Review - I Am the Mission by Allen Zadoff

Title:  I Am the Mission

Series: The Unknown Assassin #2
Author: Allen Zadoff

Release Date: June 17, 2014

Pages: 432

Goodreads Rating: 4.28/5 Stars

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

My Content Rating: Mature YA (Some violence; Sex is mentioned, but not shown; Some sexual situations; Some language)

Summary from Goodreads: 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.

***This review may contain spoilers for book #1 in this series.  Check out my review of I Am the Weapon (book #1) HERE.***

I Am the Mission is the exciting second book in The Unknown Assassin series.  Much like the first book, this one is full of action and intrigue!

The synopsis describes the book pretty well, so I'm just going to jump right into my review.

What I loved:

• The high stakes.  The stakes in this book felt even higher than in book #1.  In this book, Daniel (as he was known for this mission) was in constant danger.  Every move that he made potentially put him at risk.  Also, since he knew precisely what he was up against (there was no doubt that Moore's extremists were willing to kill to accomplish their goals), there was a bit more urgency to his mission than in the first book.
• Who to trust?  Daniel had a real crisis of faith in this book.  He had always trusted The Program and assumed that they were on his side, but this book put all of that in doubt.  There were times when Daniel thought that The Program might have abandoned him or possibly might even be targeting him.  Plus, a dramatic showdown with a certain character made Daniel question his allegiance to The Program even more.  Then there were Lee and Miranda, Moore's kids.  Daniel found himself drawn to them, but he was always afraid that their true loyalties were too firmly on their father's side.
• Howard.  Once again, Daniel brought Howard in to help him.  I just love the dynamic between these two. Daniel seemed to feel real friendship with Howard, something he never had before.

The negatives:

• Miranda.  I actually could have done without the romantic element to this book.  It just mirrored his relationship with Sam from the first book a little too much (but in a much less emotional and real way).  Since the romantic element to the book was minor, it didn't mire the book much for me, but I would have liked the book better without it.
• Some suspension of disbelief.  Okay, it's a spy book.  Yeah, sometimes I had to suspend disbelief.  For instance, there were a few times when Daniel would get himself out of a tight spot by saying that Lee had sent him somewhere or to do something - I kept thinking that the people of Moore's compound must not communicate very well, because he never got called on one of those circumstances, even later.

This second installment in the series was just as action-packed as the first and raised the stakes. I can't wait to see what Zadoff has in store for us in book #3!  I give this one 4/5 stars.

***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own***

   

About the Author

Allen Zadoff is the author of the new thriller series, The Unknown Assassin which earned starred reviews and has been optioned for a feature film by Sony Pictures and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment. His YA novel, Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have won the Sid Fleischman Humor Award and was a YALSA selection for Most Popular Paperbacks of 2012. His second novel was My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies, the story of a techie hiding from life after a family tragedy. His third novel Since You Left Me is set in Los Angeles and tells the story of a religious school student who doesn't believe. He also wrote the memoir for adults, Hungry:Lessons Learned on the Journey from Fat to Thin.

Allen is a graduate of Cornell University and the Harvard University Institute for Advanced Theatre Training.

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