Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish People I Would Like to Meet

Over at The Broke and the Bookish, they have this thing called Top Ten Tuesday. Each Tuesday they give other bloggers a chance to participate in making a top ten list with them. This week's topic is "Bookish People I Would Like to Meet."

1. J.K. Rowling
Author of the Harry Potter books, as well as an adult book coming out at the end of the month, The Casual Vacancy. It would be so interesting to have the chance to sit down with her and find out more about both her work and her life. She seems like an incredibly interesting person and one I would really enjoy getting to know.

2. John Green
Author of one of my favorite books, Paper Towns, along with a number of others, John Green also started vlogbrothers along with his brother, Hank Green, a vlogging channel on YouTube where the two of them discuss a plethora of different topics.
Technically, I have already met him, but it was at a book signing and therefore lasted all of six seconds. I would really love to sit down and get the chance to talk with him about the things that inspire him as well as his passion for being proud of his own nerdiness.

3. Ray Bradbury
Though I have, so far, only read one of his books (I do intend to read more of his work in the near future), I definitely look up to this man and wish I could have had the opportunity to meet him. As many of you are probably well aware, Ray Bradbury passed on a few months ago. 
I especially appreciate the fact that most of Bradbury's "training" in becoming an author was self-taught. He taught himself to be a great writer by reading and studying in his own right. I can definitely respect that in a person.

4. C.S. Lewis
This is another author I will never get the chance to meet (in this life) because he is deceased. However, that hasn't stopped him from making a huge impact on my life. I was raised on the Chronicles of Narnia and have since read many of his other works in apologetics. I can hardly begin to explain the genius of this one man, but he has profoundly impacted my life and my faith, for that I am eternally indebted. If I could have coffee with one person in history, nine out of ten times, I would choose Lewis.

5. J.R.R. Tolkien
Though I have to once again admit to not having read all of this author's works, that doesn't stop me from being a huge fan of Tolkien. I have seen the movies at least ten times and haven't yet grown tired of them, I adored The Hobbit, and he was also the man who brought C.S. Lewis to Christ. The two of them were close friends, which I think is amazing, though I do hold a grudge against Tolkien for nearly talking Lewis out of writing the Chronicles of Narnia (Tolkien hated them).  All in all, though, Tolkien managed to create a fantastical world and iconic characters that still profoundly impact the work of many authors today. (Also, I promise I will read the Lord of the Rings trilogy soon! Don't shun me. They're sitting in my TBR pile, I swear.)

6. Orson Scott Card
After reading both Ender's Game and How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, I couldn't refrain from adding Card to the list. His brilliance in the field of science fiction is well-known and I'm simply dying to read more of his works. He is a fascinating person and I would love to have the opportunity to pick his brain on more than one matter. 

7. Maureen Johnson
I met Maureen Johnson seconds after John Green, but this was, once again, a six second meeting. It lasted long enough for her to sign my cell phone and that was all. Not only are her books both lovely and exceedingly witty (I've read most, though not all of them), but she is a hilarious person and has quite a personality. If you don't follow her on Twitter, I suggest you amend that immediately. You won't be sorry. She is hysterical and incredibly interesting. Getting to sit down and talk with her would be a dream come true, and would probably involve some sort of crazy adventure.

8. Robin Wasserman
A close friend of Maureen Johnson (and probably of John Green, seeing as Maureen Johnson is a close friend of his), Robin Wasserman is a fabulous author in her own right. Her Cold Awakening trilogy is stunning and really makes you sit back and take another look at all the things you think you know. I really appreciate that in a story. I would love to have a chat with her about what inspired her to write what she did and how she managed to create such a complex, yet entirely engaging plot line. There are still more of her books that I would love to read, but haven't managed to yet. \

9. Ted Dekker

This man is pure genius. Honestly, the man cranks out novels at a pace I could never imagine emulating, yet each has a richness and texture to it that blows me away every time. Each new story is original and filled with twists and turns I could never have imagined. I think I would be a little scared to take a peek into this man's brilliant mind, but I wouldn't pass up the opportunity if my life depended on it. His works are amazing and I look forward to reading more from him. 


