This is a copy pasted review directly over from my LJ, with a few added notes for the rating.
Obviously this is not an objective review since it is 4 AM and I just finished the book, but here's what I got for it, spoiler free.
Okay. The book is My Sister's Keeper, and it is by Jodi Picoult. It's about a genetically designed child. One embryo poked out of a petri dish specifically chosen...
more This is a copy pasted review directly over from my LJ, with a few added notes for the rating.
Obviously this is not an objective review since it is 4 AM and I just finished the book, but here's what I got for it, spoiler free.
Okay. The book is My Sister's Keeper, and it is by Jodi Picoult. It's about a genetically designed child. One embryo poked out of a petri dish specifically chosen because it matches the DNA of the parents' other daughter---Kate, who has a severe version of leukemia. It is about this child, Anna, who chooses to sue her parents when asked to give her sister a kidney at the age of 13. She sues her parents for medical emancipation, which means that she would get to make her own medical decisions.
Obviously, this is a novel that deals with very modern and difficult issues. And surprisingly, it doesn't turn political. Rather, it's about a family that's torn apart in a matter of two weeks (but with a history that shows this was in the making for thirteen years), and is rebuilt again somehow shakily after.
It's in a rather confusing format---every chapter is told in a different voice. The voices:
Anna, the main character.
Sara, the mother.
Brian, the father.
Campbell, the lawyer (representing Anna. Sara represents herself)
Jesse, Anna and Kate's delinquent older brother.
This makes for a very confusing narrative at first, but then the story itself is confusing. I think this is one of my only gripes with the book though, because once you as a reader settles into the form of the narrative, the book itself is well constructed, well planned, and endlessly drawing and provocative.
Anyway, I won't give the story away, but I definitely recommend it. Thanks, Sherry, for recommending it to me. And for warning me not to read the ending.
Yeah, everyone else, don't read the ending until you actually get there. This is a no-no with this book.
That's about it. The only reason this is not a five star book is because of the slightly confusing narrative towards the beginning, and the tearjerker ending. I don't deal well with tearjerkers because they tend to be really obvious and grabby, which this was. I was a little disappointed, but I did cry a lot. But that doesn't mean it's a convincing or well-written ending.
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