Skinned

This book had the potential to be good but didn't quite make it. I had a very hard time relating to the main character and found it very slow paced. I only read to the end because I hate to not finish something I start. To be honest, I wish I could get that time back.

I think I'm going to go with a 3.5 for this one...though it is a bit of a toss up. This story was interesting in the way that it explored what it means to be human, much as "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer did. And by human, I don't mean the good side, it's more like the side that we all choose to ignore. Lia is the epitome of popular before her accident, including the bitchy part. But at the same time you have to feel sorry for her after the operation when everyone and everything she cared about goes down the drain.
The worst part about this book was Lia's continuation of being stuck up after her operation, I was hoping she'd have learnt something...and the skinners were portrayed a bit weird as well, I wasn't expecting them to be like that. But overall a good read and I look foreward to reading the next book.

So. First off, i won't lie, this sci-fi futuristic type book is not really my cup of tea to begin with, but i thought i'd give it a try. The premise sounded like a good read, and i was interested to see if i could enjoy a non-paranormal book. Turns out - not really if this is what's being offered.

Now, before everybody gets their panties in a bunch if they like the genre or type of story, it wasn't bad, and the story could get potentially better in future novels - but a lot of elements to the story just made me unhappy and frustrated.

Lia Kahn is the narrator and main character of the book. She is a spoiled, popular, rich little brat, who is not nice AT ALL, who always gets what she wants, and who has the ego the size of a small country. In this book we are also looking at very futuristic world, where even old school cities don't exist, money is considered credit, and where EVERYTHING IS DIGITAL-BASED. So, back to the story, one day when Lia is doing a favor for her sister Zoie, she hops in the car (where driving a car manually is out of style, all you do is plug in a GPS and the car goes by itself) but there is a malfunction and crash on the way and let's just say Lia doesn't make it.
Or does she!?!?
Well she finally comes to and realizes that her father took the executive decision that instead of letting her die, of having doctors copy her brain and download it into a machine that looks like a girl but not like Lia - close enough under the circumstances. So while she'll still have the awful Lia attitude, temperment, and memories, she'll now have to get used to them in a new body, that doesn't bleed, eat, or cry, or have any human semblance except for what the doctors attempt to program into these machines. The try to make them as human and normal as possible, but come on, let's face it, you are a machine in the end!!!!
So Lia has trouble adjusting (naturally) to being a machine. She goes through a rehab of getting everything set up and working, learning how to do small things like smile and talk, walk, and most of all, learning how to accept her fate now as a machine that could technically live forever (Body may wear out after 50 years but she would just need to download herself into a new model).

Little FYI readers, she doesn't finally really start accepting her circumstances and herself until the end of the book, SO, a solid portion of the book is her B*tching that she just wants her old life back, that her sister should have been in her place, blah blah blah - she's very whiny and loves the self-pity. For some of it, i could understand being upset about being forced under these circumstances, especially when these people/machines (Mechs they're called among other things) are NOT socially accepted as they are viewed as simply put: unnatural soulless programmed copies of people. And you do witness Lia, lose her family, boyfriend, friends, and be attacked by religious fanatics - and let's face it, if you had everything, and you lost it all, it would be upsetting. BUT her pity party gets old and old fast!!!

Lia does have one friend throughout the whole book, Auden, the school freak so-to-speak. He befriends her, they eventually do become best friends and unseparable, but even then, Lia doesn't appreciate Auden, and treats him like poop often. Unfortunately too, in the end, the author twisted Auden's storyline in an ugly fashion i did not like. Maybe he'll be back in the follow up Crashed, but let's say i was a unhappy reader towards the end of the book when it came to him.
In the book she also meets a group of mechs led by a Jude and that's when slowly but surely Lia starts to accept her new self and maybe have a crush on this Jude. Now, the mechs are a minority and stick together, which like a lot of other groups in the real world do as well, the only problem i have with these mechs is that A) they are adrenaline junkies (the ability to feel pain with mechs is a rush because of the way they are constructed) which is kinda too much after a while, and B) Not a huge fan of the belief system they have.

Anyways, overall this book was not my thing, but if you like sci-fi futuristic type books, give it a whirl - but i warned you, Lia is a very frustrating character throughout and she WHINES a lot - sometimes for good reason, sometimes because i think its all she can do! Auden was the only character i enjoyed reading but like i said, super upset about the conclusion of his story line in this book! But all that being said, there was some interest to what was going to happen, and not only have i read a lot worse, but this novel wasn't that bad, it was just more frustrating than anything else. Hopefully Lia Kahn will be more enjoyable to read in the upcoming Crashed follow up! If she got over herself she would be a good read!!!

Well... Enjoy!

In our society today there are those who fight to fit in and those who long to stand out. For Lia Kahn, the only thing she ever wanted was to fit in, and she did. That is until the day she was changed. Being downloaded, Lia went from top of the social laffer to below the bottom. Everything in her world changes as she is forced into a new body and her whole life is betrayed. Ageless and immortal, Lia has different challenges to face. She has to cope with a whole new set of rules to society, and a world far less pretty than she imagined.

In a twisted look at what can happen in the future, Robin Wasserman captures the societal need to belong in a whole new world, a world where sometimes the simplicity of surviving can give you a fate worse than death.