The Adoration of Jenna Fox

by Mary E. Pearson
The Adoration of Jenna Fox
book data
1,414 ratings, 3.91 average rating, 526 reviews (more data...)
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published
April 29th 2008 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

binding
Hardcover, 272 pages

literary awards
Golden Kite Honor Recipient 2009 Fiction

isbn
0805076689    (isbn13: 9780805076684)

description
In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, r...more




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Susan
04/17/08
Susan rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2008
recommended to Susan by: Martha
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?   yes   (9 people liked it)
  3 comments

Shannon
12/24/08
Shannon rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2009, sci-fi, speculative-fiction, ya
Read in February, 2009
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Molly
03/11/08
Molly rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: ya
Read in February, 2008

I kept hearing about this book (it was just optioned for a moveie, I believe?) and everyone said "the less you know about it coming to it, the better." So I won't say much here. Except that I'm seriously impressed at Mary Pearson's ability to go from writing a contemporary first novel like A ROOM ON LORELEI STREET to writing something so very different as this is.

Did I love reading it? No. Did I find it compelling? Yes. The most accurate reading experience I can compa...more
Like this review?   yes   (6 people liked it)
  4 comments

your neighborhood librarian
10/02/08
your neighborhood librarian rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: young-adult
Read in July, 2008
Interesting. The adoration of Jenna Fox is many things. It is:

* a young adult speculative fiction novel for girls who don't like science fiction


# a coming-of-age novel for people who eschew the touchy-feely (me!)

# a medical thriller, fully as suspenseful as early Robin Cook

# a meditation on choices nearly as profound as Walden, which it frequently quotes

And I think it is, very subtly, a pro-life statement.

Now, I, l...more
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Trin
09/14/08
Trin rated it: 2 of 5 stars

bookshelves: american-lit, sci-fi, ya
Teenage Jenna wakes up after an accident with no memory of who she is—though she knows all of Thoreau’s Walden by heart. As quickly becomes apparent, what’s going on is far more complex than a case of simple old amnesia! Jenna’s slow investigation into what really happened to her ensues.

I was disappointed by this. I said “slow investigation” above because I found the pacing almost glacial: the narrative slinks along, gradually uncovering twists that utterly failed to su...more
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  1 comment

Jamie
04/12/08
Jamie rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 14-16, medical-mysteries
Read in April, 2008
For some reason, I think this would appeal to teens who've already graduated to Jodi Picoult. (It's actually better than her, honestly.) I love that Mary Pearson writes so bravely for the older teen audience and I feel her books would still interest teens who've moved on to the Oprah style adult books.

I think she also does the medical mystery as metaphor for "who am i" teen angst better than Being by Brooks, or House of the Scorpion, but not quite as good as Kazuo Ishiguro...more
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  2 comments

Jennifer Wardrip
08/04/08
Jennifer Wardrip rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

What makes us human? How far would you go to save your child? What is ethically and morally right and wrong? These are heavy questions that the author will make the reader ponder long after the last page has been turned.

Jenna Fox has just woken up from over a year-long coma. She doesn't remember anything, but has fragments of memory that she is slowly trying to piece together. There are people there that say they are her parents, an...more
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Serena
07/22/08
Serena rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2008
To Adore: to worship or admire as divine or as a deity; to be very fond of

Mary E. Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox begins with a teenager who wakes up from a coma to discover she has no memory of her life or her "accident." But the story is much more than Jenna's struggle to find her identity and reclaim her past. The novel examines how one person's struggle with identity can impact a family, friends, and even people s/he doesn't know.

***Spoiler Alert***
...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  2 comments

Navah
05/07/08
Navah rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: sciencefiction, teen
Read in May, 2008
Jenna was sixteen when she was in the accident that sent her into a coma. Now she is seventeen. She has just awoken from her coma. She is missing a year of her life, but more importantly, she is missing herself. She has no memories of herself, of life before the accident--of life at all. Her parents show her pictures, home videos, tell her stories, and slowly, Jenna begins to remember. But with her memories come the questions--what really happened after the accident? Why did her family le...more
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Clay
04/07/08
Clay rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: young-adult
Read in April, 2008
recommended to Clay by: Karin
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Chelsea
03/31/08
Chelsea rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2008, advance, own, recced, scifi, youngadult
Read in April, 2008
recommended to Chelsea by: oopswrongcookie
I read a raving, glowing review of this book on Oops Wrong Cookie on Wednesday, and walked into the bookstore on Thursday to be greeted by Hillary, who said, "oh, this came in today, if you have any interest." I jumped and clapped my hands and did the whole dorky BOOK YAY dance, because that, my friends, is timing.

