Skinned
by Robin Wasserman
Young Adult Science Fiction
Available now in hardcover


Crashed
by Robin Wasserman
Young Adult Science Fiction
Due September 8th, 2009

Last week I was experiencing some anxiety--not about going back to school in two weeks or planning my wedding, but about what I would read when I'd finished CATCHING FIRE. How could anything possibly follow the sequel to THE HUNGER GAMES?

And then I received a package in the mail: Crashed, the sequel to Skinned by Robin Wasserman.


In Skinned, Lia Kahn wakes up in the hospital to find that she has been in a horrific car accident. Most of her body has been burned beyond recognition, but she is confident that modern technology will restore her to her former beauty. And it does--but instead of fixing her old body, BioMax has put her into a new one, and now she is a skinner. She looks human from a distance, but her body is mechanical, and her family and friends can't seem to decide if she is Lia Kahn or just a robot that is programmed to act like Lia. It's a fascinating book, full of moral quandaries and questions that our society has not yet had to ask.

In Crashed, the stakes are higher. Lia has been in her mech body for long enough to know that some things will never change, and others will never be the same. She is trying new things and attempting to get used to the fact that many people don't think she is a human being. She is also experiencing firsthand the politics of a biomedical ethics uproar. Where Skinned is mostly introspective, Crashed is full of action. There's also a VERY satisfying romance, and we get to know Lia a little better. This series is more than just dystopian science fiction; it feels real, like maybe Lia and her friends are living in a not-too-distant future.


Similar books: Feed by M.T. Anderson, The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.