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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
I read this at some point, but it never made the transition from vox to goodreads.
Fascinating. A sparse, eloquent look into medical technology and ethics and how they intersect with real life. And as good as "they" have been saying.
Okay, so, I devoured this book. Really started it in the early afternoon and finished it before I tucked the girls into bed. I don't know that it was a GREAT book. It was a good book and maybe just the book I wanted to read right now.
Jenna Fox is 17 years old when she awakes from a coma in a lovely old house in California. Jenna remembers nearly nothing from her previous life. As she's known is that there's bene an accident and she's recuperating. Jenna's mother and father are over seeing her care, but despite their obvious close connection to her, Jenna feels little for them. Her grandmother, Lily, is hovering there as well and Jenna's disconnect from Lily seems more bothersome than the one she feels from her parents.
Jenna is left with 16 years of videos to watch, as her parents have meticulously documented Jenna's entire life, including an entire DVD filled with ultrasound footage. Jenna is her parents miracle baby, the only survivor of her mother's three pregnancies.
But, despite everything, Jenna doesn't feel lucky. She feels trapped and as though her parents and Lily are keeping things from her. Lily offers cryptic clues, but it's not until Jenna's neurons begin to advance that she gets the subtle clues left by her grandmother.
You see, Jenna is now only 10% human. Well, or maybe even less than that. The only part of Jenna that isn't engineered is the 10% of her brain her father managed to keep alive after a catastrophic car wreck.
Jenna is likeable. She has fleeting memories of her early life and remembers her baptism, a near drowning experience as a toddler and, amazingly, what it felt like to be inside her mother before birth. Jenna's struggling though, as she tries to figure out what and who she is. She's medically illegal and it's possible she's told the wrong people her secret.
And, oh yeah? The boxes in the closet? They keep calling her name.
All in all, a really interesting dystopian read. I really loved the medical ethics part of the book. It really was interspersed with Jenna's tale. How far is too far? As medical technology advances, is a person who only contains 10% of human material (The Jenna Standard, in the book) even a human? Jenna struggles with all of this, trying to decide exactly what's right, what's okay and what Jenna she is after all.
I see this book is recommended if you liked the Hunger Games. Maybe. More likely, if you liked Divergent and Matched, where biological engineering has taken over, you'd like this one a lot.
Jenna Fox is 17 years old when she awakes from a coma in a lovely old house in California. Jenna remembers nearly nothing from her previous life. As she's known is that there's bene an accident and she's recuperating. Jenna's mother and father are over seeing her care, but despite their obvious close connection to her, Jenna feels little for them. Her grandmother, Lily, is hovering there as well and Jenna's disconnect from Lily seems more bothersome than the one she feels from her parents.
Jenna is left with 16 years of videos to watch, as her parents have meticulously documented Jenna's entire life, including an entire DVD filled with ultrasound footage. Jenna is her parents miracle baby, the only survivor of her mother's three pregnancies.
But, despite everything, Jenna doesn't feel lucky. She feels trapped and as though her parents and Lily are keeping things from her. Lily offers cryptic clues, but it's not until Jenna's neurons begin to advance that she gets the subtle clues left by her grandmother.
You see, Jenna is now only 10% human. Well, or maybe even less than that. The only part of Jenna that isn't engineered is the 10% of her brain her father managed to keep alive after a catastrophic car wreck.
Jenna is likeable. She has fleeting memories of her early life and remembers her baptism, a near drowning experience as a toddler and, amazingly, what it felt like to be inside her mother before birth. Jenna's struggling though, as she tries to figure out what and who she is. She's medically illegal and it's possible she's told the wrong people her secret.
And, oh yeah? The boxes in the closet? They keep calling her name.
All in all, a really interesting dystopian read. I really loved the medical ethics part of the book. It really was interspersed with Jenna's tale. How far is too far? As medical technology advances, is a person who only contains 10% of human material (The Jenna Standard, in the book) even a human? Jenna struggles with all of this, trying to decide exactly what's right, what's okay and what Jenna she is after all.
