A review by eesh25
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

3.0

The Adoration of Jenna Fox is about a girl, Jenna Fox, who has just woken up from a coma of a year and a half after being in an accident, and doesn't have her memory. She lives with her parents and her grandmother, Lily. She's struggling to find herself and feels that something just isn't right with her.

There's a mystery element surrounding the novel, and I found that, and the premise of the book, to be very interesting. But it doesn't live up to the intrigue that the description promises.

The mystery is three-part. The first part of it I mostly guessed, the second part, surrounding the accident, was relatively minor (to me) and I didn't really care about it. The third part simply didn't make sense to me. I'm sure it was supposed to be a big deal, but I couldn't get past that fact that it was not at all believable. It either needed to be something else or needed a better explanation because it was a significant aspect of the novel. Basically, the mystery was not accomplished well.

The writing was okay at first, but it became tedious. It was quite dull to begin with and then having to put up with Jenna's internal angst-philosophy monologues got exhausting.

The book was quite uneventful. It kinda feels like nothing happened, or nothing that really mattered, anyway. I was surprised that a dystopian, standalone this short still managed to be boring, but I shouldn't have been. Mary E. Pearson is very good at ultra-slow pacing; if anyone could do it, she could. Though I expected more from her when it came to the romance, which in this case was forced, hurried and didn't even need to be there.

But while the story isn't exciting, it isn't all bad either. It's just smaller and more personal. There's no big villain to defeat, just a girl dealing with a peculiar identity crisis. I have to give props to Pearson for attempting that.

The real saving grace of the novel, though, was Lily. She was a character that I liked. She was bold and strong and I also liked her relationship with Jenna. It was nice to see their interactions and how their relationship developed. That was easily the best part of the book and the thing that kept me reading. The three stars are for Lily.

Overall, the concept was interesting but the book itself was not. I wouldn't recommend it. And after reading the synopsis of the second book and finding out that it's based on the part I found to be unrealistic, I doubt I'll be continuing with the series.