Teen literature should challenge convictions, should poke holes in the status quo. But resolving Jenna's ethical conflicts - presenting her choice as the one right choice - damages the credibility of the book.
Sure, "it's just fiction," but I'd like to give this book more credit than that. You quote Walden that much, you kind of better be prepared to defend your choices. View all 5 comments. Shelves: young-adult , recommended. I can't say much about this book without being spoilery. I do have to say that because the plot relies so much on secrecy, I would've never picked it up based on the cryptic jacket flap -- I didn't touch it until I had heard so many recommendations I couldn't take it. I can say this: The characterization is wonderful and consistent, the characters are likable, and the plot was surprising.
Even as I guessed at the "twists" might be through the book, I was never quite right and even when I was clo I can't say much about this book without being spoilery.
Even as I guessed at the "twists" might be through the book, I was never quite right and even when I was close, the author's telling was so fresh and honest that it read as true surprise.
Highly recommend. Because I'm only reviewing my favorite books -- not every book I read. Consider a novel's presence on my Goodreads bookshelf as a hearty endorsement. I can't believe I just said "hearty. May 12, Lightreads rated it it was ok Shelves: fiction , disability , science-fiction. Huh, interesting. This book is the short first person narrative of a teenaged girl, told in a string of tiny sections, sometimes just a sentence or two, as she and the reader piece together her memory after waking from an accident.
And yet Jenna Fox was the book I found artifici Huh, interesting. And yet Jenna Fox was the book I found artificial, over-constructed, manipulative. Altered body anxiety.
All dependent on this notion of human as something narrow and prescriptive that you obviously should worry about losing if you ever, gasp, get hurt and need medical intervention. I had a revelation, though. There was an author interview at the end of my audiobook in which Pearson sort of casually defined what ethics means to her. And apparently what ethics means to her is how we feel about things. It just made sense out of a decade of my life!
My God! Look, okay. You know why? Because we feeeeel like assholes. We feel subconscious but measurable anxiety at the presence of people with darker skin than us; we feel in unarticulated but measurable ways that people always have a right to speak up for themselves unless they happen to be women; we feel in subtle but measurable ways that disabled people are upsetting to look at and should just go away.
We are racists, we are sexists, we are deeply ablest — we are assholes. So the notion that we can just look into our feelings and find some clean, instinctive, right, ethical answer is utter nonsense. Which explains everything about this book. Because it is all about how people feel in their hearts — about how they are ablest assholes who ignore things like, um, consent — and not at all about ethics.
View all 7 comments. Shelves: sci-fi , lib-audiobooks. 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: cafe-book , cap-choices , sci-fi-and-fantasy , ya-fiction. 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. One day she can't walk; the next she can. One day her right eyelid droops; the next it doesn't.
But at what cost has her recovery come? What are her parents hiding from her? And why does her grandmother, Lily, hate her so? Jenna also can't shake the feeling that something is terribly off. Through Jenna's search for answers, she will discover a shocking secret about herself and her past she never thought possible.
And Garry Williams just knocked the script out of the park. This story will definitely stay with you for a long time, and we're excited to bring this amazing novel to the big screen. Please enter your name. The E-mail message field is required. Please enter the message. Please verify that you are not a robot. Would you also like to submit a review for this item? You already recently rated this item. Your rating has been recorded. 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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