I Am the Mission by Allen Zadoff
Release Date: June 17, 2014
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Young Adult Thriller
ISBN: 978-0316199698
Source: Netgalley
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He was the perfect assassin. No name. No past. No remorse. Perfect, that is, until he began to ask questions and challenge his orders. Now The Program is worried that their valuable soldier has become a liability.

And so Boy Nobody is given a new mission. A test of sorts. A chance to prove his loyalty.

His objective: Take out Eugene Moore, the owner of an extremist military training camp for teenagers. It sounds like a simple task, but a previous operative couldn’t do it. He lost the mission and is presumed dead. Now Boy Nobody is confident he can finish the job. Quickly.

But when things go awry, Boy Nobody finds himself lost in a mission where nothing is as it seems: not The Program, his allegiances, nor the truth.

The riveting second book in Allen Zadoff’s Boy Nobody series delivers heart-pounding action and a shocking new twist that makes Boy Nobody question everything he has believed.

In the sequel to I Am the Weapon (review here), sixteen year old Boy Nobody’s alias is Daniel and his target is larger than any other. Right away, I love that the stakes are so much higher! And in more ways than one! Daniel must jump into his next mission after taking some time for himself to think – time that was cut short by The Program which now has him thinking about his target, Moore and Moore’s sly children, Lee and Miranda. Only, the last person who was on the mission didn’t complete the mission. Which is precisely why Daniel was brought in. It’s up to Daniel to complete the mission and/or figure out what’s going on and what moves are best for him. I love that there are so many bad guys in the sequel and after what’s happened to Daniel, his decision making process has been altered in a way because he let his heart open. It only takes one time.

After what he went through in I Am the Weapon, Daniel has doubts and now’s the time to iron them out. It’s always been about calculating every risk but now more’s at stake because now he’s slowly but surely on the path to thinking for himself. Questioning if certain expectations are worth living up to. There’s lots of secrecy and not nearly as much communication with The Program as before. Have they been compromised? Has Daniel? Will Daniel compromise his friend, Howard now that Daniel’s roped him in again? It was so awesome seeing the return of Howard and seeing Daniel have someone to go through much of this with. The book was thrilling from page one but it became a lot more fun and I felt more at ease with Howard in the picture. I love when a straight up action story can also put a smile on my face.

Plainly put, I Am the Mission is a solid sequel. The characters and the story are just as engaging as the first book. The sequel is consistent in its tone and pacing, easily making this a day read. If I had to choose, I’d say that I liked the story in I Am the Weapon more but really, both books deliver the goods, no sophomore slump here. So if you liked the first book, you’ll like the sequel and you’ll be itching for a third after this ending! Woo!

I Am the Mission by Allen Zadoff is available today.