Skinned (Gripping Trilogy Series #1) » (Reprint)

Lia Kahn was perfect: rich, beautiful, popular — until the accident that nearly killed her. Now she has been downloaded into a new body that only looks human. Lia will never feel pain again, she will never age, and she can't ever truly die. But she is also rejected by her friends, betrayed by her boyfriend, and alienated from her old life.

Forced to the fringes of society, Lia joins others like her. But they are looked at as freaks. They are hated...and feared. They are everything but human, and according to most people, this is the ultimate crime — for which they must pay the ultimate price.

VOYA

In a futuristic society, young terminally ill people can be "downloaded," their brain cut into thin sections and scanned into a computer that is placed in a human-like, mechanical body. Although this new "person" retains complete memories of its former self, in most respects it is quite different, impervious to the human frailties of aging, illness, and bodily functions. When Lia Kahn is fatally burned in an auto accident, her father decides that she should be downloaded. The problem is that no one, including her family and friends, considers her Lia Kahn anymore. Her sister, Zo, steals her boyfriend. Her friends replace Lia with Zo. Students stare at her now that she is no longer cool and comment behind her back, except for Auden, a backward youth who is intrigued by Lia. Quinn, another "skinner," befriends Lia and introduces her to a group of "mech heads" who, unlike Lia, revel in their uniqueness. Lia refuses to admit she is different-until Auden is severely injured trying to "save" Lia from herself. This first book in a planned trilogy deals with the definition of a person. If it walks, talks and looks like one, is it? Wasserman, author of Hacking Harvard (Simon & Schuster, 2007/VOYA February 2008), writes an interesting, fast-paced book, raising many questions that remain unanswered at the end. Her characters are realistic-some likeable, others not. There is little information about the time or place in which the book takes place, which detracts slightly. It might interest fans of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. Reviewer: Ed Goldberg