10. Megan Whalen Turner
I am in the middle of her "Queen's Thief" series and already I'm dying to pick her brain. I am a huge fan of Greek mythology and the like (from which she draws a great deal, in this series). Her characters are both relatable and believable, her stories exciting and filled with adventure. Sitting down and talking to her about what went into creating such a rich world and story would be simply wonderful. I can think of few things I would enjoy more.

Top Ten Tuesday: Thought Provoking Books

Over at The Broke and the Bookish, they have this thing called Top Ten Tuesday. Each Tuesday they give other bloggers a chance to participate in making a top ten list with them. This week's topic is thought provoking books! I only chose seven this time around, though I'm sure there are plenty more I could add. Here are the ones I decided to highlight:

1) Paper Towns by John Green
Paper Towns is a personal favorite of mine for many good reasons, but one of the most important of those reasons is the fact that this book really makes you look at the way you perceive others. Throughout this book, the main character (Quentin) realizes that we tend to romanticize our friends and most especially the people we admire and look at them through those rose colored glasses instead of seeing them for who they really are. This is a discredit both to them and to ourselves. I loved that this book challenged me in the way I view others and encouraged me to accept them for who they are instead of who I want them to be.

2)The Cold Awakening Trilogy by Robin Wasserman
I think the Cold Awakening Trilogy easily qualifies for this list. The trilogy's main question permeates each of the books and begs the question: "What constitutes humanity?" Each of the books explores this question and really makes you stop and consider what it means while bringing up multiple other deep questions of morality along the way. 

3) My Secret: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
The PostSecret books are essentially collections of secrets that were sent in to Frank Warren anonymously, first as an art project and now as a worldwide community. Each of the books hold a plethora of secrets that allow you to see into the lives and hearts of people all around the world. It reminds you that everyone has a secret and that everyone's hurting.

4) Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
In hearing the story of a girl who underwent a major traumatic experience in the middle her most impressionable formative years, this book lets the reader see into her head and her heart. It allows them to see how earth-shattering that traumatization can be for its victims and causes the reader to reevaluate how they treat others, because it reminds us that you can't always see what's hurting someone but that doesn't mean they aren't in need of rescuing.

5) The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
One of the things that makes the Harry Potter series so memorable and life-changing to its readers is the plethora of questions it asks its readers. As we read these books, we walk alongside Harry and his friends as they discover that the world isn't as lovely or fair a place as we perceive it at first. We see what drives them as they choose how far they are willing to go to reach an end and what means justify those ends. We are given the chance to see them fight for what they believe and lobby for the rights of those who are beaten down by others who are stronger and more outspoken. Rowling invites the reader to make these decisions along with Harry and therefore analyze the way we think and the decisions we make.

6) The Help by Kathryn Stockett
I think that nowadays it is easy to downplay the offensiveness and overall nastiness of racism, especially for those who haven't personally experienced racism or that type of stigmatism. It's also easy to believe that the issue of racism is outdated and no longer applicable to our time. Both of these assumptions are very, very wrong. This book reminds us that racism was beyond rampant less than fifty years ago. In fact, it was a household prejudice and widely considered acceptable. The Help reminds those of us who might have forgotten that this is still an evil to be fought against and one we ought to stomp out entirely.


5) Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
I am almost to the end of this book (the actual review ought to be up by the end of the week) and I am definitely loving it. One of the reasons I love it so much is the fact that it reevaluates the meaning of childhood and adulthood, as well as deciphering where the line is between being a good person and a monster. 

Hacking Harvard by Robin Wasserman

Good deeds go unrewarded all the time, and despite what the song says, that dream that you dare to dream almost never comes true.
Maybe there's no such thing as an offer you can't refuse; maybe you would have had the strength to turn him away.
I didn't.

Hacking Harvard was written by Robin Wasserman, author of the Skinned trilogy (now known as the Cold Awakening trilogy, each book now bearing different titles than before). It quite an interesting story that handles the pressure of graduating high school and finding the right college with witty humor and even an adventure: the hack that the book is all about.

