So Many Books... - June 12th, 2009

10:58 pm - 120 Hour Challenge - Kinda cheating but finishing nonetheless

Give the day that's been in it (well, the latter part anyway, as the earlier one included a very nice meet-up with wyvernfriend), there was no way I'd have the coherence for whipping up a book talk from scratch, but I'm far too stubborn to give in on the last day. So, I'm copying, with minor edits, a short Goodreads write-up I did earlier, of Mary Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I listened to the audiobook, but don't think this had a very significant effect on my response.

Also, to make up for the cheat, here's the link to a lovely piece by outgoing Children's Laureate Michael Rosen. Via Achockablog - watch out for the horrific 'quicks' and 'slows'!

No need to do a full review, as so many people will have heard all about the book and the set-up. One thing that surprises me though, is that I haven't seen anyone refer to Peter Dickinson's Eva, another YA book dealing with the same situation.

In general I really liked all the questions Pearson raised - how should science be regulated, how far is too far to go to save someone even if it's scientifically possible, and how much of the brain makes up the person's mind, let alone the spirit and soul? And then all the parental ones were chewy too! I wasn't sure about the answers given to some of the questions, and thought the whole Alyss plot was so neat it really weakened the ending. And what Alyss herself did towards the end made little sense to me except as a convenient plot-line. Finally, I thought it would have been stronger had the parents not been SO wildly OTT in their expectations and 'adoration' of Jenna. As one of the points made repeatedly throughout was that any parent might do things they'd never have believed they would to save their child, there was no need for them to be the classic over-consuming parents of YA realist novels. If they'd been a little less extreme the question of how Jenna and they had to find a way to come to terms with what they'd done could have been stronger. I liked Lily though - her characterization seemed very real, and it was good to have a balance to Jenna's parents.