Helpful Score: 2
Reviewed by Sarah Bean the Green Bean Teen Queen for TeensReadToo.com
Lia Kahn was perfect. She had a perfect life, perfect friends, and a perfect boyfriend. She was popular and beautiful and everyone wanted to be with her and know her -- until the accident changed everything.
When Lia is in a fatal car accident, she finds herself awake in the hospital. She should be dead, but she knows she's alive. She can't feel her body, but she knows it's there. Lia has become the latest patient in the "download process" -- a way to download your memories and brain functions into a computer-based body that is made to look and act human. Lia is angry about the download process. She doesn't want to be a "skinner" -- the awful nickname for download recipients. But she also isn't ready to give up on her life.
Being a skinner isn't easy, though. Groups of people have rallied against the download process, calling it unethical and saying the skinners are without a soul. Lia's friends seem to have turned on her and her boyfriend can't stand to be near her anymore. She's Lia, but she's not the same Lia, and she's not sure how to handle her new life.
Add in the mysterious group of skinners that Lia encounters, plus humans that would do anything to be part of the download process, and Lia isn't sure anymore what exactly it means to be human.
SKINNED presents an interesting look at what really makes us us. Are we human when we have flesh and blood, or is it our memories that make us who we are? Can we ever have the same life again? An interesting and engaging look at medical ethics and humanity, SKINNED is the beginning of a new trilogy.
Lia Kahn was perfect. She had a perfect life, perfect friends, and a perfect boyfriend. She was popular and beautiful and everyone wanted to be with her and know her -- until the accident changed everything.
When Lia is in a fatal car accident, she finds herself awake in the hospital. She should be dead, but she knows she's alive. She can't feel her body, but she knows it's there. Lia has become the latest patient in the "download process" -- a way to download your memories and brain functions into a computer-based body that is made to look and act human. Lia is angry about the download process. She doesn't want to be a "skinner" -- the awful nickname for download recipients. But she also isn't ready to give up on her life.
Being a skinner isn't easy, though. Groups of people have rallied against the download process, calling it unethical and saying the skinners are without a soul. Lia's friends seem to have turned on her and her boyfriend can't stand to be near her anymore. She's Lia, but she's not the same Lia, and she's not sure how to handle her new life.
Add in the mysterious group of skinners that Lia encounters, plus humans that would do anything to be part of the download process, and Lia isn't sure anymore what exactly it means to be human.
SKINNED presents an interesting look at what really makes us us. Are we human when we have flesh and blood, or is it our memories that make us who we are? Can we ever have the same life again? An interesting and engaging look at medical ethics and humanity, SKINNED is the beginning of a new trilogy.
Helpful Score: 1
Great story! Imagine you are a beautiful, rich teenager. Popular in school, great boyfriend - you have it all. Then in an instant you're dead... but not quite. Your body was destroyed in an accident but your mind was transfered into a robotic body. You will never feel pain, or age, or be truly human again. This is Lia's story. How she copes with what her loving parents did to "save" her.
This is really an interesting story - makes you think what if...
The next book in the series is "Crashed" and due out Sept 2009. Can't wait.
This is really an interesting story - makes you think what if...
The next book in the series is "Crashed" and due out Sept 2009. Can't wait.
Helpful Score: 1
This one had a great sci-fi plot that makes me interested in reading more by this author. The characters are well-described and it's easy to relate to them, especially when it comes to the pettiness of teenagers. This one leaves you at a bit of a cliff-hanger, so I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
Helpful Score: 1
This was the April 2013 pick in my online book club, The Reading Cove.
The story opens with the main character Lia having just been in a horrific car accident, and waking up to find she's no longer in her body. Sound interesting? Well, the reality is that our dear Lia is FAR too annoying to have an entire story coming from her point-of-view! I kid you not - all she does for over 350 pages is whine, brood and puke sarcasm about her situation. It got old. Fast.
I think it might've helped if I'd gotten to know Lia prior to the accident, rather than meeting her immediately afterward, when it's nearly impossible to sympathize with her. Within the first 50 pages, I found myself thinking that instead of "downloading" her into a new mechanical body, they should've just let her die. We don't need her smart alec rambling to know that humans are pure non-physical consciousness, not bodies.
So I skimmed through to the end. Because I'm not 14 years old, and this definitely wasn't written for anyone of more advanced intelligence.
I can't go higher than a D for SKINNED.
The story opens with the main character Lia having just been in a horrific car accident, and waking up to find she's no longer in her body. Sound interesting? Well, the reality is that our dear Lia is FAR too annoying to have an entire story coming from her point-of-view! I kid you not - all she does for over 350 pages is whine, brood and puke sarcasm about her situation. It got old. Fast.
I think it might've helped if I'd gotten to know Lia prior to the accident, rather than meeting her immediately afterward, when it's nearly impossible to sympathize with her. Within the first 50 pages, I found myself thinking that instead of "downloading" her into a new mechanical body, they should've just let her die. We don't need her smart alec rambling to know that humans are pure non-physical consciousness, not bodies.
So I skimmed through to the end. Because I'm not 14 years old, and this definitely wasn't written for anyone of more advanced intelligence.
I can't go higher than a D for SKINNED.
This was a very intense book about a girl that dies and wakes up in a robot body. Is she human or machine?
This book caused me to do more thinking than I had expectd.
