Book Review - The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson

Title: The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Author: Mary E Pearson
Year: 2009
Page: 272
Genre: Fiction - Yound Adult, Dystopian

New to me author? Yes
Read this author again? Yes
Tearjerker? No
Where did it take place? US
FTC Disclosure: Borrowed from the library

Summary (from amazon.com):
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?

First Sentence:
I used to be someone.

Why did I pick this book?
Read reviews on several blogs (sorry, didn't write down which blog) and it sounds interesting. Plus I need some YA for my YA Challenge!

My thoughts:

• I read the hardcover version of this book - which was the one with the butterfly on it. While the white paperback cover might be a bit more eye-catching, I thought the butterfly goes with the story better as it was an important part of the book, as was the hand. What do yo think? I always wonder why they have different covers for hardcover and paperback? Anyone know why? I know they may have different covers (and/or titles) for different countries as different market has different taste... does the same hold true for hardcover and paperback?
  
  
• While I didn't love this book, I did quite like it. The reason I didn't love it is that I could guess where the plot was going and how it was going to end (while I am not always right at guessing, I was this time.) But, it was good to have the affirmation that my guess was correct, and that it had a logical explanation
  
  
• It's definitely a book that made you think. Most books probably make you think what you'd do if you were the protagonist.. but this book made me think of what I'd do for many characters as they all had some kind of decisions to make. What if you were... Jenna? Her parents? Her grandmother? Her friend Allys? Allys' parents? Her friend Ethan?
  
  
• I thought her grandmother Lily was an interesting character in how she treated her daughter, and her granddaughter. Since I am not a mother, let alone a grandmother, I wonder about the type of relationship between grandmother/mother/daughter. I can't elaborate more without giving spoilers, but if you have read this book you'd probably know what I mean around the theme of what parents would do for their child
  
  
• The question I have was about two other characters who were Jenna's friends (their name started with D and G... again, avoiding potential spoiler here!) - it seemed like the former would have a more important role? But D just disappeared after the last interaction with Jenna and it was never really explained what made D so different. As for G - it almost seemed like G was an extra character that could have been omitted (unless I am missing something significant?)
  
  
• And when I finished the book, I had to chuckle (oops, am I sounding too much like Edward from Twilight? After I read Twilight, I thought Edward chuckled A LOT, like, every second page... anyway I digress)... it is almost the as though the author read my review of Liar and ended this book the way I said Liar should have :) Interestingly, both books were published in the same month and same year (Sept 09)
  
  
• My quotes for this book were more like food for thoughts... I didn't necessarily agree or disagree, but again, this is a book that makes you think

Quote:

The mind is an energy that the brain produces. Think of a glass ball twirling on your fingertip. If it falls, it shatters into a million pieces. All the parts of a ball are still there, but it will never twirl with that force on your fingertip again. The brain is the same way... but the mind, the mind could never be transferred... we found that it is like a spinning glass ball. You have to keep it spinning or it falls and shatters. (p123-124)

They say you can only remember events when you have the words to name them. (p148)

"When I was going through my bitter phase, my counselor told me we're all products of our parents, genes, or environment in one way or another... And I may wish I could change the hand I was dealt, but I can't, so all I can do now is choose how I will play it. So that's what I'm doing. Playing it the best I can." (p168)

Do certain events in our lives leave a permanent mark, freezing a piece of us in time, and that becomes a touchstone that we measure the rest of our lives against? (p221)

Faith and Science, I have learnd, are two sides of the same coin, separated by an expanse so small, but wide enough that one side can't see the other. They don't even know they're connected. Father and Lily were two sides of the same coin, I've decided, and maybe I am the space in between. (p263)

Rating:

You may also like these books:

I can't think of any right now that I'd read that is similar to this book, but I will be reading The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist and Genesis: A Novel by Bernard Beckett soon. I think both are of the same genre (but we'll see!)

If you want to read a YA book about another girl and coma, try If I Stay by Gayle Forman. Have some tissues handy though (for some reasons the book really touched me... probably because I was missing my family and hadn't seen them for several years.) Love the simplicity of the cover!

NOTE - there is a list of Dystopian Literature listed in Wikipedia. I had read 3 - Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Never Let Me Go by by Kazuo Ishiguro (actually did not finish this one). I enjoyed Uglies and may read the rest of the series. I found The Road boring (didn't feel the despair/hope/hopelessness/love...). While I thought the concept of Never Let Me Go very very interesting, the writing was too slow for me and I abandoned it... but I did google to find out what happened. Perhaps it's one of those books that I will have an easier time watching the movie just to know the plot (think The Lord of the Rings, Time Traveler's Wife - I hadn't read the former, but did read the latter.)

Have you read this book? 
If you have, I would love to hear what you think!
I'll link your review here if you wish!

Challenges:
100+ Reading
Young Adult