Date Finished: January 8, 2011
Summary: Jenna has mysteriously survived a life threatening accident. Her parents have done everything they can to keep her alive. Now Jenna is forced to learn things about herself that she never knew before the accident and define what it means to be human.
Likes: While I was reading this novel, even before the big reveal is released I had a sense of foreboding underlying everything. This definitely kept me interested in seeing what was going to happen. The science aspect actually sounded plausible without the story trying to be overly scientific or preachy about the ramifications of medical ethics. It may not make sense in our real world sense, it does have some logical basis and doesn't break the rules of logic for the sake of introducing a deus ex machina.
The romance wasn't actually a romance in my opinion and I appreciated that. It was two people coming to an understanding that each of them is damaged in same way. The story was also about the relationship between parents and children and surprisingly it is not one of the YA novels that ditches parents and actually has them play an active role to the novel. As well as the grandmother Lily, who is another kick-ass older person who doesn't hide the truth from Jenna. I love learning about Jenna's memories and the world as they come to her.
Dislikes: Argh, I'm not a fan of epilogues or last chapters set too far in the future. I'm curious what happens to the characters after the initial story ends, don't get me wrong, but when they are too far from the novel, it's just strange. The character is so far removed from what happened that it's a bit disconcerting. This isn't just for this novel, but for a lot of novels with epilogues. I wonder if they are necessary at times. In the case of this novel, it was so distant and it was a strange ending to an overall well-written story.
Overall: Another dystopian story dealing with another aspect of society. While some deal with technology, the aesthetics, this dystopian deals with the scientific and medical aspects of the way things are going on now. What will happen when we regulate too much or have the technology to remain alive longer than humanly possible. What if we had the technology to possibly live forever, but indefinitely. Would you choose between 2 amazing years or 200 dull ones? I like how this novel tackles this theme. Would someone on the brink of death want the chance to live, even if they had to continually question what makes them human?
Recommended by: Various blogs. I'm glad I read it for myself. It's got a creepy and eerie feeling to it that I enjoyed.
3 comments:
I really loved this book, but I agree, I could have done without the epilogue. I felt like it sort of cheapened things and wasn't necessary. I don't hate it, but I wouldn't miss it if it were gone.
This sounds super interesting! I love books that have big reveals in them.
@Small Review: I don't even know why it was there, I think the ending should have been fixed a little instead of having the epilogue.
@Aylee: It's a pretty big reveal and it was interesting to see how she dealt with the information. I like novels like that as well.
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