I see this book is recommended if you liked the Hunger Games. Maybe. More likely, if you liked Divergent and Matched, where biological engineering has taken over, you'd like this one a lot.
*No direct spoilers, but if you don't want to get any ideas that might make you figure out what's going on I wouldn't read this.*
Unlike other reviews and some of my friends, I felt that this improved as it went along, rather than deteriorating. To begin with, I would class the story as suspense - it's all about finding out what's going on. I can see why people liked this section a lot, but, as I guessed what was happening far before the actual character did, it was a bit boring for me. However as the storyline developed and became less about the suspense and more about ethics I came to really enjoy this book. While looking at issues such as genetic engineering and where it may go in the future, it makes you question exactly what it means to be human. Interesting and thought provoking.
Unlike other reviews and some of my friends, I felt that this improved as it went along, rather than deteriorating. To begin with, I would class the story as suspense - it's all about finding out what's going on. I can see why people liked this section a lot, but, as I guessed what was happening far before the actual character did, it was a bit boring for me. However as the storyline developed and became less about the suspense and more about ethics I came to really enjoy this book. While looking at issues such as genetic engineering and where it may go in the future, it makes you question exactly what it means to be human. Interesting and thought provoking.
Very good dystopian YA, exploring many controversial issues. The plot moved faster than the text, though (aka, I started skimming because I was too excited to find out what would happen), but still a satisfying read.
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson was a great read. I really loved the subtle scifi world and couldn’t put this book down. This was a one sitting read for me, and though it’s is pretty short, the content is really what drives this forward. I’m not always a fan of stories where we have to learn information alongside the main character, but in this case, it worked extremely well. I really enjoyed this book from cover to cover, especially the concept of receiving medical treatment. I think this was well written and interesting, especially for its length. If you like light science fiction and ya, you’ll definitely enjoy this.
This is speculative fiction at its most harrowing. None of the advances or catastrophes in this book seem implausible, much as you might wish they were. Should we regulate science to stave off unintended consequences? Should science be able to cheat death? And what are the costs?
I can't say I have any curiosity about the two sequels to this book but as a standalone, this was a terrific read.
I can't say I have any curiosity about the two sequels to this book but as a standalone, this was a terrific read.
I raced through the beginning, dying to know what was going on! It had me hooked from the start. The mystery of why Jenna has memory loss is quite the interesting one indeed. First she has little memory of the accident she was in and why she feels so different after waking from the coma. As she starts putting the pieces together, she starts putting a new life together and it's not quite one she would have picked for herself.
I loved her relationship with her grandma - She starts off as almost enemy, to friend, to confidant, to partner-in-crime. Grandma Lily is definitely my favorite character!
Full review originally posted on The Book Addict's Guide: So I definitely think the less you know about the plot to start with, the better. The best part of the book (for me at least) was the very beginning. We only know what Jenna is thinking and feeling and as she get more curious, confused, and unsure about her new life, I really began to wonder… What in the Sam Hill did they do to this girl? Her memories are all garbled – Some missing, some way too vivid – and she feels weird in her own body. Is she a robot? Is this a virtual world and she’s only living out her life in a computer? Is she a clone? What’s going on here!?! So I read and I read and I read, dying to find out what happened to Jenna Fox, and finally – the reveal!
Don’t worry, I’m definitely not giving the secret away. Maybe I ruined it with all my guessing because some how it was not as shocking as I thought it would be (confused yet? If so, GOOD! It’ll be better that way, I promise). But anyway, it’s a very interesting concept and one that’s highly controversial and morally questionable to let Jenna live like that.
Well. I don’t really want to say much more about the plot itself. I want to shroud it in mystery because I think it makes for a better book if you don’t know everything that’s going on – It really lets you get inside Jenna’s head and understand her thoughts and feelings better.
