When the Wait is Over: Middle Ground by Katie Kacvinsky

Just the facts:

Overall: 3 Stars

Addiction Level: I read it every waking moment.

Believe-ability: It was believable.

Dystopia Factor: The world has been turned upside down and all hope is lost!

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            Before picking up Middle Ground, I went ahead and reread Awaken, but even if you haven’t reread the first book, Middle Ground picks up right where Awaken left off, making the transition into the second book a breeze.

           

            In Middle Ground, Maddie has finally upset her father enough that he decides to actually send her to a detention center in Los Angeles. While this puts her in a bad spot, she is excited to be able to report to Justin and her friends what really happens in the center. Soon enough, however, her excitement fades as she finds out what it is really like to be “rehabilitated”.

            I was both happy and disappointed with this book. First of all, it took way too long for Kacvinsky to publish this book. I’ve been waiting much longer than necessary for this book to come out and that seems to put a damper on how I feel about it overall. I feel like there is a dark cloud overriding what could have been a great sequel.

            However, I was happy that this sequel took a different approach than most. Basically 95% of the book takes place when Maddie is in the detention center. While some might find this a little repetitive and boring, I really liked it. It gave a better picture of what Maddie was going through and it allowed for a wider cast of characters. It honestly didn’t seem like Maddie and Justin were doing much to defeat digital school, but at least there wasn’t a bunch of action scenes that were just fillers.

Overall, Middle Ground was a slower paced book, but it still did a good job of developing the story. (Just one quick mini spoiler: there seems to be a mole in the group and I’m pretty sure I know who it is. But, we’ll have to wait to find out!)