And that's way more interesting than anything I have to say about the book itself. Which isn't to say that the book was bad, just that it didn't work for me.
...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  1 comment

Amber
01/08/09
Amber rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2009
I was hesitant to read this because I'm not into science fiction, but it was great. And, it wasn't overly science fictioney, is that a word you ask? It is now. Anyways, I was hooked from the beginning, but I held off finishing it because I had a 6 hour plane ride which sucked, but it made it more bearable for a couple hours anyways. I just loved Jenna and her honesty though, one of my favorite characters I've read in awhile.
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  4 comments

Walter
12/08/08
Walter rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2008
recommends it for: lovers of science and science fiction
Utterly absorbing, dealing with ethics and science and faith and family. One of my favorite themes for teens is "Just because we can do something, should we?" And this book, though not as good as Peter Dickinson's EVA, definitely has teen appeal.
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
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Abby
04/07/08
Abby rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: dystopia, sf, teen
Read in June, 2008
recommended to Abby by: Jennifer
After months of hearing great things about this book from pretty much everyone in Fiction, my expectations were HIGH. And for the most part, strangely enough, they were met. Some parts were a little bit unbelievable (Jenna's family is all incognito but they don't change her name when they enroll her in a new school?) or somewhat annoying (the quasi-poems that start off each chapter I could have done without), but I was willing to overlook these details because I was totally engrossed in this boo...more
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Lisa
01/11/09
Lisa rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Possible discussion questions: 1)Which Jenna do you think you would get along better with - the before Jenna or the after Jenna? Why? 2) Why did Jenna's grandmother baptize her at the end? (Answer: It means she thinks Jenna is human and has a soul, possibly a new soul.) 3) Was it right for Jenna to destroy the backups? 4) Was is right for Jenna's parents to make a new Jenna? 5) When did Jenna start to feel like she was a real person? (Answer: After her confrontation with Dane, the sociopath.) ...more
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Mikki Knudsen
08/10/08
Mikki Knudsen rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in August, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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E. M.
06/05/08
E. M. rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2008
This book is... ummm... thought provoking.

Jenna Fox was in a debilitating accident. The story follows her recovery, discovery, & independence. This story takes place in the foreseeable future where medicine has its miracles and pitfalls. Through Jenna you believe this could/will happen.

The language is written to mimic a thought process. The reader discovers things as the as the narrator does. Consequently my main complaint is that some things remain undiscovered;...more
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Brandi Rae
02/11/09
Brandi Rae rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2009
Jenna Fox knows that she was in a terrible accident, one that put her in a coma for weeks. When she awakens, she finds that her family has moved from Boston, to a remote area across the county in order to “facilitate her recovery.” Despite watching countless DVD recordings of her life, the people she calls mother and father feel like complete strangers.

However, while Jenna finds that she can’t remember anything about the accident, her childhood, even her family and friends; she i...more
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Kimberly
01/29/09
Kimberly rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2009
*I just realized the goodreads blurb gives away a huge section of the plot. Lame! Don't read it before you read the book!*

I started reading this book this evening and did not stop until I had finished it about five minutes ago. I haven't done that with a book since Harry Potter 7 (and even with HP 7 I had to put it down to get some sleep, I had started reading it at midnight).

I've read a lot of futuristic/dystopian books and many of them seem predictable. Most of th...more
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Sara
12/30/08
Sara rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in December, 2008
recommended to Sara by: Gwen
A strange book, and pretty similar to Robin Wasserman's Skinned, which I also read recently. In the future world Jenna Fox lives in, medical advances have made it possible to transfer brains from a damaged body into a new one, but people are restricted to a certain number of modifications and brain transplantation is pretty much illegal. Jenna's been in an accident and, now that she's out of a coma and recovering, her family has moved all the way across the country to California to help her ac...more
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The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Audio CD)






quotes from this book

"I still cry on waking. I'm not sure why. I feel nothing. Nothing I can name, anyway. It's like breathing - something that happens over which I have no control. (6)" More quotes...


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Romance Readers Reading Challenges
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