The Adoration of Jenna Fox Themes

The Adoration of Jenna Fox suggests that a person’s identity is defined by relationships with other people, not by that person’s physical body or even memories. This science-fiction novel’s protagonist, Jenna Fox, suffered such an extreme car accident that her biotech-pioneer father was only able to salvage 10 percent of her brain. He rebuilt the rest of her body using prostheses and Bio Gel, a neurochip-dense goo that can mimic and rebuild human…

In The Adoration of Jenna Fox, science has extreme destructive capabilities—but forswearing science is not the answer. Instead, the novel suggests that  people should responsibly consider how to use scientific advancements on a case-by-case basis. The science-fiction novel takes place in a near-future U.S. where overuse of antibiotics has led to the development of many antibiotic-resistant infections. One such infection, the Aureus epidemic, ended up killing about 25 percent of the world’s population in…

In The Adoration of Jenna Fox, perfection and purity are opposing ideals—but the novel suggests that both ideals are ultimately harmful. Teenage protagonist Jenna Fox has always felt that her mother Claire and her biotech-pioneer father Matthew want her to be perfect. The pressure this feeling puts on Jenna leads her to ignore her own desires and interests in favor of pleasing her parents. For example, Jenna dances ballet because her mother is deeply…

In The Adoration of Jenna Fox, idolatry—worshipping someone or something that is not God—is framed as a mistake, while worshipping God through religion is portrayed as something that can provide lives with additional meaning. At various points, the novel implies that Jenna Fox’s parents, Claire and Matthew Fox, worship their daughter in a problematically idolatrous way: Claire calls her a “miracle,” Matthew calls her “Angel,” and the novel refers to their love of…