Overview
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.
Synopsis
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
Editorials
Children's Literature -
Lia Kahn awakens from an operation following her death. She has died in a car accident, but her powerful father insists that doctors download her brain into an artificial body. Frozen is the first book in the "Cold Awakening" trilogy. Set in a futuristic world, after a great war has destroyed much of the United States, the theme explores freedom of choice, problems of artificial intelligence, and social conscience. Lia has been rich, popular, thoughtless, and bored. Now, she must face a different future, as she discovers that almost no humans, including her family, can adjust to her post surgery body. She becomes involved with other artificial "mechs" and learns more than she wants to about how others—those left in devastated cities—have to live. Her former privileged class is used to an internet existence so powerful that it almost negates real life. Lia is not a sympathetic character, and some readers may feel impatient with her slow, angry journey toward actual humanity, possible only after she loses her real body. The pacing and characterization of the novel can be fitful: high school popularity issues are suddenly interrupted by long, philosophical conversations. Adult language. The title was originally published in 2008 with the title Skinned. Reviewer: Greta HoltVOYA -
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 GoldbergKLIATT -
It's about 100 years in the future. The story begins as a once-beautiful teenager lies in a coma after a car accident. Then Lia's body is left behind in a trash morgue, she is given a new, manufactured body, and the contents of her brain are downloaded into this new body. Is this Lia? What is a human? Now she will never die because when her body wears out, the contents of her brain can be downloaded and she can start again. Unfortunately, there was not time to build her a body that looks like her old organic body, so they had to pick an approximate fit. This means that Lia looks in the mirror and sees a stranger, but she still has the thoughts and feelings of her previously all-organic self. This new person doesn't need to eat or sweat or pee. For sleep, she just shuts down, like a computer going into sleep mode. As the story continues, we find out what the ramifications of such technology are. For a start, most humans are still in the mortal, organic, vulnerable state, so they resent "skinners" for many reasons. Lia's never happy sister, always envious, is now even more resentful. Lia's old boyfriend can't handle this at all. So Lia takes up company with others like her, but when they interact with organic humans, only dreadful complications result: mostly emotional ones. This is an intelligent science fiction story for older YAs. It relates to their knowledge of computers and videos and electronic games, to their shopping habits, to their fierce obsessions with physical appearance. Wasserman does a fine job. Reviewer: Claire RosserSchool Library Journal
Gr 9 Up
In a high-tech future, Lia Kahn is a rich, glamorous, "it" girl at a prestigious high school. Then a car accident leaves her body mangled beyond repair. Rather than let her die, her parents take advantage of a new procedure that downloads the contents of her brain into a sophisticated mechanical replica of a human body. Lia is now a "mech," known in derogatory slang as a "skinner." She still feels like Lia, but she no longer breathes, eats, sleeps, or ages. She can no longer enjoy the easy high of a b-mod, the ubiquitous mood-altering drug that gets the rest of her friends through lunch, and her boyfriend only touches her when he's drunk. She is kicked off her beloved cross-country team because the coach believes her new body gives her an unfair advantage over her competitors. Religious extremists hold a protest when she returns home from the download operation, holding up signs that say "God made man. Who made YOU?" Lia can only see her new body and new social status as a tragedy. Thoughtful readers, however, will recognize that the true tragedy is her self-imposed isolation, and that the world is much bigger and more brutal than the halls of one wealthy high school. The book is written in snappy, short paragraphs with enough sarcasm, humor, and plot momentum to engage reluctant readers.-Megan Honig, New York Public Library