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Write a review Rate this item: 1 2 3 4 5. Preview this item Preview this item. Find a copy online Links to this item mackin. Allow this favorite library to be seen by others Keep this favorite library private. Save Cancel. Find a copy in the library Finding libraries that hold this item In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.
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View most popular tags as: tag list tag cloud. Bioethics -- Juvenile fiction. View all 7 comments. Shelves: lib-audiobooks , sci-fi. 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 that couldn't stir me. I slept through it all. For the last year and a half she's been in a perpetual state of vegetation, and upon waking she can remember nothing fr "The accident was over a year ago.
For the last year and a half she's been in a perpetual state of vegetation, and upon waking she can remember nothing from her former life.
The memory of her family, friends, and even simple words like "curious" has vanished. But even as bits and pieces of her memory begin to resurface, with the help of home videos and much encouragement from her parents, Jenna can't keep from feeling like something is wrong; with her, what her parents are telling her, and with this life she's being told is her own.
Set in the not-so-distant future, The Adoration of Jenna Fox will entertain and shock its readers with suspense, romance, and evolutionary science. This is one of those books that is very hard to discuss without being spoilery, but I will endeavor to do so. For Jenna Fox, there a lot of things that don't add up. Like how a video of her from seven years ago showing a scar on her chin doesn't compute with the unmarred flesh there now, how her parents keep evading her questions, and how she can't remember anything about the accident that lead to her coma.
And her parents' irrational limitations are suffocating. Even when Jenna starts to get her footing, she's not allowed to leave the house, not allowed to go to school. How is Jenna supposed to get back her life when her parents won't let her? They keep telling her it's for the best, but Jenna knows something off.
I kept trying to guess at what direction Pearson was taking this story, and how science would fit into it all. I didn't even come close. The eventual revelation of why Jenna can't remember her life before the coma and why she feels so misplaced is as shocking as it is intriguing. The romance element is light, but very effective.
It takes back burner to the main plot as it should IMO , but it plays an essential role in the story. Jenna feels lost and confused, and Ethan helps her feel centered and less afraid. If you think you don't like science fiction, you should try this book. Sci-fi is not even my third choice when browsing genres at the library, but I can honestly say that this book has awakened a strong interest in the genre for me.
And on that note, if you read this review and happen to have any sci-fi recommendations, or you know of any books similar to this, be they YA or adult, please send them my way. Note: Although my opinion on this book still stands, I have changed my rating for it, because the two sequels to this book aren't to my liking.
Originally rated 4 stars, now is 3. Apr 10, Heidi The Reader rated it really liked it Shelves: young-adult , fiction , fantasy-and-sci-fi. As medicine advances, ethical questions begin to develop about treatment, life and death and humanity needs to answer them. But, one thing that remains the same throughout all of these technical changes, is the power of the love that parents have for their child. Even now, people sign do not resuscitate orders so that medicine won't keep them in a vegetative state for indeterminate periods of time.
The occurrence of near-death experiences has exploded since CPR and other life-saving techniques have developed. Imagine sometime in the near future, when bio-implants can be used to stop or even reverse internal damage.
What if we figure out how to turn the aging gene off? How then will we handle death with dignity? Or will we even be able to accept death at all? I listened to an interview with the author in which she said that she wrote this book because her own teenager was diagnosed with cancer. She went through the terror and did whatever was necessary to save her child. Along the way, she ran into parents whose children were terminally ill but had no viable treatment options.
Pearson realized how lucky she and her daughter were and it sparked her imagination. It's a worthy a question: how far would you go to save someone you love?
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to consider the possible answer. Apr 17, Susan rated it really liked it Recommended to Susan by: Martha. Shelves: ya-fiction , cap-choices , cafe-book , sci-fi-and-fantasy. Set in the not too distant future, this is a story that deals with medical ethics and how far is too far to preserve human life. Jenna Fox, 17, has just awoken from an 18 month long "coma" following a horrific accident. At first, she has no memory of who she is or what happened, but she remembers details bit by bit.
She gets the sense that there is more to the story than her parents lead her to believe, especially regarding the secrecy of her accident and the self-imposed isolation of the family Set in the not too distant future, this is a story that deals with medical ethics and how far is too far to preserve human life. She gets the sense that there is more to the story than her parents lead her to believe, especially regarding the secrecy of her accident and the self-imposed isolation of the family.
