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 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 questioned… 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 would be unthinkable… a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less?
This was an amazing book! One of the best I have read this year. I could see both sides of the story and cried my eyes out through the end. I am a big Jody Picoult fan and am reading more of her books. Great read!
i really really liked this book too. my only beef with it was that even though the ending was definitely sad, i thought it wrapped up a bit too nicely. what would have happened if she had made a decision? what would have been the outcome w/ her relationship with her family? or what if she had decided to continue being her sister's donor but it was of her own free will? those were my questions. i loved the author's style though, telling the chapters from different character's perspectives & each character is developed so that you feel you know them. i ended up getting a couple of other ones from the library of jodi picoult's and i've noticed some of the same trend of "wrapping it up." then i read on her website that she actually does it on purpose because her readers become really upset when she leaves questions unanswered...or the bad guy winning...etc. i just thought that was interesting. this is my favorite of hers though. i thought it was such a cool subject for a book & it made me question how far i would go for one of my children. would i let one suffer to save another?
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it to. It did drive me crazy that they used a different font for each character. My OCD does not deal well with that! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Andrea! Lynsey keeps encouraging me to join your book club and it's so fun to read your reviews of the books - I would love to be added to this group! My email is laurenlhorsley@yahoo.com and my blog is horsleyfam.blogspot.com. I really thought the writing style in this book was creative, and pulled off extremely well. I, like Lyns, did feel the the ending was a bit of a cheat, but it didn't bother me as much as it did many of the other people I've talked to and here's why: The author poses some real moral dillemmas to her reading audience and I think she wants us all to make our own decision about what's right, instead of have her characters tell us the answer. Lynsey's post goes over all the interesting questions this book presents and I like that we are required to look within ourselves to gauge how far we would go.
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