Title: My Sister’s Keeper Author: Jodi Picoult
Pages: 423 Series:
Other Info: Published by Washington Square Press, 2004
Description: Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her sister since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate – a life and a role that she has never challenged . . . until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister – and so Anna makes a decision that for most is unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family appart and perhaps have fatal consequences for the sister she loves.
Review: I may be a little wimp when it comes to roller coasters and the like, but it is very hard for me to believe that someone can not, at least, tear up in the course of this novel. And if you disagree, I think maybe you should read the book again and possibly turn off the television this time.
Anna and her companions in this novel really make up one of the most surprising crew of characters I’ve ever read about. The entire story was told in alternating viewpoints (and fonts, isn’t she ingenious??) which allowed every character to have their say. Almost every character had their moment that made me grab for a tissue, or some stranger’s sleeve, or my sister’s jacket. And the ones who didn’t had enough emotion behind them that I still thought of tearing up anyway.
Anna was really an amazing character. She, at the beginning, really had a piece of my heart, and as the book progressed, she kept taking more and more of it. If you just read her narrative, she came off as spoiled and slightly immature, but it was other people’s views of her that made me sad. All the other characters tried to snatch at my heart as well. My particular favorites were Jesse, who actually got the least of the characterization, and Brian, who was the father that was trying to save lives, and whose daughter was losing hers.
The language got to be an issue for me, Jesse was a little strong-willed and the mother spouted off a lot of medical vocabulary that had my head in a spin. There was one little girl-boy scene, but it was nothing that any Meyer or Libba Bray fan couldn’t handle. The story also starts off a little freaky, but it’s just that one page before the dedication that no one really reads anyway.
I’m trying really hard not to spoil this novel for any of you, but what Anna does is really unexpected. I was thinking more along the lines of suicide or something, but this, it really made the story seem real. I loved how you got to see the story progress by day, which made it seem all the more dramatic, like, how much longer does Kate have? It made each and every day really seem to count, which is something a lot of books can’t achieve.
MILD SPOILER! YOU PROBABLY WON”T EVEN REALIZE IT!
Jodi Picoult does a really good job of pulling all of her information together, with only a few exceptions. I didn’t think Campbell really had enough time to change his mind about the case, and certainly not to develop feelings for his client. His thing with Julia really lightened the more serious backdrop of Kate’s illness, and allowed for some serious characterization on his and Julia’s part.
Jesse was the character I was most disappointed in, however. Izzy never really was a main anyway, but Jesse, his story never really seemed to be told. I was shocked at how his secret was discovered, but after that, he was just dropped. It seems to me that if Anna was developing insecurities, wouldn’t their parents have tried to pay more attention to Jesse?
And the ending, it was just perfect. Horribly tragic, but it really ended the story well. I loved how the one character who never said anything before got to have her narrative at the end, and just the overall impact on the family. After reading this, I really can’t imagine the novel ending any other way, it was that fitting of an end for the book. The means, of course were a shock, but what actually happened was, just, amazing.
I read this book on an airplane back from my vacation, and I read it through descent and takeoff, despite how my stomach was acting. I had to save the ending for the end, I didn’t want strangers to see me start bawling, but picking this book up at the airport was really worth it. I give it a 4 out of 5, and something you should definitely try reading. But be warned, you will need tissues or a sibling’s sleeve during the course of this novel.
