The Fox Inheritance

By Mary E. Pearson

Once there were three. Three friends who loved each other—Jenna, Locke, and Kara. And after a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, their three minds were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Locke and Kara had to go on without her. Decades passed, and then centuries.

Two-hundred and sixty years later, they have been released at last. Given new, perfect bodies, Locke and Kara awaken to a world they know nothing about, where everyone they once knew and loved is long dead.

Everyone except Jenna Fox.

I loved The Adoration of Jenna Fox, so I was pretty excited to read the next installment. Like many books that I greatly enjoy the sequel didn’t quite live up to its predecessor. It had more gloom and desperation in it that brought the entire feel of the book to a different place than the first novel. The themes were very adult, Kara was the most manipulative person I’ve read in literature for a while and I hate that-so I guess that was good if you looks at it that way. Locke was a confused kid who took most of the novel trying to figure out how to love both of his friends without betraying one of them. It was sad and hard. That being said, most of my miff with this sequel is that it was so sad and hard to read. Not that it was badly written, just difficult. The first book had some incredible themes in it and it was fantastically written and handled, but it had hope throughout and plenty of humanity. This second one calls humanity into question and deals with much bigger questions. All in all, it’s a great book, but it just got too heavy for me at times. And with that, I’m still going to read the last book because the characters are great and I want to know what happens.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5 because it was well-conceived and written, despite my gloom after finishing it.