Mrs. Smith recommended this book to me. It is an excellent book - and a real page-turner. I stayed up late Saturday night to finish it to its shocking conclusion. I was crying by the end, which made Ben wake up sleepily and think there was something wrong with me:-)
This novel has an intriguing concept. It's about two sisters, one named Kate who is 16 and has leaukemia and the other named Anna who is 13. Anna was a "designer baby" who was created in a lab and placed her mother's womb so that she would be a genetic match for Kate and be a doner. The donations started with cord blood at birth and have gone on from there. Now at age 13, Anna wants the donations to stop and has gone to a lawyer to be medically emacipated from her parents so that she won't have to donate one of her kidneys to Kate.
Besides this main plot, the book also tells the story of how Kate's sickness has affected the family as a whole. Jesse, the older brother, is a raging juvenile delinquent who has been ignored most of his life to meet Kate's pressing needs. Brian, the father, is a fire chief and loves his family. He has seen his marriage fall apart as he watches his wife, Sara, obsess over saving Kate no matter what the cost. Sara has her obsession and her marriage and other two children seem to fall apart to meet Kate's needs.
Another interesting side plot is about Campbell Alexander, Anna's attorney, and Julia, Anna's case worker. They were high school sweethearts who broke up under no very nice circumstances. They are reunited to work on this case and must work through their issues. I could have read a book just about these two!
The book was told through the view points of each of these main characters. They each had their own font too, which I thought was a cool point. The characters were very ingrossing and the plot moves along quickly. I recommend it to anyone and I plan on reading some more books by Jodi Picoult!
No comments:
Post a Comment