Tagged: robin wasserman
Crashed by Robin Wasserman
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Before the accident, Lia Kahn was a lot of things: happy, loved…human. Alive. Now, six months after the crash that killed her, six months after being reborn, Lia has finally accepted her new reality. She is a machine, a mech, and she belongs with her own kind. It’s a wild, carefree life, without rules and without fear. Because there’s nothing to fear when you have nothing left to lose.
But when a voice from her past cries out for revenge, everything changes. Lia is forced to choose between her old life and her new one. Between humans and mechs. Between sacrificing the girl she used to be and saving the boy she used to love.
Even if it means he’ll hate her forever.
Robin Wasserman is an amazing writer, yet I did not like Crashed as much as I liked Skinned. I’m not entirely sure why, though. The characters develop more, the plot is a bit more interesting and we learn a lot more about Lia’s world. Yet it somehow fell flat for me, which is probably my own fault for having unrealistic expectations after reading Skinned.
Lia has changed a lot since the first book, no doubt about that. She and the other mechs live on the fringes of society, far away from the privileged life she once took for granted. Lia is still selfish, but readers will empathize with her throughout the novel because her selfishness is tempered by an acceptance of what she has become. Yes, she finally realizes she is not and never will be human again and Robin Wasserman does an excellent job of bringing us close to an inhuman character.
What I like about Crashed is that we learn a lot more about characters’ lives before they were mechs as well as how mechs were invented. Jude has a very interesting backstory, which is why I’m glad we see more of him in this book. As for Auden, let’s say that he takes a very interesting turn that was not entirely unexpected.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
Skinned by Robin Wasserman
(Cover picture courtesy of Rebecca Onion.)
Lia khan 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 live on 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.
Skinned is an unusual YA novel that deals with loss, life, fanaticism and what it means to be human. In my opinion, it is speculative fiction of the first rate.
Lia Khan was a selfish, vain and shallow character in the beginning, but as the novel progresses and she realizes what life on the outside is like, she changes. There are still frequent flashes of the old Lia, but being a mech (what people like her are called) changes her quite a bit, especially since she is unable to feel pain or die. She tries hard to continue her old life, but eventually accepts that the mysterious mech named Jude is right: she is anything but human and needs to embrace her new self.
Robin Wasserman’s predictions about the future of society ring true. As technology advances, more and more ethical questions will be raised about how and when to use it. In a futuristic society, there will also be religious extremists that advocate against changing nature, thereby “playing God.” But it is not only the religious extremists that hate (and fear) mechs; many of Lia’s former friends do not believe it is really Lia inside her new robotic body.
Skinned can be enjoyed on many different levels and it means something different to every reader, which is what makes this such a great novel for teenagers.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.