Tolog Review: The Adoration of Jenna Fox

The Adoration of Jenna Fox
by Mary E. Pearson
reviewed by Kristen Asmar

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson was a science fiction novel told in first person about a young woman, Jenna, and her struggles after she came out of a year-long coma. The seventeen year old woke up to find her life changed right before her eyes. As stated by Jenna Fox herself, “A twelfth planet has been named in the solar system. The last polar bear has died. Headline news that couldn’t stir me. I slept through it all.” (Pearson 6) Mary E. Pearson told the story through Jenna’s eyes as she adjusted to her new life in California. Without her parents help, but with her peculiar neighbor Clayton Bender and classmates Gabriel, Dane, Allys, and Ethan, Jenna figured out what made her fall into a coma and what made her parents not tell her. Her parents do not help Jenna search for her past, but instead they impaired her journey on discovering it. Jenna’s grandmother, Lily, also stayed distant throughout Jenna’s new life. Although Lily did not try to help Jenna directly, Lily lead Jenna to discs taken of the years she lived in her old life. These discs helped Jenna remember the accident. The secrets Jenna uncovered revealed why she did not feel like she was Jenna Fox. With all the answers of questions about secrets come the answers to why the Fox family moved and why they lived the mysterious lives they lived.

Mary E. Pearson wrote the story about Jenna Fox in a very distinguishable way. Throughout the novel, the author included pages of Jenna’s definitions of basic words that she lost in her memory. The words are simple ones that people used in everyday life. For example, one of the words Jenna lost was agreement. Mary E. Pearson had Jenna explain her experience with agreement, which was, “...The Accident… I can’t ask and they don’t offer. It’s a hushed agreement. Perhaps the only thing we have ever agreed on.” (33) Mary E. Pearson wrote these pages in a format that did not have the lines reach the end of the page. It is a format that allowed the reader to understand Jenna’s greater understanding of life as the novel went on. Another way the author stood out in her techniques were the titles of the chapters. The titles were the words that described what Jenna relearned to do in the chapter. One chapter is called “Control” and in that chapter Jenna learned that she was in control of her own life, not her parents. Other titles were the names of the discs of Jenna’s life, which were her name and the how old she was. This format made it easier to understand what was to come in the future chapter. Overall the format helped the readers more than harmed them.