Jodi Picoult loves to twist the knife. Your daughter Kate is dying of an aggressive form of cancer. Your other daughter Anna is a donor being harvested for spare parts, and she doesn't want to do it anymore so she is suing you. Your son is an arsonist, which is even more complicated because your husband is the Captain of the fire brigade. Kate stays alive long enough to meet her soul-mate, who then dies suddenly (also of cancer) without a chance for her to say goodbye.
Could it be any more tragic? It's like Picoult tries to think up the most horrendous family situation she can, then writes about it with the goal of making you cry as much as possible.
I also found some of the characters fairly unbelievable. I doubt a teenage Jesse lighting fires for attention would have been smart enough to create chemical accelerants and hide his tracks so effectively. Anna was also unrealistically mature for 13, and able to hold up witty repartee with adults that would be far beyond any real 13-year old. Anna is able to pick that Campbell is lying about why he has his dog:
"You're lying."
Anna croses her arms. "Well, you lied first. You hear perfectly fine."
"And you're a brat." I start to laugh. "You remind me of me."
"Is that supposed to be a good thing?" Anna says, but she's smiling.
And argues like a debating champion or a politician:
"It doesn't work that way," I say. "You started this lawsuit. You wanted to be someone other than the person your family's made you for the past thirteen years. And that means you have to pull back the curtain and show us who she is."
"Half the grown-ups on this planet have no idea who they are, but they get to make decisions for themselves every day," Anna argues
Having said all that, even though it is incredibly sad, I enjoyed most of this book.
Until the ending.
The ending is horrible, and compromises the entire book. Picoult spends 400 pages discussing an incredibly tough moral and ethical dilemma and then throws it away with a trite 'happily ever after' ending where everything works out way too conveniently and Anna doesn't have to make a choice.
I wanted to see what choice Anna was going to make! Would it be possible for her to look beyond the risk to herself and possible health complications in the future for the sake of her sister? How would she weigh a small chance of extra time with Kate against her own health? If she didn't donate the kidney how would she live with that decision for the rest of her life? Would she respect Kate's wishes if Kate asked her not to donate?
3 stars.
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