Throughout much of the book, the reader is not quite sure who to trust. Although science fiction, there is a minor romance side-plot between Jenna and Ethan, a boy from school with a shady past. The conflict grows as additional characters are introduced - Alyss who is a victim of the future's regulation of antibiotics and she has lost limbs due to bacterial infections and Dane, another shady character, whose complete story and true nature are unfortunately never cleared up.
Also, Mr. Jenna cannot age, does not eat, breathe, etc. She, essentially, is a medical creation with the memories of her former life uploaded into her There is also the suspense of her illegal status and whether or not she will be found out, and if so, what will happen to her? She is torn between resentment of her new state and gratitude of life. Her potential adversary, Alyss, who opposes artificial life as unethical, eventually becomes her peer when her body is dying and her parents plead with Jenna's despite Alyss's dying wish to turn Jenna in.
The afterward is years later, and we know that Alyss and Jenna live together and that Jenna and Ethan spent 70 years together, many years after which Jenna has his child presumably through surrogate or the like. However I think it is too complex for the average Cafe Book reader. View all 4 comments. Feb 14, Penny rated it it was ok Shelves: reviewed , y-read-young-adults-fantasy. Actual Rating: 2. I get why this book is liked by so many people.
Personally, I didn't connect to it or the characters. It is an interesting premise but I need stories that are preferably packed with drama, conflicts and emotions. The issues explored here, the ethics and morals of what makes a human, are interesting, but too light. These topics are reflected in a superficial way, that although might be ideal for teenagers, it left me wanting, incomplete. I would have enjoyed the story more Actual Rating: 2. I would have enjoyed the story more with a deeper examination and discernment of these hypothesis.
To conclude, I'll just surmise it by saying that although Jenna's reflections have potential, the final feeling of the story is insufficient if you are an adult reader, so to properly enjoy it it would be best to be a young reader. I love to read good books. This is one of them. I was a bit suspicious about it after seeing that the reviews were not that great, so I was a bit afraid to read it..
I love surprises too. If you want a lot of action, this is not a book for you. If you want something really funny, this is not a book for you. If you want a 'teen-love story' this is not a book for you.
If you want something about future and technology and stuff like that.. This is a b I love to read good books. This is a book about being human, about being alive, about second chances, about how precious the memories are, about life, about "how far will a parent go for a child".. I liked Jenna mostly. I liked the fact that her thoughts came in bits, short propositions sometimes not related one with another. I liked Lily. I liked Ethan and I loved the fact that it was not that kind of "I see you I am madly in love with you" story or that "I am a teenager in love so I only think about that boy" story either.
And I liked the ending, even if I think that it was a bit too fast compared to everything else in this book. The only think that I missed and wanted so badly in the end was some sense of responsibility from Jenna's part. I wished for her to understand that it was not all about her feelings they made her think she was the center of the world so she acted like that and made some bad judgements , I wanted her to realize that all those people starting with her parents risked everything for her and she was about to make them lose it all.
It was all about good luck that she had her happy ending. But all in one - I loved this book. This review can be found at ReadingAfterMidnight. Mar 20, Neal Shusterman rated it really liked it. Really liked it. My kind of book. Posed so many questions on what it means to be alive, the nature of consciousness, and the choices we make for our children, right and wrong, good and bad They don't know they are connected. How can a book be simple, yet complicated at the same time?
So strange that I don't even know how to rate it. I'm only sure that Pearson is a very talented author. Her Remnant Chronicles are among my all time favourite series and this one is so so different from it, in a good way.
It shows that Pearson has many great, unique ideas. I can't say too much about this book without comletely spoiling everything. The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a very quiet, thoughtful book. It's a mystery that makes you think. An unusual book. I really loved the first half of the book, the beginning grabbed me. Somewhere towards the last part of the book it dragged just a tiny bit for me, but then the ending and the epilogue caught me completely by surprise!
I don't think I've ever read a book like this before. It's the kind of read that will either really work for you, or make you totally confused.
I love these type of books. I'd really love to read such types of YA more often, there's just something so I really liked the characters, basically all of them. But especially Jenna and Lily, her grandmother. There's a bit of romance too, a very soft and kind one, but I was glad that it never overshadowed the themes of family and self identity. A very thought provoking book for me.
Recommended if you don't mind slow moving books and want to read something a little bit different. It doesn't seem to be the place that is important but the steps in between. View 2 comments. Sep 14, Trin rated it it was ok Shelves: ya , american-lit , amnesia , s , sci-fi. I was disappointed by this. I appreciate that Pearson was trying to convey some real ideas about what it means to be human, but her characters were too two-dimensional for her message to have any effect on me.
