The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson

I may be the last person in the world to read this book, but hey at least I read it! And I sure am glad that I did! I put off reading this book for so long for some reason. It's one of those books that was so hyped for so long that I just avoided it. I don't know why I do that, but I tend to form an aversion to hyped books when I normally end up enjoying them IF they're actually good books. Sorry, but I just don't see myself reading 50 Shades of Grey any time soon :p What made me "read" this one is my new commute to work. I had downloaded the audio of this one awhile ago so I decided to start listening to it on audio now that I had the time to. And I quickly became so engrossed in it!

This is a tricky one to review. I think most people reading this post have probably read the book already, but I won't spoil it just in case you haven't! What we know from the beginning is that Jenna Fox has woken up from a coma that has lasted over a year after an accident. She's forgotten much of her past life. Not just her past life, but who people are who are close to her, she's forgotten certain words, and things in general are just odd to her. But she seems to be recovering at an alarmingly fast rate and things start to seem very bizarre and not right, even to Jenna herself.

For me, the "big reveal" was not a big reveal. I think the reader sees it coming in one way or another way early on in the book. The twist is not something that's hugely surprising, yet the journey is really an incredibly one and it's a book that asks a lot of really important questions. GAH! I don't even know how to talk about those questions here without giving the book away so I won't :p But one of the things it does ask is what makes ones self, ones self? It's a question that's constantly asked of Jenna and by Jenna throughout the book as she struggles to get herself back. And I found myself thinking the same thing...if I was in an accident, in a coma for a year, and woke up remembering nothing of my life before...am I still me? This happens to people...sadly, I'd never taken the time to really think about this before, but it just made me so sad...that has to be one of the hardest things ever to rebound from.

It asks a lot of questions about medical ethics too and I think this really becomes an important book with how quickly medicine is advancing these days. Definitely one that I would recommend! I've already downloaded the second book in the "Fox Inheritance Trilogy" and I'm happy to learn that the third and final book in the trilogy will be out in 2013. Definitely a world in which I want to explore some more!

P.S...this book also got me SUPER excited about Neal Shusterman's upcoming sequel to Unwind, UnWholly, due out in August!!!!! It's another sort of future medical/dystopian novel for young adults and Unwind is really one of my favorite books that I've read in the last few years. Any YA books you're really looking forward to in the next few months? Hmmm...I feel there's a post there that I should do :p