The Compulsive Reader's Reviews

books:

	• The Adoration of Jenna Fox Mary E. Pearson Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Adoration of Jenna Fox

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Title: The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Grade: A
Ideal Audience: Boys and Girls, 13+
Reading Type(s): All types!

Summary: Jenna Fox has been in an accident. She wakes up from a coma that has lasted for over a year with no memory of her life. Her parents, who seem to worship the ground she walks on, had saved tapes of her childhood self throughout the years. Jenna begins to watch these tapes.

What she sees is a Jenna Fox much different than the one she is now. The previous Jenna was a happy, spoiled child, always with a grin on her face, and the admiration of friends and family. However, the tapes begin to raise certain questions for Jenna. Why is her grandmother, Lily, so cold and uninterested now, while she loved the Jenna that existed before the accident? Why is she living across the country from her father and from Boston, the city they used to live in? Why does Jenna know all sorts of trivial facts, even though she was never a particularly intelligent girl?

Slowly, bits and pieces of her memory start coming back to her. Finally, Jenna is able to put together her past, and find an answer for her questions. She doesn't like what she finds out.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox brings up the question: What is it to be human? What can be considered human, and what can't? How far should you go to save somebody? Is it better to be dead than to be a walking science lab? What is the line between science lab and human? And, in Jenna's case: Is 10% enough?

My thoughts: The philosophical and scientific elements combined are enough to scare the average reader away from this novel. Don't let them. The scientific parts are very easy to follow and quite simply necessary to the story. The philosophical questions (most of which are listed in my previous paragraph) are what makes this book what it is. I, personally, liked them. I've always thought the concept of humanity is overrated, but Mary E. Pearson showed me how important it can be.

I also loved Pearson's writing style. Basically, she doesn't waste words. She cuts straight to the point with no embellishments and no nonsense, showing the reader just where things stand. In a society where the number of people who are reading is diminishing (if the depressing articles are to be believed), this technique needs to be used more often.

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Interesting.

Set circa 2020, Jenna Fox has woken up in a new home, a new life, and new thoughts. She is told that she has woken from a year long coma, surviving an accident that should have taken her life. She is shown videos of her life, her parents hoping that she will remember who she was. Slowly, piece by piece, she begins to understand who she was, and how drastically different she is now...after that fateful accident.

Though this books writing style is extremely intricate and interesting, I sometimes found the plot lagging and boring at points. However, the science is very interesting. Also, you see how Jenna changes and grows the way she interacts and the way the writing style changes.

A good, quick read. It makes you think a lot about humanity and about a future that isn't as far away as we might think.

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The Compulsive Reader's Reviews

Jenna Fox has no recollection of anything that happened before the day she woke up from her coma, a result of an accident that happened over a year ago. All she knows is what the people around her tell her: Matt and Claire, who claim to be her parents, and Lily who they say is her grandmother, but seems to hate her. And there are the videos--they've captured her life since the day she was born. But still, Jenna doesn't remember anything.

But she doesn't need to have memories to understand that her parents are hiding something from her, or to realize that something has changed between the relationship she and Lily had in the videos and the cool words and coiled tension that lies between them now. Jenna doesn't need to remember the past to see that something is very wrong in the way her mother is overprotective and keeps her locked up in the house all day. But unfortunately for her, it just might be the key to discovering what truly happened after that horrific accident.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox is cleverly written to pull readers in from the very first page with its relentless questions and mysterious air. Jenna's blunt voice and stark honesty make her a character to fall in love with, and sweeps readers right up into the mystery that is Jenna Fox. A combination of prose with scattered short poems within strike just the right balance in the story, giving it an understated and slightly foreboding air.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox also raises certain ethical questions and challenges readers as well intriguing them, giving the book more meaning and making it a more thought provoking and absorbing read by posing the simple question: who am I? Though the revelation of what really happened to Jenna is not as complex as what readers may have been expecting, it is nevertheless as affecting. You won't be able to get Jenna Fox out of your head.

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Awesome book.

I am a high school English teacher and I found this book fascinating. It is a quick read, has a gorgeous cover, interesting characters and a well written plot. But, best of all it has fantastic spin off questions and writing/discussion topics for Literature Circle Groups.

What does the future hold? What medical advances might be available in the future that we can only imagine now?

Medical ethics - who should be saved and how? What is too much or too little?

Trust issues - how far would you go to save someone you love? How far would you go to protect a friend or family member?

Government issues - how does legislation affect our lives?

Expectations - What is too much? Why do children feel the pressure to be perfect?

The characters created seem real - like people I know or have known. So you can even look at character development and what makes a believeable character or plot development. Where/when does Jenna catch on? What can you learn about yourself from your memories?

What happens to the characters after the book ends? Spin off a short story about the neighbor/friend, or the grandmother, or Jenna herself.

Read this book and enjoy!

I think this is a YA book that will work well as a choice novel for reading enrichment and I plan to use it in my classroom this year. It would also work well in a psychology class, a sociology class, or an AP History Current Issues class.

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It was okay

Having read the Twilight series, The Hunger Games, the Harry Potter series, I thought this book was okay. It's not a book that I would recommend to people. There are others that are more suspenseful, fun, and engaging.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was involved a year ago. But what happened before that? Jenna doesn't remember her life. Or does she? And are the memories really hers?

This fascinating novel represents a stunning new direction for acclaimed author Mary Pearson. Set in a near future America, it takes readers on an unforgettable journey through questions of bio-medical ethics and the nature of humanity. Mary Pearson's vividly drawn characters and masterful writing soar to a new level of sophistication.

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