Only One - Lifehouse

The Fox Inheritance
Jenna Fox Chronicles, Book 2

Author: Mary E. Pearson
Pages: 294
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Brief Summary:
In The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Jenna thought she destroyed the boxes containing the minds of her friends, hoping to save them from the torture she went through in the brief years she spent contained therein. She did not, however, calculate for the fact that people might have made copies. After 260 years, Locke and Kara have been recreated, using new and improved materials like BioPerfect, better than what Jenna has. Dr. Gatsbro made new bodies for them, using tiny bits of DNA. Unfortunately, he plans to use them as walking mannequins to sell the technology to wealthy individuals. Locke and Kara are determined to escape, find Jenna and figure out who (or what) they are now.

Review:
Last year, I read The Adoration of Jenna Fox. When I heard there was going to be a sequel I was surprised and excited, especially since the viewpoint would be from someone new. One of my biggest problems with book one was that Jenna was not an especially likable narrator. Alas, sometimes it would be best for an author to let a story close without writing a sequel; this is one of those times for me.

Locke did not make a better narrator for one thing. He never really coalesced into a real person. There just doesn't seem to be much to him; he may actually consist only of his love/obsession for Kara and Jenna. Rather than being focused on the ethical dilemmas involved in these technologies like the first book, I felt that the melodrama upstaged those questions.

The love triangle just creeped me out. I agree with Alyss that it's not possible to be in love with two people at once, so I just could not care about Locke and his desperate need to please and be with both girls. The society is what's so interesting here, but the focus isn't really on that.

Much of the plot was predictable, especially the climax. The unexpected things, like Jenna having a daughter, were not happy surprises. Reading over what I've written here, it definitely sounds like I hated this; I didn't, but it was hugely disappointing.

Rating: 2.5/5

"She's got a pretty smile
It covers up the poison that she hides
She walks around in circles in my head
Waiting for a chance to break me chance to take me down
Now I see the burden you gave me
Is too much to carry too much to bury inside"