Skinned is a young adult science fiction novel by Robin Wasserman

Robin Wasserman

Robin Wasserman is an American young adult novelist.Wasserman grew up outside of Philadelphia and graduated from Harvard University and UCLA. Before she was an author she was an associate editor at a children's book publisher...

, first published in 2008. It is the first book of the Skinned trilogy and was followed by Crashed and Wired.

Summary

Lia Kahn, a popular, rich, and powerful girl is nearly killed in a car accident. Her body was badly damaged to a point that the doctors could not fix it. Luckily, though, her brain was fully intact. Lia's father had no choice but to go with the only option other than death; to turn her into a machine. Lia was taken to BioMax, where they can copy her brain and "download" her into a new, mechanical body. The people within these bodies are referred to as "Skinners", and are hated by regular humans. After 2 months of learning to walk, talk and move, Lia finally gets to go back to school, only to find out that her little sister, Zo, has practically taken her place. Now Lia's friends, popularity, power, and even her boyfriend are worse than gone... they are her sister's. Lia can do nothing but watch as her sister replaces her in life.. She later becomes friends with Auden, the weird boy at their school whom was once ignored by Lia. Auden is the only person that she can talk to, that really understands her sometimes, despite the fact that he is human. He helps her push past the difficulties that she faces as a "Skinner" in a human world. He later convinces her to go to a gathering of the Skinners. She soon figures out just how insane they all are, for they enjoy hurting themselves to feel pain. She leaves them, only to return sometime later. She goes back to the waterfall where the other Skinners were trying to get her to jump and jumps. Auden, who it turns out was following her, dives in after her after she gets sucked under the water. She swims under and brings him back up, and he feels stupid because she could not have drowned because she is a Skinner. For a while they stay in the water, until Auden starts to pass out. Then Lia remembers that Auden is human and cannot stand the cold. She drags him out, then gives him CPR and calls the police. After that accident, Auden realizes that the fall should have killed him, therefore he would become a Skinner like Lia. Sadly, that was not the case. Auden was "disqualified" from becoming a recipient of the download, since his mother made Auden a natural, someone whose genetics were not changed by their parents to their preference before they were born. His natural brain has structural anomalies that will affect the download process. So, Auden has to stay mostly paralyzed from his shoulders down for the rest of his life. Auden hates Lia because of this, leaving her all alone again. At the end of the book she packs up her things and runs away to her own kind, knowing that at first it will be hard for her family, but that they will be better in the long run.

Lia Kahn

Lia almost died in a car accident and was made into a mech. She hates her life as a mech, and wishes she was an org like her best friend.

Auden

Auden is fascinated by mechs, he befriends Lia to find out what it is like to be a mech. He is a natural, and has two half-sisters. He is an outsider at school.

Jude

Jude runs a group of mechs who hurt themselves to feel. He has feelings towards Lia and she describes him as being full of himself. But with his power he uses it to show them how to stay together as a family of mechs.

Zoie Kahn

Zoie is Lia's sister who takes over her life after Lia becomes a mech. In the beginning, Zoie's actions seem cruel but it is revealed later on in the novel that she did it to try and save her sister from the outsider trying to take her place (Lia as a mech).