First in a trilogy about becoming a "skinner" when she is in a terrible accident. Set in the future, Lia's real body is dying so they transfer her brain into a machine body. Living this life is not much fun. All her friends have betrayed her, as has her boyfriend. Her father wishes he had let her die and her sister feels so guilty she feels she must take over the life that Lia was living -- including her friends, boyfriend, and activities.

Very powerful read. Not sure it really fits the boundaries of theme but enjoyable.

Pretty good book on transplanting the brain of dead people into mechanical people who then remember their previous lives. They function as people as best they can, with some sensory experience. Part of a trilogy. ( )

Lia Kahn was a shallow, rich bitch. After a freak accident, her brain has been downloaded into a machine that doesn't even look like her. The procedure is controversial, but her parents, though often absent, couldn't handle losing her and they definitely had the credit. Lia is having a hard time adjusting to a new body, losing her social status, and dealing with people who don't consider her human. The only people reaching out to her is another social outcast from her high school and other "mech heads" who pull extreme stunts to feel more alive or prove their superiority. Wasserman creates a believable world and somehow makes us sympathetic to someone so spoiled and cold. Fans of the Uglies and Feed shouldn't miss this one. ( )

Dark, ugly saga of a young girl who dies and is recreated in a robotic body. No-one believes the thing she has become is still her and she goes on with life trying to understand what it is she has become. Rough language, sexuality, useless violence, and self abuse and mutilation by the characters make this one to consider carefully before committing time and emotional involvement to it. ( )

We all know that the merging of humans and technology is happening. The Bionic Man is not futuristic science fiction any long with hospitals adapting robotic arms and legs for those missing limbs.

To take that one step further and have one’s entire brain scanned and deposited into a shell of a robotic body, may not be that far off. Lia Kahn finds herself living that when her parents decide they can’t let her die.

Skinned is Lia’s story. One set in the future where families have “credit” to pay for all of life’s expenses. Lia is one of the fortunate ones – rich, beautiful and popular. She is used to things going her way. In her world clothes are custom made to her body shape. She can “link in” to the net with the blink of an eye literally.

Except when she’s involved in a car accident, she loses control over many things in her life. Her controlling father decides he can’t let her go and opts for a computerized version of his eldest daughter. She becomes a “skinner,” a machine inside what looks like human skin. Except, everyone can see that she’s not the same – not a human any longer.

Author Robin Wasserman takes us on a journey of looking at what it means to be human and what ethical dilemmas technology presents to us. Should we be creating immortal beings that cannot die, but are programmed to “feel” emotion and carry on their lives like their organic prior selves?

Skinned is the first of a trilogy, published by Simon Pulse in 2008. The next story, Crashed, is due out in September 2009. ( )