#8 The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson
The accident was over a year ago. I've been awake for two weeks. Over a year has vanished. I've gone from sixteen to seventeen. A second 
woman has been elected president. A twelfth planet has been named in the solar system. The last wild polar bear has died. Headline news couldn't stir me. I slept through it all.
Jenna Fox has been in a coma for over a year. Upon waking up, she finds she can remember little. Her parents give her videos to watch that cover the first to sixteenth year of her lifetime as a way to jar her memory. Slowly, she begins to recover bits and pieces of her past, but she can't help but feel that something is wrong. She can't remember things she knows that she should, and remembers events that she shouldn't, such as her baptism as a baby. Jenna realizes that she must learn the truth behind the accident and what happened in the year she was asleep, but will she be able to handle the horrible truth?
It's difficult to write a review for this book without including spoilers, so forgive me if I'm a little more vague than usual (granted, the “twist” was spoiled for me before reading the book, and I still enjoyed it). The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a fascinating young adult novel that's not afraid to ask difficult questions. Despite the fact that it's a science fiction novel, the issues discussed felt very current, so it was easy for me to connect with the plot. The world presented isn't quite a dystopia, but a place that is significantly worse for wear due to our interference. The environment has been ravaged, illnesses have developed due to over medicating, and our tinkering with the genes of plants and crops has had disastrous effects on the native species. This book asks, just because we're able to do something, should we do it? What is ethical in a world where science makes almost everything possible? It's impossible to fully answer these questions in a brief 260 page book, and the author doesn't attempt to do that. This is something I really appreciated, as it gave me a lot of time to think about how I felt about the issues raised. I'm not sure that I have the answers yet either.
Another thing I enjoyed about this novel is the characters. Jenna Fox is an interesting narrator. I really enjoyed watching her growth from a childlike state in the beginning, to where she ended up at the end of the novel. Her parents are presented as very gray characters, people who want to do the best for their daughter and their family, but don't always make the best decisions. There's also a romantic element to the novel that was quite satisfying.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a well written novel filled with difficult questions, a plausible sci-fi plot line, and interesting characters. I read it for calico_reaction's book club this month, and I'm really glad she introduced it for me. I don't know if I would have picked it up on my own otherwise.
Rating: four and a half stars
Length: 265 pages
Source: Lewiston Public Library
Challenge: This book is part of the 2010 Support York Local Library Reading Challenge, 2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge and the Sci-Fi Challenge (Hat trick!)
Similar Books: Any plot comparisons would spoil the book for you. The dreamy tone of the book reminded me a bit of Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin.
Other books I've read by this author: This is my first, but not my last!
xposted to bookish and temporaryworlds
woman has been elected president. A twelfth planet has been named in the solar system. The last wild polar bear has died. Headline news couldn't stir me. I slept through it all.
Jenna Fox has been in a coma for over a year. Upon waking up, she finds she can remember little. Her parents give her videos to watch that cover the first to sixteenth year of her lifetime as a way to jar her memory. Slowly, she begins to recover bits and pieces of her past, but she can't help but feel that something is wrong. She can't remember things she knows that she should, and remembers events that she shouldn't, such as her baptism as a baby. Jenna realizes that she must learn the truth behind the accident and what happened in the year she was asleep, but will she be able to handle the horrible truth?
It's difficult to write a review for this book without including spoilers, so forgive me if I'm a little more vague than usual (granted, the “twist” was spoiled for me before reading the book, and I still enjoyed it). The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a fascinating young adult novel that's not afraid to ask difficult questions. Despite the fact that it's a science fiction novel, the issues discussed felt very current, so it was easy for me to connect with the plot. The world presented isn't quite a dystopia, but a place that is significantly worse for wear due to our interference. The environment has been ravaged, illnesses have developed due to over medicating, and our tinkering with the genes of plants and crops has had disastrous effects on the native species. This book asks, just because we're able to do something, should we do it? What is ethical in a world where science makes almost everything possible? It's impossible to fully answer these questions in a brief 260 page book, and the author doesn't attempt to do that. This is something I really appreciated, as it gave me a lot of time to think about how I felt about the issues raised. I'm not sure that I have the answers yet either.
Another thing I enjoyed about this novel is the characters. Jenna Fox is an interesting narrator. I really enjoyed watching her growth from a childlike state in the beginning, to where she ended up at the end of the novel. Her parents are presented as very gray characters, people who want to do the best for their daughter and their family, but don't always make the best decisions. There's also a romantic element to the novel that was quite satisfying.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a well written novel filled with difficult questions, a plausible sci-fi plot line, and interesting characters. I read it for calico_reaction's book club this month, and I'm really glad she introduced it for me. I don't know if I would have picked it up on my own otherwise.
Rating: four and a half stars
Length: 265 pages
Source: Lewiston Public Library
Challenge: This book is part of the 2010 Support York Local Library Reading Challenge, 2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge and the Sci-Fi Challenge (Hat trick!)
Similar Books: Any plot comparisons would spoil the book for you. The dreamy tone of the book reminded me a bit of Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin.
Other books I've read by this author: This is my first, but not my last!
xposted to bookish and temporaryworlds