The Fox Inheritance is the sequel to the book The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which you really should read, first not only to understand this book better but because it’s a really good story. Plus, if you think you might WANT to read that someday, please do not read on because there will be spoilers everywhere.

Locke has been away for a while. A long while. After he was in a horrible car accident at the age of 17, his mind and memory were saved on a hard drive. For decades — centuries, he lived in the terror of a true nowhere, a mind without a body to move or an environment to live and learn in. His only connection to real life was Kara, another victim of the accident who was also saved, in a sense, and who Locke felt a connection through during all that time. Without Kara and the memory of his dear friend Jenna, Locke’s mind never would have made it safely into the perfect body that was created for him.

But his “perfect” new life hasn’t erased what he went through and soon Locke is ready to start finding out how much he’s truly lost — and if there is anything left in this new world that he can call his own.

So. We are hearing the story from a different point of view, now, and again, Pearson takes us to the limits of ethics and makes us wonder what DOES make us human? Is it only the skin and flesh and bones that make our form, or is there something more intricate in our minds that can be moved and transferred and not lose something essential? Or CAN that get lost and still some semblance of humanness remain? I liked the dystopian world that Pearson has taken this story to — a world of half-alive robots and disenfranchised people on the fringes of an ever more technical society. Locke is a sympathetic and multidimensional character, with clear strengths and weaknesses, and the plot moves along nicely. Maybe the lessons are a bit TOO spelled out sometimes and some thoughts are pretty repetitive, but overall, I was always happy to pick it up and it read fast. I can see that maybe it would feel a tiny bit obvious or campy to those who don’t like the dystopian genre, but I think, for an unnecessary sequel, it’s one of the better ones that I’ve read.

Rated: Moderate for 16 uses of the “h” word, 20 deity terms, 5 uses of the “a” word, 1 use of the “b” word and a couple mild kissy moments