The Adoration of Jenna Fox

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson

Recommended to 14+ due to discussion about sexual maturation and heavy issues
4/5 stars
2/5 on the Happiness Meter
Genre: Science Fiction/Futuristic

This isn't a book I would normally pick up as it's a Sci-Fi novel, however, I can't deny that it's very well done. The writing is crisp, simple, and beautiful, the plot is compelling, and if the jarring use of language is at first off-putting, the reader quickly grows accustomed to it. The Adoration of Jenna Fox tells the tale of a girl who wakes up after a year in a coma without any memory of who she is. As pieces of her past slowly return to her she questions what sort of person she was and who she is now. The more she remembers, the more she becomes convinced that not all is right. Some of her returning memories are ones she should not have, such as her memory of almost drowning when she was two years old, or her baptism when she was a toddler. She keeps hearing pleading voices in her head which leads her to question if they are real voices are just figments of her imagination. Things quickly don't add up--her grandmother's dislike of her, her parents' whispers, the missing scar on her chin, her shortened height. This book is certainly creepy, particularly as some of the facts presented in Jenna's futuristic world hit a little too close to home. For example, people have been taking too many antibiotics and have helped create monster viruses that ravage people's bodies. A possiblity for the present?
If you read this book expect your ideas to be challenged, your values to be questioned, and your mindset to be, very possibly, broadened.

Nota Bene--This is one nominees on the AdBooks list. One down, eleven to go (or nine since I'm not reading them all):

Paper Towns by John Green <-----This one's next!

Graceling by Kristin Cashore
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Nation by Tery Pratchett
Impossible by Nancy Werlin