Monday, 8 February 2010

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

This is the second of the three Jodi Picoult books I have read. I started it straight after Perfect match. Normally reading the same author in a row isn't something I generally do as I get bored of the same style and like a variation. However upon reading the back of the book the content seemed so different to the one before I went ahead.


At age 13 Anna is finally worn out with hospitals, operations, transfusions and injections...but Anna is not sick. She was born for the purpose of helping her sick sister who is fighting Leukemia. Through out this book we are given the viewpoints of all the family members in this heart breaking story. The way Picoult shifts our opinion from one chapter to the next depending on whose viewpoint we are reading is done so well.
Anna battles for the rights to her own body, she doesn't want to give up her kidney to her ailing sister, but the battle between the family loyalties are pushed to their raw limits. At 13 Anna is making a decision that will ultimately lead to her sisters death.


As you read the book you feel like you are getting to know the characters and I shed more than a few tears on numerous occasions throughout reading it. Issues none of us want to confront in our life are blasted through with such ferocity yet compassion that those of us, myself included who has not been in a situation even remotely similar can experience the devastation the disease can impose upon a family.


As with the other Picoult book I read there are twists and turns along the way which make it a truly brilliant novel. I can see why it has been made into a film starring Cameron Diaz. Because I enjoyed the book so much I watched the film, which was equally as tearful.


8/10


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