Book Review: My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult

WARNING: I am told (by Holly in the comments) that the Amazon reviews have spoilers in them. Be careful!

I just finished reading this book late Monday night. I should just be honest and admit it was early Tuesday morning.

I like books that make me feel emotions I’m unfamiliar with. I like books that challenge my assumptions. This book did those things. I would give it a 4 out of 5, with the last point deducted for having a couple of side stories that seemed to detract from the plot (or add nothing) and having one character that didn’t feel fully fleshed out.

In summary, the book is about a thirteen year old girl Anna who files a lawsuit to be granted medical emancipation from her parents. She was conceived to be a perfect cord blood donor to her older sister Kate, who suffers from a rare form of leukemia. She has spent all of her life acting as donor in increasingly invasive and dangerous procedures for her sister. The latest thing she’s asked to do is to donate her kidney t oher sister, for whom the chances of yet another recovery look slim.

Given the controversial topic, this book could easily have been extremely trite and manipulative, squeezing the plot for people acting in shocking and scandalous ways. But instead, the author crafted a story full of real, flawed characters that have complex motivations and personalities. The relationship between the main characters and her parents and her sister vividly show that it’s not a simple case of her family treating her like she’s just a donor and that it’s not a case of her just wanting to be seen as a person. The pain and empathy between each set of characters is palpable, and it was unclear how the story would wrap up.

If you want to be challenged by the difficult decisions people make and struggle with your own sense of what’s right, I would recommend this book. Setting up some characters as “good” and “bad” in the story within the first few chapters became meaningless as I continued with the story because they simply became people who were trying their best with something they had never faced before. If you don’t like books that make you sad, stay far from this book.

The author’s prose flows quite easily, being simple and straightforward, rather than overly flowerly or overwraught. The use of multiple first-person views (each chapter is from a different character’s perspective) covering a two week period (with some flashbacks) was pretty good, although some character’s voices were not as distinct as others.

This is my second Jodi Picoult book. I’d also read The Pact a couple of years ago. It was also very well-written and has stayed with me ever since.