Max Kim's father went to Harvard, as did his mother and both of his sisters. Now he is expected, and even pressured, into attending his family's alma mater, but he has no desire to attend the Ivy League school. He has his own plans for his future, and they don't include the color crimson. He plays by his own rules and shoots for the greatest amount of profit every time.

Eric Roth's mother teaches at Harvard and would love it if her son also attended Harvard, but he already has a plan. He's going to go to MIT, the college whose students played one of the greatest hacks of all time, and he's going to devote his life to helping those who can't help themselves. He is all about fair play and the underdog.

Schwarz is a Harvard freshman, previously home schooled and the youngest of the group. He goes along with whatever Eric and Max put him up to, or anyone else for that matter. Let's just say he hasn't quite developed his "saying no" skills yet. Numbers are his greatest solace. Order is everything to him.

And finally, there's Lex, the one girl who can throw a wrench in all of their plans.

What is their plan exactly? They've made a bet that they can get the bum of their choice, an undeserving candidate, into Harvard, proving the admissions system is flawed and can be easily tampered with. The stakes are high and the hack is more than challenging. But if anyone can do it, these guys can.

Hacking Harvard was a well-written, witty detailing of the antics of four nerds whose lives are rapidly spinning out of their control and they just want to make a difference in it. Life is coming at them in a whirlwind of sights and smells and sometimes it's a little too much to handle. Wasserman managed to capture the emotion of teenagers staring down their futures with pinpoint accuracy and created some memorable characters along the way.

So why was it that I found myself disappointed? I'm not sure. Honestly, I think it was because I wanted it to be what the Cold Awakening trilogy was and this just didn't quite live up to its excellence. Wasserman still proves herself a great author and can create an interesting story, but this one just didn't interest me quite as much as her previous books captured me. Maybe it was the subject material that put me off (I'm not one to put too much stock in college). Maybe it was just my want for something as ground shattering as the series of hers I had already been exposed to.

I was left a bit disappointed, but I still suggest reading her works. Who knows? You might like this book more than I did. Wasserman is a fantastic writer (and quite an interesting person), so don't let this review put her off of her works as a whole. Go pick up the Cold Awakening trilogy instead.

Either way, it was an alright book, but probably the kind you would only read once.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥

"Everything works out, you know." 
"Is that some kind of law of nature, MIT boy?"
He grinned, and a little of the awkwardness faded away. "Sure. First law of thermodynamics: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Whatever happens, the universe maintains its equilibrium."
"Doesn't the second law say that entropy increases and the universe is just going to keep falling apart until there's nothing left?"

LeakyCon Lit 2012

Maureen Johnson, Lev Grossman, Stephanie Perkins, Robin
Wasserman, Megan Whalen Turner, and John Green
discussing Boy Books & Girl Books and whether there is
such a distinction.

This past week I had the privilege of being able to attend LeakyCon, a Harry Potter convention that was held in Chicago, Illinois, this year. The convention was fantastic and gave my brother and I the opportunity to meet plenty of others for whom the Harry Potter series has been a treasure and somewhat of an obsession.

One part of the convention that I was very excited about was LeakyCon Lit. LeakyCon Lit is a particular set of panels and events that only those with Rockstar or Lit passes can attend. Headed up by Maureen Johnson, LeakyCon Lit gave those who signed up for it the opportunity to sit in on panels between a select number of Young Adult authors who were scheduled to appear, as well as receive the chance to talk with them or go to signings.

These panels proved to be both informative and highly entertaining. The authors assembled were an eclectic and intelligent bunch that, for the most part, know each other well and deeply enjoy discussing the finer points of books and their own work in the literary field.

Because I enjoyed this particular part of the convention, I thought I would give y'all a little rundown of the panels and what I learned from them. So here we go:

Come to this Panel if You Think You Hate Romance
I don't happen to be a hater of romance, but I thought this would be an interesting panel to attend and it was. The panel was made up of Stephanie Perkins, Laini Taylor, Daniel Ehrenhaft, and Margaret Stohl.  We learned that most romances that people hate are the campy ones with overused phrases and gag-worthy dialogue. When a romance is fresh and new, there is something that draws you to it. Everyone enjoys a good love story, it just has to be done right.

