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The Adoration of Jenna Fox

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What makes us human? How far would you go to save your child? What is ethically and morally right and wrong? These are heavy questions that the author will make the reader ponder long after the last page has been turned.

Jenna Fox has just woken up from over a year-long coma. She doesn't remember anything, but has fragments of memory that she is slowly trying to piece together. There are people there that say they are her parents, and another woman that is her grandmother. Left with the video disks of her life, she starts to watch and ponder "Who is Jenna Fox?"

There has been an accident, but no one will talk to her about the details. As she slowly heals, Jenna questions everything and starts to fill in gaps. After a little while of recovery, she pushes to go to school and begins to attend a local charter school. There she meets an odd assortment of classmates.

Alice has medical issues of her own, and starts to explain the federal ethics board to Jenna. Each person is allotted 100 lifetime points to be used for medical reasons. Alice has prosthetic limbs and explains that limb replacement is relatively low on the point scale. Other procedures would be worth much more. Dane is a neighbor but something seems off with him. When Jenna looks in his eyes, he seems empty. And then there is Ethan. He's hiding a dark secret of his own.

As Jenna discovers the world around her, the secrets and mysteries that are her life slowly start to be revealed. Remembering what Alice has explained about the lifetime points, Jenna comes to realize that there are even deeper secrets about her that she must uncover. Her parents have moved her from Boston to California. Is it to protect her from those that were involved with the accident? Or does it have more far-reaching medical and ethical implications?

Without wanting to give away the plot twists and hidden mysteries of the story, I will tell you that the issues Ms. Pearson raises will cause you to ponder how far science should be allowed to explore. As Jenna tries to discover, the reader will also be forced to wonder how much of us do we need to keep us truly human? Ms. Pearson makes the reader question if it's truly the flesh and blood that makes us human, or if there is something further inside that gives us our identity. Comparing the
lack of emotion that Dane has with Jenna's unwavering questioning of everything, it shows the reader that things are not always black and white. The majority of us live in the gray area that is between the two extremes.

Read THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX to find out what it means to sacrifice everything for love and how to really be human.

Reviewed by: Jaglvr

Jenna Fox has been lying comatose for a year, after a tragic accident she wasn't expected to survive. Upon waking up, Jenna does not recall anything, including who she is. She struggles to figure out who she is by continually watching home videos hoping to jog her memory. Fragments slowly come back to her but they mean nothing to her. She does not feel connected to the Jenna in the videos, or the Jenna in her memory. Some things are really confusing for Jenna. How can she remember things that happened when she was an infant but not her most recent years? How can she remember so many facts, and school curriculum? She remembers history facts but is told history was never her subject. Jenna becomes suspicious of her parents, and rightfully so. Her parents are very secretive and locked doors are common in her house. Her grandmother seems very distant and cold, despite the fact she remembers they were very close before the accident. Why does her grandmother seem to avoid her? When Jenna beings to piece her past together, and she begins to figures out their secret, she does not like what she learns. It raises more difficult questions for her. Is she still the old Jenna or is the old Jenna gone? Where does she go from here?

The Adoration of Jenna Fox is one of the most imaginative, haunting stories i've read in awhile. I was hooked from the first page, and I felt sad to finish and leave Jenna behind. I felt Jenna's frustration and confusion throughout the novel. I also felt for her parents. Jenna was perfect in their eyes. She was their miracle child, and they would stop at nothing to protect her. This book will not disappoint. I will be looking for more novels by Mary E Pearson.

I must confess that I was initially attracted to this book by it's eye catching cover and once I read the synopsis I was instantly intrigued. I am not typically attracted to sci-fi novels, but in this instance curiosity lead me to take a chance on it and I am glad it did.

In a nutshell, the plot is about Jenna Fox, a 17 year old girl who wakes up from a year long coma following "an accident". She has memory loss and must relearn the most basic of tasks. Her family provides her with a collection of home videos taken of her almost as early as conception in the hopes that she'll regain her lost memory. However, Jenna seems to have a hightened sense of intuition and instinct since she woke up and those video clips don't feel like her. She also has the impression that her family members are walking on eggshells around her and that they are hiding things from her. As narrator of the book, Jenna takes the reader through her mysterious journey of self discovery as she gradually uncovers the truth to her past and makes a new identity for herself.

"The Adoration of Jenna Fox" is a truely unique science fiction novel that one could almost believe could be bordering on reality in the not so distant future. It's clear that the Mary E. Patterson has a vivid imagination but that she also put alot of thought and research into what the future of bio-medecine could hold. The book asks tough ethical and phylosophical questions and really challenges the reader to think outside the box.

