The Adoration of Jenna Fox

"How far would you go to save someone you love?"

"She wasn't supposed to survive the accident. But she did."

"I used to be someone. Someone named Jenna Fox."

Pearson, M.E. (2008). The Adoration of Jenna Fox. NY: Henry Holt and Company.
LS5385: YA Lit / Sci-Fi / Speculative Fiction?

Adoration of Jenna Fox Official Book Trailer

First, I haven't actually read this book yet at this writing; I am all about the variety of covers again.  The pictures and the tag lines are very different, and I'm wondering which one I would have picked, had I had a choice.  (my cover from the public library is the top left).

The one on the top left for some reason flashes me back to the days of Twin Peaks and the pursuit of finding who killed Laura.  Something cold about it and the tag line doesn't really catch me.  The top right takes on a tech edge and I like the puzzle pieces and there's also something vaguely bio-med/sterile about it - maybe the shining piece on the girl's temple.  The tag line is a bit more tantalizing, too. The bottom cover, with it's Gothic-type lettering and the girl's bloodshot eyes, plus the tag line make this one feel like this chick's going to be a mess.  I would choose the 2nd cover, I think.  We'll see if I feel the same way once I've read it.  I'm starting it tonight!

So, new day and I have completed the book, and I give it two thumbs-up!  I do think it could be pushed into the realistic fiction genre; despite the fact it's set in the future, I found the premise something that could be around a corner in the very near future.  Certainly the concepts are already out there.  I am not sure if I am frightened or comforted by the idea.

Back to my battle of the covers discussion. . . I now understand the meanings behind the images on both the top covers. Either is appropriate to the book, but I like the top left better - the hand and butterfly are quite symbolic in the book - and accept that tag-line. It did not draw me to the book, though, and that's probably what is more important for the cover.  The third one, I've decided, doesn't connect to the story, is quite similar to the cover of The Host, and also is one more cover with a wide-eyed girl, which is old.

Oh - I must pull this quote from the book. The main character, Jenna, has memorized Thoreau's Walden without ever having read it.  She picks up the actual book, and says, 

. . . there is still something different about opening a real book, the scent that emerges, seeing one word at a time and soaking in its shape and nuance. . . When I turn the pages of the book and read the words and the spaces in between, I have time to think. . .

 I really like this and it's how I feel about e-books. There is just no replacing the physical book with paper pages.