Skinned by Robin Wasserman

Lia Kahn had it all - popularity, beauty, & money. When her self-driving car malfunctioned, all that changed. Her body was so badly injured that there was only one thing that could be done to save her life. Her family opted to have her brain downloaded into an artificial body. She won't ever truly feel again. She can't really die. Lia resents being the newest recipient of the download process. The "skinners" are frowned upon in society and everyone, including her supposed best friends and boyfriend, rejects the new Lia. Even her family eventually regrets what they did to her.

Lia and the others like her are viewed as freaks. Religious groups protest against the "abomination" modern science has created. But Lia wants nothing more than to fit in. Every relationship she has, even with Auden the social outcast, ends badly. How can she accept her new reality when no one else around her will?

I absolutely loved this book. I originally picked this book up at Borders because the cover caught my attention and now I'm glad I did! It was so unique and interesting I could hardly stand to put it down. I thought that it was very well written and that the characters were nicely developed. I'll definitely be buying the rest of the books in the trilogy when they come out! I absolutely recommend this book, especially if you're into futuristic or sci-fi books.

There are definitely some similarities between this book and the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. But besides being set in the future and having surgery to alter peoples bodies, their plots and characters are very different. For instance, Tally is looking forward to her surgery but Lia didn't have a choice and is less than thrilled about it afterward. The recipients of the surgery in Skinned did not have any abilities or senses that normal humans don't have, unlike those in the Uglies books. If you liked the Uglies series, you will fall in love with Skinned as well!

4 out of 5 stars