It was just recently that poor Jenna Fox came out of a long coma. She had fallen into it as a result of a bad accident, and while she is fully conscious, she is still struggling with her memory and has some mobility issues because of her legs. Her family has been doing what they can to stir her memories with the help of childhood videos. They are working slowly.

She is also confronted with unique relationships with each of her family members. Her grandmother is kind to her, but does not seem to exhibit a lot of love toward her. Her mother watches her closely, and her father, who travels a lot, is just as panicky. As she delves deeper into her memories, she starts to realize that there is more to the situation than meet the eye, and the mystery is not one that is revealed quickly and easily. For example, why does she not seem to have any friends?

As she tells the story in her own words, Jenna opens her heart to the reader, sharing her worries and concerns as well as the developing feelings she gets for the people in her life. She starts to build a support system when she finally convinces her parents to send her back to school where she participates in an alternative learning program at a local charter school that focuses on environmental issues. It is there that she starts to build friends and begins the internal struggle to sort out what is really happening, which allows her to grow as a person, even as she comes to the shocking realization of what happened during the accident and what helped her survive.

The story is set in a not-so-distant future where earthquakes severely damaged the California coast and a massive plague that resulted from the overuse of antibiotics previously decimated a quarter of the world’s population. People have recovered from these shocking events and life has continued to move on, but not without resulting consequences. The government has become more involved with medical decision making in order to ensure a higher level of ethical behavior.

The true strength of this novel, which has an incredible message about bioethics and examines the question of what makes each of us human, is the honest feelings presented by Jenna herself. The writing is rich and well thought out. The pacing presents the story in order to reveal the mysteries of Jenna's past at a pace that keeps the reader asking questions while also not getting bored.

I found myself comparing this one to a cross between V.C. Andrews' great book My Sweet Audrina, which was the last she wrote before she died in 1982 and tells the tale of a girl who finds her self racing (fast forward) through her life, and Blueprint, which is a translation of a German novel that presents the tale of an ego clone who was created to keep the legacy of her composer mother clone going after she passed away from a genetic disorder.

This is one of the best books I have read recently. It is interesting and keeps you on the edge of your seat while also getting you to think about bioethics while not even realizing.