Notable quotes from this panel: 
"Romantic love is the closest thing to magic that we have in real life." -Stephanie Perkins
"Literature is escape, but it's also emotional truth." -Daniel Ehrenhaft

Bad Books and Why We Love Them
In this panel, we discussed what makes a book bad and whether or not we really have the authority to label a book "bad" or not. John Green, Holly Black, Margaret Stohl, Robin Wasserman, Megan Whalen Turner, and Maureen Johnson went back and forth on the difference between books with bad writing, books with bad morals, and books that were so off-the-wall terrible that they turned around and became favorites because of how hilarious it made them.
One very interesting point that was brought up was the fact that we should do our best not to be sticklers about what others are reading because they're doing just that: reading. We should be doing our best to encourage that, even if we aren't very fond of their book choices. Instead of bashing the ones they're already into, we can suggest our own favorites and let them make the choices from there. We don't want to discourage others from reading, and chances are they'll find the really good books on their own if you let them wade around in the water a bit.

Boy Books and Girl Books
This panel may have been the most interesting I attended all week. Hearing from Megan Whalen Turner, Robin Wasserman, Stephanie Perkins, Lev Grossman, John Green, and Maureen Johnson on whether or not there really is much of a distinction between girl books and boys books was simply intriguing.

John Green & Maureen Johnson at a signing. He looked up
just as I took the picture. He wasn't actually glaring at me.
Haha. :P

As an aspiring YA author, I was fascinated and horrified to learn more about the sexism involved in the  book industry: both buying and selling. For years we have been operating under a system where "boy books" are normal books and "girl books" are chick lit. Why is that? What really separates the two? Why are girls encouraged to read whatever we can get our hands on, while boys are told that only these books over here are acceptable?
It isn't fair. Not to authors, not to boys, not to girls. This stigmatizing of certain literature causes boys to think there's something wrong with them if they want to branch out from "boy books" and causes female authors to be set aside in favor of male authors because it's unthinkable that a woman could write something that would interest a man.
Stephanie Perkins referred to an incident when she worked at a bookstore in which a father actually put Harry Potter back on the shelf though his son wanted to read after she casually mentioned that J.K. Rowling was a woman. He actually said "She?" and placed it back on the shelf as if it were suddenly detestable because of the gender of its author.

Notable quotes from this panel:
"I'm not kidding. I would've punched you and then I would've called you a liar, and I would've set fire to your house." -Maureen Johnson [describing her reaction if someone would have told her that she would be writing "girl books" when she was in high school]

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Every Single Harry Potter Novel
This panel was open to everyone, not just those attending LeakyCon Lit. John Granger, known for his in-depth analysis of the Harry Potter book series gave a series of lectures on Christian symbolism, postmodern morality, ring composition, and many other literary devices implemented in J.K. Rowling's books. I only attended one, but it was simply mind-blowing.
Honestly, I walked out of the room both dying to write and never wanting to pick up a pen again, because how could I even come close to the masterful work Rowling did in her series?
Theres no way I can rehash what I learned in only an hour of his class, but I can suggest getting any of his books. If those lectures are any indication, the man is brilliant and should certainly be heard by as wide of an audience as can comprehend what he has to say.
I will definitely be keeping an eye out for his books and now have even greater respect for one of my favorite authors, J.K. Rowling, for her masterful work.

I Was a Teenage Writer
Maureen Johnson is always telling those who want to be authors that one of the key factors is to "learn to let yourself suck". By that, she means that no one is great from the beginning and sometimes you have to put out a lot of bad writing in order to improve enough to make something great. In this panel, John Green, Margaret Stohl, Holly Black, and Kate Schafer Testerman supported her statement by producing some work they created in their teenage years. The result was hilarious. Needless to say, many were comforted by the end of the meeting. They saw how far these authors had come in only a decade or so and knew that if they worked at it, they would likely be able to do the same.

