Skinned, by Robin Wasserman

This book looked awesomely fantastically cool. Then I read it. The front flap said it was about some girl, Lia, who practically dies so then her brain is transplanted into a robot body and now she is going to live forever as a robot. But all the robot people are shunned by society because they're kind of creepy so now Lia loses her perfect life (boo hoo) and must learn to live on the fringes of society. Sounds cool, doesn't it? I was expecting some sort of evil scientist, or a plot somewhat resembling Meg Cabot's Airhead series (where a girl has a brain transplant into a supermodel's body). But nope-it was nothing like that.

Lia has a perfect life. She's rich, gorgeous, popular, and has a hot boyfriend. Then she's in a car accident and becomes a robot. I wanted, as mentioned above, a few conspirators to be the perpitrators (I spelled that wrong) but alas (I use that word a lot. I also use parentheses a lot.), instead of being a cool scifi thriller, it's about a girl finding out who she really is. The book is actually pretty deep when it comes to that. Lia has to discover who she really is once she loses everything: she can't define herself by her looks because they aren't really hers anymore, she can't define herself by her family or friends or boyfriend because no one likes her anymore. So who is Lia? (I love that name. Sorry, had to let it out. But now I will try to not use any more parentheses on this post.)

This book contained one of my favorite and least favorite qualities that can be found in a book. It made me think. One thing that bothered me and made me laugh was how the book takes place at least 100 years in the future. {People aren't really becoming robots nowadays. And these technically aren't parentheses.} What is even funnier is how the author talks about how we destroyed the world. Scott Westerfeld also talked about that in his Uglies series. So all my millions of readers, remember our destiny. We must not destroy the world so that the perverted societies of Skinned and Uglies never exist. It's also entertaining when you realize that the parts talking about us are a plea from the author to be green.

Another thought provoking topic was the whole genetics thing. In the future, when having a child, there is some screening process which tests for just about every disease and if the parents pay extra they can also have a kid with higher IQ or specific looks. For example, Lia's parents paid extra for Lia and her sister to both be smarter with blond hair and blue eyes. Robin Wasserman manages to make this an integral part of society without giving many details about it so I don't even know if this is done before the child is conceived or while the mom is pregnant. All you know is that parents can make their kids.

A third thing is that the robot people, called skinners, live forever. The robot body lasts around 50 years, then they just get a new one. Everyone is jealous that these kids-because only teenagers become skinners-will live forever and never age. What they don't realize is that these kids don't live amazing lives. They are shunned by society, don't have normal senses and feeling in their bodies, and will watch all their loved ones die. So tell me now-do you really want to live forever?

Another thing-yes, another-is about the skinners being considered not human. They aren't full citizens with full rights and some of them would die if given the choice. Many are forced into that state, including Lia, and now must suffer for their parents' selfish choice. The parents couldn't bear to lose their child so instead gave the kid a miserable eternal life. Selfish, purely selfish.

3.2 stars. Did anyone notice that I used ---- instead of parentheses? There is no way to defeat the little parentheses monster in my head. Mwa ha ha ha ha.

Confession: I didn't read it because I liked the inside cover. I read it because I like the picture on the front.