Skinned

Skinned by Robin Wasserman
Young Adult science fiction

Lia Kahn is a mech, otherwise known as a skinner. She wasn't always a mech, in fact, she was a flesh and blood org just a little while ago, until she got in a terrible car crash. A car that she wasn't even supposed to be in--she was doing a favor for her sister. Not much of Lia survived the crash except her brain which was copied and downloaded into a computerized body which responds, much like a human body, to the signals her brain sends out. Well, not exactly the same because she doesn't feel much, she doesn't have to eat and when she goes to bed at night she uploads her memories for safekeeping and simply shuts down. It is hard enough for Lia to get used to her new existence--add to that the fact that no one treats her the same anymore. Her classmates think she's a freak, her boyfriend is totally at a loss and her sister has become an absolute witch. Then she meets Auden and life seems somewhat bearable. But luck isn't Lia's strong suit and this, too, doesn't exactly work out as planned.

This is a pretty dark dystopian world that Wasserman has painted--not a lot of good happening in this society. But there are a lot of questions raised about what makes us human and how far are we, as a society, willing to go to preserve a life?