Bionic by Suzanne Weyn

From Goodreads,

"Mira has always almost had it all... until it all crashes and burns. She's hurt in a horrible car accident, and the only way the doctors can help is to try experimental prosthetics and chips that are implanted directly into her brain. It's a huge risk, but after months of testing and therapy, Mira is back, and better than ever.But soon her friends turn against her as their parents call her on unfair advantages and get her cut from lacrosse and the scholarships she was depending on for college. And with her enhanced hearing, she knows how many people in her school and her town are calling her a robot, a cyborg.Is that true? Is Mira human, or is she somehow something other? How can she overcome the ways people see her and just be herself... especially if she's not really sure who that is anymore?Suzanne Weyn is always at the cutting edge when it comes to new tech and the questions it raises about the world we live in."

Goodreads - Bionic

People always say, "Don't judge a book by its cover."  Which is a great saying and all, but doesn't the cover usually have some kind of connection with the story itself?  The cover of this book mesmerized me.  There was something about the way the blue faded into the pink that caught my attention.  Plus there was the appearance of wiring and hardware that appeared on top of the photo.  The cover of this book had me sold.  After reading the book I realized that the cover, the summary, and the actual story didn't entirely line up.

This book follows Mira who was an excellent lacrosse player and was in a band.  Then one night the band is in a car accident which results in her losing limbs and being severely injured.  Mira gets the newest prosthetics and gets a chip implanted in her brain that responds to her new limbs.  She now feels like she is at the top of her game all the time, but at what point does she stop having feelings at all.

This book was definitely strange, but I loved the whole concept of advanced technology helping us.  In the book Mira is fortunate enough to receive prosthetics that can respond to a chip that is implanted in her head.  Scary, I know.  But think of how amazing it would be to have a chip implanted that can now respond to your prosthetic.  If you lost a limb then you would be able to resume a fairly normal life all thanks to a chip.  This could help veterans who lost limbs during war or help victims of bombings and accidents gain their life back.  I'm glad that Weyn really centered her book around the technological advancements, both the good and the bad.  I think that having this kind of positive outlook on technology really helps spark interests to go into STEM careers.  Somewhere out there is a kid who read this book, they connected with it on a personal level, and they are going to want to go into a career to help make advancements like this happen.

I really enjoyed the technology theme in the book, but I did not like how the book was written.  It was really choppy.  The first chapter was written as if Mira was in and out of consciousness, which I guess technically she was.  I thought that once she was out of it the book would resume a normal chapter schedule, but it didn't.  The book had some chapters labeled with months, or there would be a new month in the middle of a chapter.  It was a very confusing structure.  I would have enjoyed the book more if Chapter 1 had been a month, then Chapter 2 the next month.  But unfortunately Weyn took a strange approach, and I think it took away from the book a little.

Another thing that was bothersome was that the cover, the summary, and the actual book didn't exactly line up.  The summary that I read indicated that someone was going to start controlling Mira.  The cover gave the impression that it was about a girl and technology.  The book however was about a girl having a copper chip and prosthetics and learning how to live a normal life again.  I was so disappointed that the three did not line up.  From the summary itself I was totally looking forward to a girl having prosthetics and a copper chip that would later be controlled by the government.  I was definitely excited about the government or some bad guy stepping in and controlling her until she eventually had enough.  Unfortunately that didn't happen and I was let down. 

I think that this book is best fit for teenagers.  I expect that teens who have lost a limb or know someone who has would find the most joy out of this book.  I personally did not connect with any of the characters.  I give this 3 stars out of 5.