My only slight issue with this book is that it was slightly underdeveloped and simplified. That is possibly due to its target audience. I would have cared for more set-up/descriptions and developement.

Definitely a very thought provoking and worthwhile read!!

The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary Pearson, tells the story of 17 year old Jenna, who's recently woken up from a terrible accident many years into our future. It was an accident that's left her amnesiac about her life. Her parents assure her that she'll remember who she is in time, but she's not sure they're telling the truth. Or that they even know the truth. As a means of remembrance, Jenna watches videos of her former life. Videos of a much adored girl. A perfect girl. A girl she's not sure she is anymore or can ever be again. Things in Jenna's life spiral out of control as she tries to create her own identity and learns the truth behind the accident and what her parents did after it in order to save her life.

The novel examines the meaning of identity, the law, and the lengths parents will go to to save their child.

It's well written, thought provoking, delightful and gut-wrenching. A great science fiction read for teens (even younger ones, as there's no 'content' issues with this book) and adults.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a very unique novel that fills you with questions, some of which linger after you've finished reading. This is a story that makes you question where our future is really headed and how far science should be allowed to go. Mary E. Pearson weaves the story with such a beautiful, original style that portrays Jenna's thoughts and confusion as well as the thoughts and desperation of her parents. You can clearly see the story from both sides without switching points of view.
The author's use of the grey pages in between chapters adds a lot to the story. The deep ponderings of Jenna written on those pages can cause deep questions about who we really are to surface. The grey also helps to symbolize that our world isn't all black and white, most of the time we are stumbling through the grey spots trying to make sense of it all. That is what I believe the general idea of the story is (along with the idea of how far a parent would go for their child), but shown in an extreme way through fiction and in a dystopian society.
This book is a beautifully written masterpiece that anyone can and will enjoy!

Long story short: Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a year-long coma, and she's still recovering from the terrible accident that caused it. Her parents show her home movies of her life, her memories, but she has no recollection. Is she really the same girl she sees on the screen? Little by little, Jenna begins to remember. Along with the memories come questions--questions no one wants to answer for her. What really happened after the accident? (Description from Goodreads)

My thoughts: Does that description remind you a little bit of Meg Cabot's Airhead? Don't get the two confused, because it's just a surface resemblance. The Adoration of Jenna Fox deals with a lot of the same issues, but it's much more serious story.

I had really high hopes for this book, and it almost lived up to them. I was a little bit disappointed in the world-building- it seemed a little disjointed and hard to believe from time to time. Why are they so technologically advanced in some areas (for instance, creating human beings almost from scratch) and so regressed in others? The inconsistency was distracting. The storytelling is also deliberately choppy, which really fits in with Jenna and her state of mind, but is not my favorite style of writing.

While this book did not quite live up to my expectations, it's still a really good book. It touches on so many issues you could spend months discussing them all. There are the obvious questions regarding Jenna's humanity or lack thereof. But the book also takes a look at free will, parental attachment, medical ethics and more. Each subject is worked into the story in an organic way, but at the end I found my head was packed with questions to ponder. That's a very good thing for me.

This is definitely a book with appeal beyond the usual YA market. Readers from tweens right on through to adults will enjoy it.

Jenna Fox was in a terrible accident, which put her in a coma for one year. She just woke up, and her past is slowly coming back to her in bits and pieces.

But already, there are things about her life that don't make sense - and no one will answer her questions. What really happened after the accident? And how far would you go to save someone you love?

In this novel, set in the nearish future, Pearson weaves a fascinating web of intrigue around Jenna and her circumstances. I sped through this book in two sittings, and loved every moment.

Pearson creates very real characters who you identify with immediately, and tosses in a few surprises to keep you on your toes. A must-read!

What a refreshing and incredible novel! This book is about a teenage girl who wakes up after being in a coma for over a year. When she awakes, she has questions about what happened to her and wants to find out why she was in a coma. Her answers do not come easily by her parents and others around her and Jenna(the teenage girl and main character) wants to know why.
In her pursuit to find the truth, she finds many surprising revelations along the way. The book is really about a parent's love and how far a parent is willing to go for their child. It is also about finding oneself in a world where things are not cut and dried and what the implications are of accepting certain things to be true. The book also brings up many questions about what is moral and ethical.

This book is a thought-provoking read that had me transfixed from the first page to the last. Do not let the fact that the book is found in the teenage fiction section deter you from reading it. This is one of the best books I have read in a long time and it can be enjoyed by both teenagers and adults alike.
The book had me thinking about its themes days after I had finished reading it. It is both a great story and well-written. Do not miss this one!