Author: Tod Goldberg, Special to USA TODAY

A big imagination compensates for a messy plot in Simeon Mills’ “The Obsoletes,” a coming-of-age tale of teenage robots in small-town Michigan.

Every move Jack and Wynn make along the river has the chance to kill them or others, and the result is a novel that sweeps you away.

“The Lost Girls of Paris” fictionalizes the true story of female spies during World War II.