What’s it about? I’ve had a really hard time summing up this book, so I’ll borrow a review from Publishers Weekly:
Sometime in the near future, Jenna Fox, 17, awakens from an 18-month-long coma following a devastating accident, her memory nearly blank. She attempts reorientation by watching videos of her childhood, “recorded beyond reason” by worshipful parents, but mysteries proliferate. Jenna can recite passages from Thoreau yet can’t remember having any friends. As memories return, however, Jenna starts picking at the explanation her parents have spun until it unravels. Pearson (A Room on Lorelei Street ) uses each revelation to steadily build tension until the true horror comes into focus. Even then Pearson does not stop; she raises the ante in unexpected ways until the very last page. Clues are supplied by the supporting cast: Jenna’s father, who made his fortune in biotechnology; a classmate whose loss of limbs has turned her into a crusader for medical ethics; Jenna’s Catholic grandmother, who is hostile to her. A few lapses in logic- if Jenna’s father is world-famous and the family in hiding, why does she enroll in school under her real name?-can be forgiven in favor of expert plotting and the complex questions raised about ethics and the nature of the soul.
So there you have it. Now, here’s my take on it. This isn’t exactly a plot-driven book. While a lot happens internally for Jenna, nothing really happens externally. I’m not usually a big fan of this more literary type work, but wow. Just, wow. You kind of see what’s coming and what Jenna will discover about herself, but Pearson does such an amazing job describing the revelations that I finished this book in two sittings. I literally could not put it down. This book featured some of the most beautiful passages I’ve read, but I won’t quote them here because they’ll give away the twists 🙂
Should you read it? Yes! I cannot recommend this enough. I think everyone should read this book. It makes you question all of your views on bioethics, humanity, and the matter of the human soul. Beautifully done! I can’t wait to buy the next book in this series, The Fox Inheritance. There will also be a third book coming out soon!