Middle Ground

Middle Ground is the second book in the Awaken series by Katie Kacvinsky.  This book stars Maddie who is supposed to have integrated back into regular society after her brush with the law protesting digital school.  After causing a commotion by hacking into a night club Maddie finds herself locked in a detention center for youths who are not integrating into digital society.  This detention center is stuff of nightmares.  Can Maddie survive?  Will she able to change things for others in her same situation.

I liked this book.  It did a good job of continuing the story without feeling like the story had stalled or that we had left the dystopian society that we were introduced to in the last book.  Maddie did occasionally frustrate me.  Her actions were in some situations so stupid that it made you wonder how she managed to stay alive.  Her total inability to realize that others were going to notice what she was doing was very frustrating at many points in the book.

Appropriateness:  The romance in the book does not get sexual but it does get a bit close (and one could imagine that it was sexual, it's a bit vague).  The main plot revolves around drugs that make the user hallucinate.  I would recommend the book to readers 13+