The Fire (Mila 2.0, #0.5)

by Debra Driza

[Joséphine]

First off, I read this after reading MILA 2.0, so in terms of determining its effectiveness as a prequel to hype up the release of the first book in the trilogy, I am not in the best position to decide. Origins: The Fire is extremely short. Length-wise, it's the equivalent of a chapter and in my opinion, it should've just been included as a prologue to MILA 2.0. While both #0.5 and #1 can stand alone, they might as well have been tied together.

Personally, I found the drama surrounding the fire a bit too easy. Mila wakes up to a fire and is worried for the safety of her parents. That pretty much sums it all up. I thought it was too centred on the plot without much regard for who Mila is as a character. In the very least, it did reflect Debra Drizer's writing style for the MILA 2.0 series, so this prequel does serve a purpose. I doubt that it would've made much of a an impact on me as a teaser though.