The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary Pearson, is a futuristic story that will make you stop and wonder what really makes us human. Is it our memories? Our brains? Our bodies? Our DNA? What is one without the others? Jenna’s story goes beyond the traditional coming-of-age tale as she recovers from her coma and must question the medical ethics involved in her resuscitation.

Quotable Quotes from The Adoration of Jenna Fox

“Pieces.
A bit for someone here.
A bit there.
And sometimes they don’t add up to anything whole.
But you are so busy dancing.
Delivering.
You don’t have time to notice.
Or are afraid to notice.
And then one day you have to look.
And it’s true.
All of your pieces fill up other people’s holes.
But they don’t fill
your own.”

“I decide that sometimes definitions are wrong. Even if they’re written in a dictionary. Identities aren’t always separate and distinct. Sometimes they ARE wrapped up with others. Sometimes, for a few minutes, maybe they can even be shared.”

“Faith and science, I have learned, 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 know they are connected.”

“One small changed family doesn’t calculate into a world that has been spinning for a billion years. But one small change makes the world spin differently in a billion ways for one family.”

Tags: bioethics, memory, science fiction, self-perception
Filed under: Book Review