RENEGADE

Driza (Mila 2.0, 2013) delivers the second volume of a trilogy focused on a seemingly ordinary teen girl who is really an android on the run.

This installment opens with Mila taking refuge in the arms of adorable Hunter on the sunny shores of Virginia Beach. But with so many enemies in pursuit, she can’t afford to relax for long. Mila convinces unsuspecting Hunter to help her find her biological father, and the two set out on a hair-raising adventure that leads them from clue to clue until they finally find the man who can inform her of her rather creepy human origins. All the while, they struggle to stay in front of the organizations hunting her down. Overwhelmed by negative emotions, including the pain of betrayal and rejection as well as constant fear and justifiable rage, Mila initially jumps at the chance to get rid of her human emotions in an “upgrade,” but can she live with the results? Her narration is punctuated by feedback from her robotic components, always rendered in a recognizably space-age–y sans-serif typeface. Fans will enjoy learning the secrets of Mila’s past and root for her as she struggles to understand herself and to shape her future.

Plenty of sci-fi action, a sweet but struggling romance, and a cliffhanger ending will have readers clamoring for Volume 3.