Review: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson

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.

I actually read this book as I heared it was similar to another book I read a while back (Skinned by Robin Wasserman) and despite the fact that I didn't really love that book, I loved the ideas it put across. So I got The Adoration of Jenna Fox through a swap and thought that I might love that, I'd read so many really good reviews for it that I figured it had to be great...

Right?

Wrong. No, don't take that the wrong way, I didn't hate this book, I enjoyed some of the book. The story itself is interesting and I won't spoil it, all I'll do is tell you that it really does put across some great ideas. The tagline is; How far would you go to save someone you love? and that is really what most of this book is about. The book itself raises the question of what humanity is and how far science will go to overcome death. A strong story with strong morals.

The problem is that rather than subtly dealing with these questions, Pearson pretty much forces it on the reader in a way that reminds me of pro-life propaganda, we get the moral that is trying to get put across but in my opinion the way it was so... political was a bit off putting. 

The story is told in Jenna's POV, and is told through a sort of stream of thought narrative, which I think was used to help us get into Jenna's head, but to me I couldn't get in there, I couldn't relate to Jenna, or to her parents or her gran, or to her friends or boyfriend, every single character seemed flat to me which annoyed me to no end because I wanted to relate to them, I really did but I just couldn't.

Another thing that annoyed me was the story itself, it could have been executed so much better, but it just came across as almost artificial, like Pearson was saying; 'I'm putting my opinions across whilst thinly disguising it as a story" and the epilogue just added to the lack of realism, it seemed to end too cleanly and that annoyed me, after such a difficult journey through the book, how could Jenna's future just be that perfect.

Though, i do have to say that this book did make me think, despite me trying to deny this and I had to question my own morals at some points, so Pearson got her own way in the end (I hate to admit it)

Overall rating: D+

Stand alone/series: First in a series
Paperback Release: April 5th 2010

Publisher: Walker Books Ltd

Pages: 272

Book obtained via: Swap