caress, and are said to disrobe, but it is very mild). Though the real sensuality comes with his remembrances of that night; however, both are relatively vague.
At first intimidated at the prospect of staying with Robie, Julie withdraws her concern, saying he doesn't look like a child molester. "How do you know?" Robie asks, to which she replies, "I know what to look for. You don't have the signs." And she knows what to look for because of her foster parents, who are said (not described) to "engage in clearly illegal activity." A reference to children being sold into prostitution. A brief description of a woman's chest.
Some sexual tension arises when Vance asks Robie if he wants to stay at her condo. She tends to his wounds, having him take off his shirt. She asks if she can trust him, and when he replies, "Yes," he thinks about it being a lie. Julie asks and jokes several times about if he slept with her, saying that she can tell that Vance wants to have sex with him.
Violent Content::
The fight scenes can get pretty brutal, but little to no blood is described. Men are stabbed, shot, beaten, etc. People are shot in the head in bloody, grisly messes. A woman and child are shot through the head with one bullet, going through the child, to kill his mother. Explosions kill several innocent people and a young girl is hunted and almost killed on several occasions. A group of people fire into a group of innocent men and women, killing and wounding several of them (blood is described briefly). One man is found with his tongue cut out, though little is described.
Language::
The s-word is used about three-dozen times, followed by a good handful of each: "d--n," "a--," "h--l," and "p--s." Five uses of "b--ch," and one of "pr--k" and "whore." Both Jesus' and God's name are held in vain a few times. Some crude comments to the male anatomy. "Screw" is used in a sexual context, and someone makes a comment referring to masturbation.
Drug/Alcohol Content::
Children are used to transport drugs and pills. The people who run this operation are almost always drunk and typically abuse the children while drunk (more on that in sexual content). We read about finding coke and meth (a brief mention of how it is injected) under the couch cushions and beer cans strewn all over the house. Fourteen-year-old Julie's parents are said to be recovering drug addicts and drunkards, and this seems to have an effect on her. She buys a packet of cigarettes at a gas station and is implied to have a habit of smoking. Robie is also said to have once had a smoking habit and indulges this past habit at one point.
Cleanliness:: 2.5/5
| PG-13 | Intense sequences of violence and action, drug content including teen smoking, some thematic elements and brief sensuality
Your ratings of the level of sex, violence, language and drug/alcohol use on a scale of 1-5.
Sex:2
Violence:3
Language:2
Drug/Alcohol use:3