taken from Goodreads:
Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a year-long coma, and she's still recovering from the terrible accident that caused it. Her parents show her home movies of her life, her memories, but she has no recollection. Is she really the same girl she sees on the screen?
Little by little, Jenna begins to remember. Along with the memories come questions—questions no one wants to answer for her. What really happened after the accident?
In this fascinating novel, acclaimed author Mary E. Pearson presents an unforgettable look at one human life and a glimpse into a possible future that may be closer than we think."
I had forgotten why I didn't care much for Mary Pearson's work until I picked up this novel. While this novel starts off with an interesting premise and examines the definition of human life and the nature of choice, Pearson's overdramatic writing just didn't sit well with me. Had there been more subtlety in the writing, I think I would've found myself caring more for Jenna as she discovered who and what she was. But instead, I found myself just aggravated by too much purple prose, not to mention the "poetic" breaks in the prose that move the reader from chapter to chapter.
That's a shame, too, because this is a novel that really relies more on characterization than plot to move the story along. The plot points that do exist are revealed quite slowly, and most of the time the reader can see what's going to happen before it does. Had I felt some sort of connection for the main character, then I wouldn't have minded knowing what was going to happen because I would've found myself wondering how it was going to affect Jenna. As it was, I just couldn't bring myself to care.
While Pearson brings up some interesting ideas and questions to think about, in the end I wasn't sold on this novel. I appreciate what she was trying to do, but I think the execution was less than successful.
