YA New York

Dude. I totally forgot the date until now. It is SEPTEMBER NINTH, which means Skinned by Robin Wasserman is out today.

Okay. Hang on a sec. I gotta go grab my copy, because I’ve read like twelve other books since I finished Skinned and I want to get this review totally right.

You need to see this here, from the book:

“Lia Kahn is dead.

I am Lia Kahn.

Therefore — because this is a logic problem even a dim-witted child could solve — I am dead.

Except here’s the thing: I’m not.”

Awesome beginning. Awesome. I am a big advocate of first lines, first paragraphs, first pages, and this definitely does not disappoint on that front.

Basically, Lia, our protagonist, has had a full body transplant. Well, actually no. She hasn’t been transplanted into another person’s body. She’s gotten a sort of robotic body that looks human but isn’t.

And she’s not too happy about it. Neither is anyone else, actually. They all think she’s creepy and weird, and even though her parents are the ones who ordered the procedure, they feel as if they’ve lost their daughter to a robot of some sort.

Problem is, Lia’s brain works just fine. And her new body can be repaired any time. If ever there were irreparable damage, which is unlikely, her parents would just have her brain uploaded to a new body.

Oh yeah. She doesn’t actually have a brain, either. I mean, the brain she has works fine, except that it’s not a brain but a hard drive or something made to emulate her brain.

All of this takes place in some unspecified time in the future, I’d imagine about a hundred years from now. There are some interesting sci fi bits, but what I really love is how Robin gets into the concept of alienation and racism and, most importantly, class … all by creating a world in which a girl can be resurrected in a new body if she dies.

The emotions in this novel are really intense, especially for a girl who supposedly doesn’t actually feel, except through wires that are doing what her neurons would do if she were human. But really, the book is all emotion. It’s all about feelings of exclusion, of powerlessness, of rebellion. It’s all about grief and loss. And it is beautifully written.

Also — and this doesn’t hurt, because it’s why I picked it up in the first place — blurbed by one Scott Westerfeld. Sir Scott has yet to let me down with his blurbs and his recommendations. Scott’s quote on the front of this one says, “A spellbinding story about loss, rebirth, and finding out who we really are inside.” In fact, he pretty much sums it all up.

Look for an interview with Robin on YA New York next week.

Oh, and you can also buy Skinned on Amazon.com.

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