This book and Mary Pearson’s THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX are both about girls who are in life-ending accidents and then have their…brains, or their consciousnesses, I guess, downloaded into new bodies. Both deal with the ethics surrounding this, and what happens to them and the people in their lives as a result of the downloads, but I believe the similarities really end there. (And if you’ve never read THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX, which for some reason I never reviewed here but loved, you can just ignore all that.)

Lia Kahn was killed in a car accident (nearly impossible as driving, like everything else in this futuristic version of our world, is completely automated), and her parents choose a controversial treatment over letting her die: they allow her memories, her personality, everything her brain contains to be downloaded into a new body. Into a new brain, essentially, except it’s all computerized. Lia has become an android of sorts – like a Cylon, I suppose – a skinner. She will never die. If her body wears out, it will be replaced by another. She is Lia, but not. She is alive, but not. She doesn’t eat, and she doesn’t sleep. It’s all made even harder because her “death” was sudden – if it had been expected, maybe from disease, then there would have been time to have a body made that looked like hers, programmed with a voice that sounded like hers. Instead she is completely different on the outside in addition to everything else that’s wrong.

And she is. Wrong. She and her popular friends said the same horrible things about skinners that are now being directed at her. Back at school, her friends have ditched her for her previously intolerable little sister. Her boyfriend is obviously repulsed by her physically, though he does give the relationship another go. She’s kicked off the track team because her body now never tires. And Lia herself is disgusted by the entire situation, torn between wishing her parents had just let her go and being angry at everyone around her for not realizing that she is still the same inside. At least within the confines of her own (new) brain.

She is also struggling with issues of humanity itself. Can she truly be alive if she is made out of artificial parts? Is she making any decisions on her own, or is the computer in her head putting the pieces together for her? Is she really still Lia, or someone (something) else entirely?

Eventually Lia makes a new friend named Auden, a boy who seems both to genuinely like Lia and to be completely obsessed with the fact that she’s a skinner. His friendship gives her the courage to start accepting her new self, but also helps her to make some very dangerous decisions. She also meets a group of rebellious skinners who have removed themselves from humanity at large and are engaged in some fairly radical activity. Lia is soon pulled between her old world and the new one she has been forced into. When she finally chooses between the two, her choice will change everything.

I didn’t expect this to be quite as political as it is, but that’s what ended up being so awesome about it. Wasserman raises a crazy number of thought-provoking questions about medical ethics, personal ethics, personal relationships, racism, classism, science…what an incredible book club book this would be. It’s also a fascinating look at a real possibility for our own future, especially the all-encompassing virtual reality-esque MySpace-like world all the kids (and possibly the adults; I had a hard time telling) participate in. Imagine MySpace and Twitter and a webcam and Instant Messenger and Skype and your blog and Facebook and World of Warcraft all tied up together into what is sort of a giant 3-D live community.

As some other reviewers have noted, Lia’s self-pity and anger become a bit much to take after awhile; fortunately she does eventually turn her pity and anger into action. It’s hard to blame her, though, for her internal struggles – she has been forced into an unimaginable situation and had most of her personal choices taken out of her hands.

Wasserman’s tight writing, copious imagination, skillful world-building and political provoking make this a book I must recommend wholeheartedly. I look forward to the rest of the trilogy.

I do, however, wish S&S weren’t shutting out just about any chance a boy would pick this up with yet another full-face girl cover, but aren’t you tired of hearing me sing that song by now?

(Pretty font colors, though. Extra pretty in person. And it’s got a really awesome raised computer-y tech-y design spread across parts of the entire cover – thumbs up on that, too.)

Buy it from an independent bookstore!

Other reviews: Karin’s Book Nook, Jen Robinson’s Book Page