Ask Me Anything: Book Editors
My brother and I chose to attend this panel last minute, but it was definitely worth it. In fact, the panel convinced him to consider becoming a book agent because of how excellent the job sounded and how much the agents present were passionate about what they did.
Rebecca Sherman, Jennifer Laughran, Kate Schafer Testerman, and Daniel Ehrenhaft answered questions that ranged from "What does your job entail?" to "Should I follow book trends and try to produce something along those lines?" Hint (on the second question): a book is generally bought three or four years in advance of it being put on the shelf, so unless you can predict the future, you won't have much luck trying to ride on the coattails of current trends.

My LeakyCon swag. It includes 3 new books I can't wait to
read: Hacking Harvard by Robin Wasserman; Geektastic by
Holly Black and Cecil Castelliucci; and Wizards, Wardrobes
and Wookies by Connie Neal.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it. I look forward to attending more book events in the future and learning even more about the books and craft I adore so much.

I would go again in a heartbeat.

Wired by Robin Wasserman

We were on our own. Two machines. Two orgs. Four teenagers with no power and no plan.


(Click here to see my review of book 1: Skinned and book 2: Crashed; predecessors to Wired in the Cold Awakening Trilogy)

The final installment of the Cold Awakening Trilogy, a Young Adult Science Fiction series, Wired lived up to every expectation I had for this book. The first two books were wonderful and intriguing; the world Wasserman created were nearly even more so. I was a little nervous that she wouldn't be able to make the conclusion as good as the story had been up to this point. Rest assured, she managed it.

In Wired, we find that things have steadily moved from bad to worse. The Brotherhood of Man is still gunning for the extermination of the mechs and now it looks like they may have found a way to do that. Suddenly the threat is much more than they could ever have anticipated.

As if that weren't enough, Lia soon finds out that things are more complicated than she had first thought. It seems that everyone is lying about something and no one can be trusted.

When everyone Lia cares about come under fire and are put in danger along with her, she must do everything she can to save them. It's clear that the threat must be stopped. The question is: can it? Things have never looked so hopeless.

But Lia has never been more determined.

Wired was the perfect ending to this stunning and intriguing trilogy that had me hooked from start to finish. When I started it, I honestly didn't expect it to be all that good, so it's pretty clear that I've been blown away by its fantastic execution.

Robin Wasserman proved undeniably that she knows what she's doing when it comes to writing fiction--particularly science fiction--and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more from her. She's one of those authors you don't want to miss, because her work is too good to stay out of the spotlight for long.

I'm very happy I managed to find this series and can't wait to see the author at LeakyCon. I can't express enough how much I enjoyed this series. It makes the reader stop and think. It makes you grapple with moral and ethical issues of great importance all while reading an enthralling story that keeps you wondering just what is going to happen next. Nothing is predictable. Nothing is certain.

Go pick up the first book at your library or your local bookstore. You won't be sorry.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥


"You don't have to do anything you don't want to," Riley said, as we were leaving. "They can't make you."
I kissed him and wondered when he'd gotten so naive.

Crashed by Robin Wasserman

"I can't escape," the train of thought went. "And they can't kill me. They can't hurt me in any way that counts." 
So why think about what's going to happen next?
Why not just stop being afraid?
And then the lights went out.

The sequel to Skinned, Crashed is the continuing story of Lia's life as a mech. When she died, her body was placed into a mechanical body that was meant to simulate the experience of being human. After the incident at the waterfall and a falling out with her sister who doesn't believe she is the real Lia, our protagonist leaves home to live with the other mechs she knows.

It's been six months since the events of the last book and things are steadily growing worse. The world is turning against mechs in a way they haven't before. An uprising is imminent and things are become more and more dangerous for those the humans call "skinners."

In order to protect herself and others like her, Lia must team up with Jude and Riley to figure out how they can win this. But the stakes are higher than they've ever been, the past is coming back to threaten them all,  and the enemy is willing to go to moral depths that Lia's not sure she can follow. How can she be expected to make the right choice when no one seems to be the good guy?

