I love to adore The Adoration of Jenna Fox

This is NOT A BOOK CLUB BOOK.  COLLEEN AND KERRY YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ THIS.  I know that there is a solid chance no one will read this blog, and I am okay with that.  I finished a book yesterday that I loved so much I just HAD to talk to someone about it.  My mom’s in Chicago, my sister’s been sick, and so my computer seems to be the only one left to listen. 

“There is something curious about where we live.  Something curious about Lily.  Something curious about Father and his nightly phone calls with Mother. And certainly something curious about me.  Why can I remember the details of the French Revolution but I can’t remember if I ever had a best friend?”

            I marked this paragraph in The Adoration of Jenna Fox.  This is the point in the book, on page 12, where I decided I knew exactly what was going to happen in the book.  I read lots of books, even if I don’t like them (I actually own all of the House of Night books.  Please save yourself and don’t ever read them.)  I did not have high hopes for The Adoration of Jenna Fox, and I’m not sure why.  Amazon had been recommending it for ages, and there was just something about the title and the cover that threw me off (I think the alternate cover with the butterfly is better than the one I have with the puzzle pieces).  I thought this book was going to be a standard science fiction novel with a predictable plot and surprise ending.  I am so glad that I was wrong.  This book has shocked me, amazed me, and managed to make its way onto my top science fiction books ever.

            Jenna Fox has just woken up from being in a coma for a year.  She can’t remember anything before “the accident,” and she can’t even bring herself to say those two words.  She has been moved to California after living on the east coast her whole life.  While her father, the creator of Biogel, a medical miracle that preserves organs, stays in New England, Jenna is forced to live with her emotionally unstable mother and her grandmother who seems to hate her.  Jenna’s mother wants Jenna to spend her time watching movies of her life growing up to spark some memories—through watching the movies, it because apparent that whoever Jenna Fox was, she was adored.  Her mother is so fearful that something may happen to Jenna that she barely wants her to leave the house, but she eventually allows her to go to a school with only five students. 

            Jenna goes to the village charter school, where something seems to be wrong with all of the students.  There’s Gabriel, who plays no real role in the story.  Allys, one of my favorite characters, has lost both her arms and legs due to an antibiotic-resistant sickness.  She now volunteers for the Federal Science Ethics Board, the FSEB, which regulates things like the amount of organ transplants a person can have (In this futuristic society, everyone gets 1000 points.  Each transplant or prosthetic has a point value.  Once your points are up, you cannot receive any more transplants, no matter what.)  Ethan refuses to reveal what has happened in his life, but it is clear that it haunts him.  Dane seems normal enough, but Jenna can’t shake off a feeling she has every time she looks at him.  These students become Jenna’s first friends in her new life while at the same time she is trying to piece together the memories of her old one.

            What makes us human?  This one question is the reason why the story is so amazing.  Pearson forces us to come to terms with this question while Jenna tries to understand it herself.  There were times while I was reading this book that I had to put it down and think about this question.  What part of us makes us human?  Is it our brains?  Our hearts?  Some intangible part of us that is a soul?  I can’t answer the question, but I think it is a fascinating one to ponder.  Another question that permeates this book is what would you do to save someone you loved?  Would I make the decisions that were made in this book, if I were given the option?  I think about my little sister, who is about Jenna’s age, and I don’t know if I could turn away if given the choice.  This question takes on a very real aspect when one looks at the very reason why the story of Jenna Fox came into existence.

            Mary E. Pearson’s daughter was diagnosed with cancer.  She began to ponder what she would do to save her daughter.  Luckily, her daughter survived her bout with cancer, but this idea lead to Jenna.  Six years after her first daughter beat cancer, her second daughter was diagnosed with the same cancer.  She says that “this second diagnosis was almost my undoing, but I believe that it deepened the story and my understanding of the characters, and also deepened my resolve that you never know what you might do in an impossible situation.”  This one quote deepened my love for this book.  It took this book from a fantasy book to a woman’s heart bleeding on the pages.  Once you read this book, and before you judge Jenna, Lily, or Jenna’s mother or father, ask yourself:  what would you do if you were in the same situation?

            I hope that maybe one day Mary E. Pearson will write a companion novel from the perspective of Allys. I would love a story to start with her crippling disease and see her develop her resolve and love for the FSEB.  In the end, decisions were made without Allys consent, and I think it would be fascinating to see how this plays out in another book.

            I recommend this book to anyone.  It is a book that will remind readers of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.  I think that The Adoration of Jenna Fox is more lively and more emotional—it took me two months to get through Never Let Me Go and only a few days to finish Jenna.  If you pick up this book, I promise that you too will become a part of The Adoration of Jenna Fox.