I loved Jenna’s relationship with her grandma. You really see grandma Lily struggling to make something out of Jenna after the accident/coma — We start off by thinking it’s because she made her peace with the fact that she was going to die and said her goodbyes, and then the relationship starts to soften and develop, and Grandma really becomes a friend as well as guidance in life after the accident. I think Lily is my favorite character in the whole book.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing, but as I was reading I thought that maybe it was intentional. Jenna’s narration seems so cold, mostly unfeeling. Very straight-forward and almost simplistic. I felt like there were a lot of lack of natural things like contractions and similes, etc — parts of our lexicon that we use all the time, but now that I’m thinking about it, kind of brilliant to really break it down to how simply Jenna is thinking. She’s pretty messed up and obviously different since the accident and waking up from the coma, so I think that’s all part of starting over. She’s trying to re-find herself as she develops new memories and remembers the old. You can see the stark difference in the emotion of Jenna’s mom as well as a few of the kids from her new school. They clearly have a lot of emotion whereas Jenna is still working all of it out for herself.
As we learned more about what was really going on, we really got pushed to the moral and social issues behind the story, and that I enjoyed. There are some parts of the book that really make you think, “If this was really happening, how would I feel about it?” and sometimes I just didn’t know. It got set up for a second book (and I know there’s one out there), but not quite sure how I’ll feel about that, but it still really does sound interesting.
I loved her relationship with her grandma - She starts off as almost enemy, to friend, to confidant, to partner-in-crime. Grandma Lily is definitely my favorite character!
Full review originally posted on The Book Addict's Guide: So I definitely think the less you know about the plot to start with, the better. The best part of the book (for me at least) was the very beginning. We only know what Jenna is thinking and feeling and as she get more curious, confused, and unsure about her new life, I really began to wonder… What in the Sam Hill did they do to this girl? Her memories are all garbled – Some missing, some way too vivid – and she feels weird in her own body. Is she a robot? Is this a virtual world and she’s only living out her life in a computer? Is she a clone? What’s going on here!?! So I read and I read and I read, dying to find out what happened to Jenna Fox, and finally – the reveal!
Don’t worry, I’m definitely not giving the secret away. Maybe I ruined it with all my guessing because some how it was not as shocking as I thought it would be (confused yet? If so, GOOD! It’ll be better that way, I promise). But anyway, it’s a very interesting concept and one that’s highly controversial and morally questionable to let Jenna live like that.
Well. I don’t really want to say much more about the plot itself. I want to shroud it in mystery because I think it makes for a better book if you don’t know everything that’s going on – It really lets you get inside Jenna’s head and understand her thoughts and feelings better.
I loved Jenna’s relationship with her grandma. You really see grandma Lily struggling to make something out of Jenna after the accident/coma — We start off by thinking it’s because she made her peace with the fact that she was going to die and said her goodbyes, and then the relationship starts to soften and develop, and Grandma really becomes a friend as well as guidance in life after the accident. I think Lily is my favorite character in the whole book.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing, but as I was reading I thought that maybe it was intentional. Jenna’s narration seems so cold, mostly unfeeling. Very straight-forward and almost simplistic. I felt like there were a lot of lack of natural things like contractions and similes, etc — parts of our lexicon that we use all the time, but now that I’m thinking about it, kind of brilliant to really break it down to how simply Jenna is thinking. She’s pretty messed up and obviously different since the accident and waking up from the coma, so I think that’s all part of starting over. She’s trying to re-find herself as she develops new memories and remembers the old. You can see the stark difference in the emotion of Jenna’s mom as well as a few of the kids from her new school. They clearly have a lot of emotion whereas Jenna is still working all of it out for herself.
As we learned more about what was really going on, we really got pushed to the moral and social issues behind the story, and that I enjoyed. There are some parts of the book that really make you think, “If this was really happening, how would I feel about it?” and sometimes I just didn’t know. It got set up for a second book (and I know there’s one out there), but not quite sure how I’ll feel about that, but it still really does sound interesting.
Meh. This book is not as interesting or compelling as it initially seemed to be. Luckily it's not very long, so it didn't waste much of my time.
I read this book a few years ago and I never remembered the title so you can imagine my surprise when I typed "book about girl with artificial body but doesn't know" and this popped up! The book was actually very good and I was not expecting the twist!