Once again, Wasserman has done a wonderful job in crafting a believable world and tackling moral questions that most novelists wouldn't touch with a stick (or at least, I haven't seen them touch it yet). Her characters are believable and well-rounded (even if some are so irritating that you find yourself ranting at them while you read), while her plot is seamlessly executed and shocking all the same. Every thing about this book was well-done.

I think I enjoyed the sequel even more than the original and I can't wait to see what she does with the final installment of the Cold Awakening Trilogy. It ought to be good.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"Then we come up with another plan!" I insisted. "I'm not-" I didn't even want to say it out loud. The words would have sounded ludicrous coming out of my mouth. I'm not killing anyone. As if I was the type of person for whom that was even an option. Unrecognizable was one thing. This was alien. This was unthinkable. "Tell him, Riley. Tell him we can't do this."

Top Ten Tuesday: Vivid Worlds

Over at The Broke and the Bookish, they have this thing called Top Ten Tuesday. Each Tuesday they give other bloggers a chance to participate in making a top ten list with them. This week the topic is "Most Vivid Worlds/Settings in Books". 

So here are mine: 

1. Narnia
-I've been a huge Narnia fan since I was a kid and my dad read the books to my brother and I as bedtime stories that I eagerly clung to. Narnia meant Aslan, it meant a magical world where animals could talk and children could win battles. It holds a very special place in my heart and still hasn't stopped taking hold of my imagination.

2. The Magical Version of our World Seen in Harry Potter
-I'm a latecomer to the "Potterhead" grouping, only having discovered the wonder of this universe in the last few years, but I'm hooked. I love everything about the way J.K. Rowling integrated magic into our world and hid it behind closed doors so that when you're reading it, you can almost believe that it's all true. Then again, that would mean I was a Muggle in a magical world, so that's a downside . . .

3. Middle Earth
-Granted, I've only read The Hobbit, but I loved every bit of the world Tolkien created there. Also, I've seen the Lord of the Rings movies so many times I can practically quote the majority of it. Altogether, Middle Earth gets my thumbs-up for being wonderful, yet dangerous; majestic, yet scary. Everything about it simply urges you to find out more.

4. The World in Robin Wasserman's Skinned Trilogy
-This isn't the type of world I would love to be a part of (like the first three), but it's one I found myself engulfed in. It's very believable and realistic, drawing you in and making you ask questions that most novels wouldn't dream of diving into. The way she has formed each dilemma, each evolution of the way our world turned out, is something you can almost see happening. And it's quite a scary thing to observe.

5. Panem
-Despite my dislike of Suzanne Collins' writing style, she did manage to create a rather vivid picture of the futuristic world her book is set in. It's another believable, yet scary place to live. I wouldn't want to set foot in it, but I could most assuredly believe it.

6. Alagaesia
-In Christopher Paolini's fantastically crafted world, I managed to lose myself in a book that took me longer than most to read. Where I tend to get impatient with books that I can't tackle in a few days (which are few, because I read pretty quickly), these ones were a pleasure straight through. Paolini etched every bit of his world in clear contrast and made every bit as real and defined as the world we live in.

7. Amara
-It's been a while since I've read Donita K. Paul's DragonKeeper Chronicles, but I enjoyed them immensely. The different creatures Paul created were interesting and original, her dragons were varied and interesting, the story wonderful. It was entirely well done. 

8. The World in the Dragons in Our Midst Series
-Bryan Davis created an incredibly imaginative and interesting world in his series' detailing the lives of Billy Bannister and Bonnie Silver. There are actually three series within this series, of which I've only read the first two and that was probably four or five years ago. Still, the details and intricacies of the world he created stand out in their excellence.

9. The Worlds in Howl's Moving Castle
-This book is a wonderful journey and one I intend to reread as often as possible in the future. A large part of this is due to the worlds within it (yes there are more than one, but they're all connected). They are worlds of magic and war, of impossible contracts and things that shouldn't come to life but do. It draws you in and invites you to stay for as long as you should choose to remain.

10. Faerie
-I'll finish off with a world I'm not sure whether I would want to live in or away from, but one that takes one's imagination and soars with it. There are so many things I loved about the world Neil Gaiman created in Stardust and I would definitely cite it as a vivid world that I am quite fond of.

