Review: MILA 2.0 by Debra Driza

MILA 2.0
Debra Driza
Series: MILA 2.0, #1
Release Date: March 12th, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Number of Pages: 480
Rating: 4 stars

Mila 2.0 is the first book in an electrifying sci-fi thriller series about a teenage girl who discovers that she is an experiment in artificial intelligence.

Mila was never meant to learn the truth about her identity. She was a girl living with her mother in a small Minnesota town. She was supposed to forget her past —that she was built in a secret computer science lab and programmed to do things real people would never do.

Now she has no choice but to run—from the dangerous operatives who want her terminated because she knows too much and from a mysterious group that wants to capture her alive and unlock her advanced technology. However, what Mila’s becoming is beyond anyone’s imagination, including her own, and it just might save her life.

Mila 2.0 is Debra Driza’s bold debut and the first book in a Bourne Identity–style trilogy that combines heart-pounding action with a riveting exploration of what it really means to be human. Fans of I Am Number Four will love Mila for who she is and what she longs to be—and a cliffhanger ending will leave them breathlessly awaiting the sequel.

There is so much fun to be had reading Debra Driza's thoroughly interesting and original debut, MILA 2.0. Brimmed to the top with incredibly fun action scenes, likable characters, believable conflicts, and awesome technological abilities, MILA 2.0 is not a novel to be missed by anyone looking for their next great sci-fi read--and especially those looking for an awesome android novel, which there, unfortunately, seems to be a massive shortage of.

For some readers, MILA 2.0 may be a bit slow to start, but for me, I was fully engrossed in the story from the first chapter to the last. For me, the exposition aspect of the novel leading up to the android aspects were absolutely fascinating--and while some readers may have been frustrated by the presence of the cliché mean girl in the beginning, I appreciated that character's presence because she had a major impact on the progression of the plot, and wasn't thrown into the novel just for the sake of conflict. And once the androids aspects do kick in, MILA 2.0 is an absolutely engaging, fun, and unputdownable read.

Mila is an exceptionally interesting and believable character--more believable than many characters in young adult, and she's an android--and she handled each of her struggles and conflicts in a manner I would expect most to if they were placed in her situation. While she did frustrate me quite a few times, most considerably whenever she thought of Hunter, a boy she knew for days and is now aggravatingly and inexplicably attached to, during incredibly inappropriate moments, most notably while she's running for her life, she had understandable reasons for being so attached to Hunter, it was just frustrating to read about his lopsided grin and blue eyes over and over and over again. The relationship between Mila and her mother is one I eventually grew to really enjoy, which at first was the very last thing I expected. In the beginning of the novel, Mila's mother is characterized as a cold and standoffish mother, but as the novel progressed she, and her relationship with Mila, were met with a great amount of development.

Recommended to anyone looking for a fun sci-fi read dealing with androids in an original and fascinating way, MILA 2.0 ended up being a book that exceeded each and every one of my initial expectations. With great writing, great characters, great action scenes and practically great everything, I thoroughly look forward to reading the second book in this entertaining trilogy, as well as any other novels Driza may write.