Title: The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Published: April 29, 2008
# of Pages: 272
ISBN: 978-0805076684
My Rating: 4.5/5
Jenna Fox has just woken up after being in a coma for a year and a half. She remembers absolutely nothing of her life – she is told that her coma was induced by a horrible accident and that her memory should slowly start to return as long as she takes it easy. Watching old home movies gives her some insight into her life, but even the movies don’t really trigger any concrete memories for her. When she does start to remember, it is in bits and pieces, fragments of a life she doesn’t understand and one in which nothing is familiar. She pictures people her parents don’t talk about and situations that just don’t make any logical sense. What’s more, her body parts feel so unfamiliar and awkward – she “walks funny”, or so her classmates tell her, and her hands don’t fold together like everyone else’s. The worst thing for Jenna, though, is the fact that her parents are always behind closed doors, having hushed, secret conversations, and her own grandmother severely dislikes and ignores her – and Jenna has absolutely no idea why.
When Jenna starts putting the pieces together and discovering the truth about herself, the book raises some powerful ethical questions. How far would a parent really go to save their child? What kind of rules would they break, lines would they cross, and boundaries would they push to save the most important person of all? And at what cost?
The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a fascinating look at our changing society, an examination of the ethics involved with our advances in science, and Pearson’s interpretation of what might just be possible many years from today. I thought the book was so interesting, because once it was revealed exactly what happened to Jenna, it sort of made sense how the technology used would be possible many, many years from now. And the book really made me think about the ethical situations and the dilemma presented in it.
In addition, I really enjoyed the character of Jenna Fox. I found her to be very well-developed, and I liked how the reader slowly understood what happened to her at the same pace she did. Even though the situation she was in is not possible by today’s standards it was still so easy to feel empathy for what she was going through. She felt so isolated, lonely, and confused, and nobody in her life seems to want to talk to her or explain anything to her. I loved how she truly grew as a person throughout the book – she did miss out on a year and a half of teenage life, so she had a lot of growing up to do once she awoke from her coma at seventeen, and she did the growing up very gracefully. A lot happened to her in a short period of time, and I loved how Person wrote her character to be complex and interesting.
I listened to The Adoration of Jenna Fox on CD, and I definitely enjoyed the audio version. The narrator was great, she really captured Jenna’s personality and made the book seem appropriately creepy at the same time.
Highly recommended, as a book or as an audiobook.
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That sounds like my kind of book. Great review.
what are going guys talking about this has nothing to do with the adroation of jenna fox so stop fucking around and yea you can comment back.
I must get to this one ASAP.
…and so must I. I’ve been dying to read it since last year!
This sounds really good. I’ll have to add it to my overflowing TBR list. Great review!
Thanks for recommending the audiobook!
Sounds interesting! It seems similar to Jodi Piccoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. Have you read it? Very good.
I loved how it managed to be both chilling and lyrical. It was one of my favorite reads of last year!
I have this as a must-read for 2009!! Great Review!
Great review! This one’s in my TBR pile, and thanks for reminding me that I really should read this one soon. 🙂
I really loved this book…it made my favorite book list for 2008.
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i just read this book and it is sooo good its one of my fav. books
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Great review. I loved this book too. It was so different from the other books I had read recently that I was totally hooked to it till the end.
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[…] The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson – I just found the ideas in this book to be so fascinating. And the way the story was put together completely drew me in – I loved the characters and everything else about the novel. […]
This is, like, the best Sciene Fiction book I have read. It makes me wonder so many things that I have put aside for a long time. It makes me wonder about life and death, the future, and love. I think Ms. Pearson is a great story teller. Maybe her books will do semthing for someone one day. I’m telling you this is the best book ever!
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