And I really, really hated the trite epilogue—it seemed very fake, and cheapened the sense of realism that the rest of the narrative was at least striving for. View all 3 comments. Mar 11, Molly rated it liked it Shelves: ya. I kept hearing about this book it was just optioned for a moveie, I believe?
Did I love reading it? Did I find it compelling? The most accurate reading experience I can compare it to is reading Susan Be I kept hearing about this book it was just optioned for a moveie, I believe? One of Pearson's strengths is her ability to create sympathetic characters.
Sci-fi isn't really my thing, but I cared enough about the character to keep following her through the story, so that says a lot. All in all, thought-provoking. Editorial nitpick: I wish the definitions of words as chapter openings would've been removed.
I think they were unnecessary, belonged to an earlier draft, and found them totally unbelievable considering how much else Jenna DID know. Every single time, I found myself pulled out of the story being mad at the device of them. So not successful, in my mind. Dec 24, Shannon rated it really liked it Shelves: speculative-fiction , sci-fi , , ya.
Jenna is the miracle child, her parents' angel, the perfect child who excels while inside she silently protests, only to show minor rebellions at sixteen. After a horrific accident and a year in a coma, Jenna wakes in an old house in another state, with no memory of herself or what happened. She recovers quickly, but wonders endlessly about who she is. There is only her mother and her grandmother, Lily, in the big old house that they moved to from Boston, and Lily doesn't seem to like her at all Jenna is the miracle child, her parents' angel, the perfect child who excels while inside she silently protests, only to show minor rebellions at sixteen.
There is only her mother and her grandmother, Lily, in the big old house that they moved to from Boston, and Lily doesn't seem to like her at all. She speaks of Jenna like she's another person, somewhere else. As Jenna navigates her way through the act of living, watching old movies of Jenna growing up while snippets of memory slowly surface, her questions only grow.
Why can't she walk properly, why don't her hands interlace? Why is the scar under her chin missing? Why is her mother so frightened, so controlling? Why must she hide from the world? The truth is staggering and frightening: her entire body is synthetic, and only ten per cent of her brain is from the pre-accident Jenna. She a lab project of her father's, a billionaire doctor who invented Bio Gel, in which organs can be housed indefinitely if kept at the right temperature.
Too cold and Jenna will expire. Kept at a moderate temperature, and she could live hundreds of years, never visibly ageing. The implications are profound. Is she the real Jenna? Is ten per cent enough? Was she ever enough for her parents? Is it even ethical for her to be alive? And what makes Jenna dangerous is the fact that she's illegal, and shouldn't even exist.
The book is set sometime in the not-too-distant future. There are several important issues raised by this book, ethical issues that are worth debating and have no conclusive answer. Questions such as: if you have the means to prolong someone's life, should you? Is it right to live beyond what nature decreed? Should people have access to medical technology that will keep them alive simply because the technology exists and you can afford it?
And, what makes us human? How much is enough? Told in Jenna's voice, it is very interesting to see the world through her eyes as she learns to decipher people's expressions, to think beyond her own needs, to realise what's missing as much as what's there - things that make us human, perhaps. In the era of cloning debates, The Adoration of Jenna Fox is highly pertinent. Aside from the issues it explores and the questions it raises, though, is the simple way it is written.
The evolution of Jenna from non-entity to an individual, unique being is a joy to read. Pearson has managed admirably a very ambitious task, and quite subtly too.
Even all the questions didn't annoy me, because they were necessary questions and necessary to understand Jenna. It's also perfect that this book is written for Young Adults, because it's very much the age where we ponder our subjectivity, wonder why we were born inside this body, with this mind and all that comes with it, what makes us unique and so on.
Not that we necessarily stop, but perhaps after a while we take it for granted. It also explores the problematic issue of parental love, of pleasing loving parents at the expense of yourself, of striving to be perfect for them, and living simply because they couldn't let you go.
The title of the book speaks to this. Granted, it's an extreme case, but it certainly pervades society no matter how it is expressed. Jenna's parents couldn't let her go, their miracle child, and they made her more perfect than she was before. She's a more acceptable height now that she's two inches shorter. Her scar has gone. Her skin is flawless. It speaks to the ethical issue of Designer Babies, embryos that can be made to grow into more athletic people, or smarter or more beautiful.
I remember it was big in the news a few years ago, mostly in the US. Who is Jenna Fox? I found Jenna's story compelling, and every character is unique down to the last detail. Nine and a half out of ten. More books by this author. Category: Children's. ISBN: Back to top.
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