The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Starred review from March 3, 2008
Sometime in the near future, Jenna Fox, 17, awakens from an 18-month-long coma following a devastating accident, her memory nearly blank. She attempts reorientation by watching videos of her childhood, “recorded beyond reason” by worshipful parents, but mysteries proliferate. Jenna can recite passages from Thoreau yet can't remember having any friends. As memories return, however, Jenna starts picking at the explanation her parents have spun until it unravels. Pearson (A Room on Lorelei Street
) uses each revelation to steadily build tension until the true horror comes into focus. Even then Pearson does not stop; she raises the ante in unexpected ways until the very last page. Clues are supplied by the supporting cast: Jenna's father, who made his fortune in biotechnology; a classmate whose loss of limbs has turned her into a crusader for medical ethics; Jenna's Catholic grandmother, who is hostile to her. A few lapses in logic— if Jenna's father is world-famous and the family in hiding, why does she enroll in school under her real name?—can be forgiven in favor of expert plotting and the complex questions raised about ethics and the nature of the soul. Ages 14-up.

Starred review from May 1, 2008
Gr 8 Up-Seventeen-year-old Jenna Fox awakens after more than a year in a coma to find herself in a lifeand a bodythat she doesn't quite recognize. Her parents tell her that she's been in an accident, but much of her past identity and current situation remain a mystery to her: Why has her family abruptly moved from Boston to California, leaving all of her personal belongings behind? Why does her grandmother react to her with such antipathy? Why have her parents instructed her to make sure not to tell anyone about the circumstances of their move? And why can Jenna recite whole passages of Thoreau's "Walden", but remember next to nothing of her own past? As she watches family videos of her childhood, strange memories begin to surface, and she slowly realizes that a terrible secret is being kept from her. Pearson has constructed a gripping, believable vision of a future dystopia. She explores issues surrounding scientific ethics, the power of science, and the nature of the soul with grace, poetry, and an apt sense of drama and suspense. Some of the supporting characters are a bit underdeveloped, but Jenna herself is complex, interesting, and very real. This is a beautiful blend of science fiction, medical thriller, and teen-relationship novel that melds into a seamless whole that will please fans of all three genres."Meredith Robbins, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School, New York City"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2008
The ethics of bioengineering in the not-so-distant future drives this story. Jenna, 17, severely injured in a car crash, is saved by her heartbroken father, a scientist who illegally uses the latest medical technology to help her. Only 10 per cent of her original brain is saved, but Dad has programmed her by uploading the high-school curriculum. She could live two years, or 200. Is she a monster or a miracle? Why have her parents hidden her away?The science (including allusions to the dangerous overuse of antibiotics) and the science fiction are fascinating, but what will hold readers mostare the moral issues of betrayal, loyalty, sacrifice, and survival. Jenna realizes it is her parents love that makes them break the law to save her at any cost.The teens first-person, present-tense narrative is fast and immediate as Jenna makes new friends and confrontsthecomplicatedchoices shemust make now.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2008
On the heels of her breakthrough novel, A Room on Lorelei Street, Pearson employs another lyrical first-person, present-tense voice to introduce us to a unique heroine. Jenna can remember nothing of her past as she emerges from a long coma, but pieces of her memory begin to return as she recuperates, leading her to question her family's sudden move, the strained relationship between her parents and her grandmother, and their incomplete, evasive answers about her accident. As she befriends a reclusive neighbor and some fellow classmates (she is newly enrolled in a special school), she learns how she survived her accident and, in a tense and thrilling climax, just what she must do to make things right. Jenna's memory loss is a cleverly effective way for Pearson to generate suspense and dispense information, and as it becomes apparent that the novel is set in a future with advanced biomedical technology, nearly every character must wrestle with the attendant ethical implications. Recalling Peter Dickinson's Eva and Monica Hughes's Keeper of the Isis Light, this provocative exploration of bioethics is heightened by the portrait of a family under enormous stress and the subtle thematic threads of faith and science woven through the story, making this a thriller with uncharacteristic literary merit.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2008
Jenna can't remember her past after emerging from a coma, but pieces of her memory begin to return as she recuperates. The novel is set in a future with advanced biomedical technology, and characters wrestle with the attendant ethical implications. With faith and science woven throughout, this provocative thriller is heightened by its portrait of a family under enormous stress.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)