Skinned by Robin Wasserman

"You many never feel ready. Sometimes we need to just take a risk, have faith in our own strength."


I judge books by their covers. This may not be a good practice at all times, but it generally works as far as I can tell. Let me tell you right now: under normal circumstances, I would have put this book right back on the shelf because of its cover. Sorry, but it's true. Not only is it stereotypically done in exactly the same manner as all paranormal teen lit these days (bright, visually compelling image placed on a dark background -- seriously, take a stroll through that section of the bookstore and you'll think it's an entire section of the store dedicated to a single series), but it just looked uninteresting.

Luckily, looks aren't everything. I was looking for something to read by the author because she is going to be one of the authors at LeakyCon and I want to read at least one work from each before I go this year, if at all possible. It was the synopsis that caught me and I can now inform you that I really enjoyed this book.

Skinned is the story of Lia Kahn after she dies in a car wreck. Yes, you read that right. Lia is killed when the car she is in collides with another after their navigation systems both malfunctioned at the same time (I suspect tampering). When she wakes after the crash, it's to find that her consciousness has basically been downloaded and placed into a mechanical body that looks almost human. And almost really is the key word here.

Because after Lia struggles to teach herself to control this body of hers, she is thrust back into her old life, only to find there there isn't any room for her there anymore. Her younger sister has all but slid into her place, taking over every aspect of what used to be Lia's life. Meanwhile, there is a big stigmatism associated with being a mech-head (or a skinner, as some call them). To the rest of the world, they aren't real people. They're copies, machines, and not worth anything more than a bit of scrap metal or an old computer. And not everyone is passive in their dislike of the skinners. Some take a rather aggressive stance when it comes to their hatred of the new breed.

Set in a future where nearly everything is artificial and the world has come a long way from where it is now, I found this to be a really interesting and original concept. Wasserman creates a future where the idea of a fully artificial body is frowned upon, yet parents consistently go into laborites upon learning that their pregnant, allowing doctors to tweak and alter their unborn children into exactly what they want, as long as they have enough money to pay for it. High IQ, perfect skin, ginger hair, blue eyes? It's up to them. I found the similarity in the two quite interesting when it comes to the perspective of the characters. Why do they see something wrong with a drastically changing the DNA of a person, yet the fact that the body isn't actually flesh and blood is abhorrent to them?

I really enjoyed this book. Like I said, it was very compelling and original. It's not something I've ever seen before. Wasserman does a great job in writing her character and making you sympathize with her. I don't usually identify with characters like Lia. She's not the type of person I would normally befriend, much less understand (at least before the accident), so the fact that Wasserman is able to make the reader sympathize with her is a testament to her creative ability.

The only thing I didn't enjoy about the first novel of this series (a series I will definitely be eager to finish), was her portrayal of Christians/other religious groups as they appear in that time. Believers are looked upon as simple-minded and odd by the masses. The Faithers are fanatics that take Scripture and seem to twist it to meet their own needs. They are the bad guys in this series, or so it looks like they will be, though it is made clear by one main character that believers are not all necessarily Faithers. Some cling to God because they need the certainty while others use him as an excuse to be manipulative and just plain mean. While I clearly don't like this portrayal, I won't say it isn't accurate. By accurate, however, I mean that it is something I could see religious people becoming (yes, even Christians) when they forget the point of what they believe. When Christians forget that love is everything, their faith becomes polluted and corrupted. So I could see it becoming exactly what Wasserman has portrayed.

Otherwise, I loved it. I cannot wait to read the second book in the series and will be doing so in short order. If you've got some time to kill this summer, this series seems like it will be an excellent way to do so.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥


[Click here to see my review of Crashed: Book 2 in the Cold Awakening Trilogy]


"I'm sorry for what he said. He shouldn't have treated you like that."
I shrugged. "I'm getting used to it." 
"You shouldn't have to."
True. But there were a lot of things I shouldn't have to get used to, and if I started making a list, I might never stop.