Just a sophomore slump, hopefully

I really liked the first installment of this graphic novel series, but volume two fell a little flat for me. In volume two, Ada is struggling with her place and purpose in the world now that she has consciousness and can make her own decisions. The two become closer, but understandably, Alex wants to give Ada enough space to figure out who she is. Ada does not take well to Alex’s imposed distancing and decides to venture out into the world on her own.

I’m still trying to understand why this volume didn’t resonate as strongly for me. Part of it is definitely that the single issues within volume two are less cohesive than they were in volume one. One of my biggest issues with graphic novels is that they can tend to feel choppy and disjointed. The other issue I have with this installment is that I don’t really agree morally with how the conflict panned out.

Spoilers.

In the end, Ada and Alex do get together romantically and I just can’t buy into that at this point. I totally agree with Alex at the beginning when he rejects her romantic advances because she’s basically a child at this point. She might have more knowledge than a child, but she has very little in the way of lived experience. It just seems wrong to jump into something like that before living a little.