Ever since Rosa’s nerve disease rendered her quadriplegic, she’s depended on her handsome, confident older brother to be her rock and her mirror. But when a doctor from Boston chooses her to be a candidate for an experimental brain transplant, she and her family move from London in search of a miracle. Sylvia—a girl from a small town in Massachusetts—is brain dead, and her parents have agreed to donate her body to give Rosa a new life. But when Rosa wakes from surgery, she can’t help but wonder, with increasing obsession, who Sylvia was and what her life was like. Her fascination with her new body and her desire to understand Sylvia prompt a road trip based on self-discovery... and a surprising new romance. But will Rosa be able to solve the dilemma of her identity?
Praise
"First-person narration increases the tension, and readers experience everything simultaneously with Rosa: from disgust at having co-opted someone else’s life, to doubt about whether her first love and sexual experience is about her or the dead girl whose body she wears...sympathy for Rosa and the bizarre situation she finds herself in will keep readers turning pages."Booklist
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"Like Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox (BCCB 4/08), the book prompts readers to wonder what makes human beings who they are—whether it is mind, body, or both—and to contemplate the impacts of innovative medical research and procedures."Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
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" . . . the author does a nice job in developing the character and showing the emotional roller coaster that Rosa is on. Middle and high school girls will thoroughly enjoy this book."School Library Connection
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"Through the voice of Rosa, the author makes this emotional journey seem real. Vivid sensory detail adds immediacy as Rosa experiences—as though for the first time—the sights, smells, and sounds that surround her. Readers . . . will find this an engrossing read."VOYA Magazine
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