Review: Mechanical by Pauline C. Harris

Published April 28th, 2013

Fire and Ice Young Adult Books

eBook

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Drew is an android. From the very beginning of her existence, she has been programmed by her creators to understand her superiority and overwhelming responsibilities. She was created for a mission, a mission more important than anything she could ever have imagined.

Drew is sent to a high school to observe the humans and report back to her creators. But when she begins to form friendships with these humans and starts feeling strange human emotions, she doubts the creators’ ways of dealing with her and wonders whether her mission is as wonderful as it once seemed. 

As Drew falls deeper and deeper into the mystery surrounding her mission and her creation, she’s suddenly left with a choice. Does she follow through with what she’s known all her life or does she act on what she now knows is right? (From Goodreads)

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A copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.  This in no way influenced my opinion.

I was pleasantly surprised by Mechanical, a book that managed to draw me in instantly, and kept me reading until I devoured it all!

Mechanical has a contemporary setting, but with androids.  My biggest complaint about Mechanical would be the lack of back story.  You're sort of dropped into this world and not told a whole lot about it.  This sort of works into the underlying mystery of the story, but it also got a little confusing at points.  I wanted to know a little more about Drew and her past.  This applies to all of the characters.  Just a little more development would have been nice.  Beyond the lack of development, the characters were decent.  They legitimately felt like kids who were early in their high school years.

The plot isn't overly complex, but there is this damn mission going on and it keeps getting referenced but the suspense in figuring it out is what did it for me.  I was actually getting flustered from the suspense.  Seriously, they're all like "this is your mission" and I'm like "WHAT IS THE MISSION?!".  This I-just-have-to-know aspect made it a good, quick read.

Overall, I did enjoy Mechanical.  A little more back story would have been nice, but there remains that ability to draw you in and not let go.