Title: The Fox Inheritance
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Science Fiction YA
Published August 30th 2011 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Goodreads summary:
Once there were three. Three friends who loved each other—Jenna, Locke, and Kara. And after a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, their three minds were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Locke and Kara had to go on without her. Decades passed, and then centuries.
Two-hundred-and-sixty years later, they have been released at last. Given new, perfect bodies, Locke and Kara awaken to a world they know nothing about, where everyone they once knew and loved is long dead.
Everyone except Jenna Fox.
Review:
The Fox Inheritance was… different than I expected.
The previous book in the series, The Adoration of Jenna Fox was a beautiful read, and I don’t use that word lightly. Not only was poetry used as an aid to the book, but Pearson’s prose itself was gorgeous and poetry in its own right. I suppose I suspected that same quality in reading The Fox Inheritance.
I shouldn’t have.
I don’t want that to sound negative. Because saying that I didn’t enjoy The Fox Inheritance would be an out and out lie. I just felt that the style between the two books was vastly different and it took me by surprise.
Many of the same questions that Jenna Fox brought up are still in question in the latest installment of The Fox Chronicles. What makes a person a person? In fact, there’s a Bot in The Fox Inheritance that seems more human than many other characters.
We learn guilt and loyalty are powerful motivators, especially for Jenna and Locke. I really grew to love Locke as a character. He was always trying to do the right thing by his friends.
We still see glimpses of poetry, but not as much in the prose. There’s more of a focus on how it bonded Kara, Locke, and Jenna back in the days when they were just normal teenagers.
The book leaves off on rather an open note and I’m curious to see how it may be furthered on in the next installment.
Overall rating: 3.5/5. When I threw out my expectations, I found that I really enjoyed The Fox Inheritance. Just not quite as much as The Adoration of Jenna Fox.
