Carly's Idea

So Carly had this idea that since I'm not allowed to write for Shelf Talk anymore (Stupid Union with its stupid rules), I should maybe start reviewing the books I read here. Fine. It will give me something to write about.

Recently, I did read a very good book. I was given an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) by one of the teen librarians at work. The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson is the sequel to The Adoration of Jenna Fox. In the first book, we met Jenna Fox, the beloved daughter of a doting father who cannot bear to lose his only child when she is in a horrible accident. Adoration takes place in the not too distant future and follows Jenna as she copes with surviving the accident that nearly killed her. It is a remarkable book that deals with loss, acceptance, and renewed hope. There is a sci-fi element that will pull in readers from a wide variety of genres, but ultimately, I would not call it sci-fi. I highly recommend it as a stand-alone book because that's what it should've been.

The Fox Inheritance, as a sequel, does not really stand up to its predecessor. It takes place a couple hundred years after Adoration, and tells the story of Locke, one of Jenna Fox's best friends who was also in the accident. Inheritance is much heavier on the sci-fi, so much so that if I was shelving it according to my system, it would be in with books like Idlewild by Nick Sagan. It is engrossing and creative and Pearson manages in a short amount of pages to build a dangerous and dynamic world that readers will want to visit again. However, it lacks the emotional resonance of Adoration, and also the cusp of believability that the first book provided. It would've been a better fit if less time had passed between the two novels (two hundred + years is a little hard to swallow) or if Inheritance had told a story that was the result of two hundred + years of Jenna's life and work.

Still, it was an intriguing read and seems to set the stage for more books to come.