Reviews with content warning for Death - My Sister's Keeper

I couldn’t remember other books that made me question my morals the way this book does. This compelling novel by Jodi Picoult triggered many internal debates within me about ethics, morals, love and law.

“My plans for her are no less exalted; I plan for her to save her sister’s life”

Sara’s daughter, Kate is just two years old when she’s diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. Her only hope was a bone marrow transplant–this is how Anna was ushered into the world. The girl who felt like she had never belonged to herself. A combination of perfect genetic material only conceived for her sister’s benefit. Until one day, at the age of thirteen, Anna has decided that she doesn’t want to be a donor anymore. She’s suing her parents for the rights to her own body.

As the story unfolds, I became totally engrossed in the moral dilemma of the Fitzgerald family. The whole time, I was mentally debating where I stand between Anna and her mother. I remember annotating my book with “there is more to this case than the letter of the law”.

I could easily give this book a five star rating if it wasn’t for the ending. I knew from the moment I opened this book that this isn’t going to end well. BUT THE ENDING WAS PURE AND UTTER BULLSHIT. It was ridiculous and unnecessary. I’m talking about killing a young girl who just won a medical emancipation from her parents. A girl who finally has a shot in life. Worst cop-out ending but I still gave it a four star rating and I’m just going to pretend that the last three pages didn’t happen

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childoflokii's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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belfrybatz's review against another edition

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challenging sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

It was very slow, and the characters particularly the mom were extremely unlikeable
/flawed but not in a good way. The ending shocked me and made me sad, but came way too late to make me interested in the plot.

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darkpoet's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This book was amazing and I have so many thought and opinions on all these characters that I now hold dear to my heart. The only reason I did not give it five stars was because of the ending.
I extremely disliked that in the end Anna did this because Kate wanted to die. I wish that Anna did do the selfish thing by wanting her own life. You first see her character as someone who wants to not have the only purpose of her life be used as Kates donor but towards the end we see that she made the choice because of Kate and not herself. Anna and Jesse were pushed aside as children and were extremely neglected and I thought that it was refreshing to finally see a story where someone isn’t willing to throw their life away for someone whose dying. (Not to say that i don’t feel bad for cancer patients) In the end all the growth that I had thought Anna went through was pointless because in the end she wasn’t given the choice she had to pick what was best for Kate. I wanted Anna to finally be ready to love her family but also know that when she gets older she will leave and not come back because of the circumstances. I also didn’t like how they went though the whole conflict of Anna finding her own worth just for it all to come back to Kate. I feel like this could have a deeper meaning of everyone comes back to the people dying and forgets that everyone is dying and deserves love and attention. This ending I accepted for the time being because I knew Anna would be able to have a life of her own without being linked to Kate. I was stunned though when Anna was in the car accident and pronounced brain dead. It seemed like a definite shock ending but at the same time a easy way to wrap this book up. But what absolutely destroyed me was after this entire thing Anna’s life came down to saving Kates. Anna’s whole purpose became to save Kate and i find that absolutely disgusting. Anna was going to finally have her own life and own purpose and instead she started her life for Kate and ended it for Kate. Anna was shown through her whole life that her only purpose was to save Kate and instead of her finally breaking through she ends up saving her in the process of herself dying. I cried hard to this book and was touched by it but the ending left me feeling disgusted at Anna’s mom and even Anna’s dad at some points and i wish Anna would’ve gotten to know how special she was without her sister.

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