Product Description

Lia Kahn is beautiful, popular and destined for success...until the horrific accident that nearly kills her. Lia wakes up in a body that is not a body. It's a machine, designed to look and feel human, and her memories have been 'downloaded'. Lia will never age. She need never feel pain again. And, as long as she is vigilant about backing up her memories, she need never die. Struggling to come to terms with what has happened, Lia tries to return to her own life. But nothing is the same...She's one of the "mechanicals" or "mechs" now. Her friends and boyfriend turn their backs on her, shutting her out. Even her own family can't seem to understand that underneath it all, she's still the same person. Or is she? Drawn to a seemingly reckless circle of "mechs", Lia starts to see the limitless options of her new "body" - after all, there isn't anything they can't do! But there are some who would like to see the new technology vanish, and these strange mechanical beings along with it. Can you really be human without a body? And is it technically murder to "kill" a machine...? In the tradition of Scott Westerfeld comes a riveting and edgy science fiction novel which raises questions of mortality, technology and morality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #111757 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
"A thoroughly absorbing book, drawing you in immediately and creating a completely credible world." --The Book Bag, 10 Aug 09

"Skinned took me by surprise. It wasn't what I expected at all, but I really enjoyed it."
--So Many Books, So Little Time, 10 Aug 09

Customer Reviews

Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Lia Kahn was perfect. She had a perfect life, perfect friends, and a perfect boyfriend. She was popular and beautiful and everyone wanted to be with her and know her -- until the accident changed everything.

When Lia is in a fatal car accident, she finds herself awake in the hospital. She should be dead, but she knows she's alive. She can't feel her body, but she knows it's there. Lia has become the latest patient in the "download process" -- a way to download your memories and brain functions into a computer-based body that is made to look and act human. Lia is angry about the download process. She doesn't want to be a "skinner" -- the awful nickname for download recipients. But she also isn't ready to give up on her life.

Being a skinner isn't easy, though. Groups of people have rallied against the download process, calling it unethical and saying the skinners are without a soul. Lia's friends seem to have turned on her and her boyfriend can't stand to be near her anymore. She's Lia, but she's not the same Lia, and she's not sure how to handle her new life.

Add in the mysterious group of skinners that Lia encounters, plus humans that would do anything to be part of the download process, and Lia isn't sure anymore what exactly it means to be human.

SKINNED presents an interesting look at what really makes us us. Are we human when we have flesh and blood, or is it our memories that make us who we are? Can we ever have the same life again? An interesting and engaging look at medical ethics and humanity, SKINNED is the beginning of a new trilogy.

Reviewed by: Sarah Bean the Green Bean Teen Queen

Thought provoking
What makes this tale fascinating is the authors willingness to discover what makes us human, are we just a bag of meat and bones or is it more of an intellectual process that could be transferred into a robotic shell?

Beautifully written and wonderfully creative, Robin really does generate a book that will make the reader think as the character undergoes her metamorphosis and learns to cope with how her life has changed. A solid book but one for the older readers in the household.

More than a novel, this book questions who we really are.
This book could have been shallow and awful, but Robin Wasserman was never going to fall in to that trap. Instead this is a novel to make you think, it's a compulsive read where you desperately want to know how it will turn out, and when you are not reading it, you are playing in your own mind - what if it was me? Would it be me? How do we define life?

I would recommend this book to anyone of year 9 and above. It is a gripping read and would make a perfect platform for a short ethics course. It deals with life, disability, prejudice, bullying and a host of other topics. I really cared about the character, but could also feel for the mother, father, sister, boyfriend. They all had their own private battles to deal with, and griefs to come to terms with.

I can't wait to read the sequel.