The Adoration of Jenna Fox

by: Mary E. Pearson

Published by: Henry Holt and Company

Reviewed by Andrea Sisco

Who is Jenna Fox? And why can’t she remember her life? Where are her friends? Why can’t she taste food?

The Adoration of Jenna Fox takes place in the future. A future that is striving to make advances in all areas of life, but those advances are regulated by an organization that intends to preserve life by their definition. It’s also a future that is closer than we might think. You just have to read the newspapers, magazines or blogs.

Seventeen-year-old Jenna was injured in an accident and has been in a coma for a year. When she wakes, she doesn’t remember her life, any of it. Her parents encourage her to watch the numerous home movies taken of her from the time she was a baby to just before her accident.

Slowly, memories return. But those memories include times she should not remember, such has her baptism as an infant. Jenna’s mother lives with her and her grandmother in California and her father is living back east where he works. No one will give her a solid answer about why that is.

Jenna’s mother is like a prison guard, never allowing her too much freedom–and her grandmother avoids her. She remembers her grandmother fondly but now she can’t be bothered with her. There are whispers, arguments and disagreements between the adults and Jenna knows they are all about her. But why? The answers may not be what Jenna wants to hear.

Mary E. Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a pageturner. It’s fairly easy to figure out what happened, but that’s only a portion of the book–and for me, it wasn’t the most important part. The story is wonderfully eerie, the characters are fascinating and the ending is positively unexpected and very satisfying. It made me want more of Jenna Fox.

Armchair Interviews says: A fascinating book for Young Adult girls and boys and a lot of adults also.

Author’s Web site: http://www.MaryPearson.com