Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

57 reviews

ande13's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

A little long, a little predictable (yes, even the ending), but overall a good read. It definitely raises a lot of good and difficult questions, even 20 years after it’s original publication. The author does a fantastic job of capturing what it’s like to love you family but still want to do what’s right for you - all the conflicting emotions but still feeling the burning love for the people around you. I would have given 4 stars, but I think there was some extra “stuff” that could have been excluded

like the love story between Campbell and Julia and all their history…

but it didn’t totally distract from the main story, so I guess it’s kind of a wash. Just there to make the book longer imo.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Cancer, Addiction, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Car accident

jenn_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

1.0

Every adult in this book is awful and Sara can go straight to hell.

The end is monstrously stupid. It's like M. Night Shyamalan for middle aged white ladies. The ending definite affects my assessment of this whole entire book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcohol and Drug use

Medical consent issues, Toxic parental relationship,

Car accident

,

Seizure

saukittome's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content

samcsmith's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Blood

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, and Car accident

xoxandiexo's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

this was unnecessarily painful. i hate the ending with all my heart and i want to punch the wall until my knuckles bleed. merry christmas!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Cancer, Grief, Chronic illness, Blood, Child death, Medical content, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

add_a_little_spook's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cancer, Blood, Vomit, and Medical content

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

seawarrior's review against another edition

2.0

The primary issue that I have with this book is its melodrama. Picoult seemed very deliberate in including plot points and phrases that heightened the emotional drama and distress that the characters were experiencing. By the final pages of the book, this was painful to the point of irritation. 

I also felt that Picoult shied away from fully exploring the situation Anna was in. By making her subservient to her parents and a willing participant in the surgeries she was born to endure, Picoult never has to stare down the true horror of Anna's life.

Though she's granted medical emancipation, we later realize that even this decision was made to help Kate, negating any hurt or resentment between the family members. Anna's death serves this purpose even further. Though her family grieves her, she had a slim realm of identity and personality outside of providing for Kate, so in a way she exists as she always has.

I think this book did a disservice to its own mission by relying on plot twists that eventual solved the ethical and familial ramifications of Anna's fight for the rights to her own body. 

Unfortunately I did not feel that the additional protagonists were written well either. It felt to me that Picoult stretched herself too thin, and managed to create characters who represented problems that needed to be solved within her narrative, but not much more. Though each character had different perspectives, most noticeably defined by their fields of study or past life experiences, their voices were not dissimilar and I didn't think they possessed the true complexity of human beings. I will say that Picoult's story was engaging, and seemed to have been researched well; yet I am not an expert in medicine, law, astronomy, fire science or any other topics Picoult needed factual support to make a part of her story. I would recommend this book to others who are interested in children's rights in the medical field, although do not expect the book to be too revolutionary, as I did. Instead it provides a starter for questioning the way we undermine children's consent in medicine, and ends with vague assertions that are ultimately meaningless for Anna.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Car accident, Grief, Medical trauma, Blood, Suicide attempt, Child death, Medical content, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Pregnancy and Excrement

Minor: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Drug use

ansfaiv's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Cancer, Grief, and Child death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Blood, Drug use, Drug abuse, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Cursing, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

shushkeepitdown's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

An extremely sad book which tackles all the horrible things that a family has to go through when one of their loved ones is with an illness with no certain cure. I honestly loved the beginning and even almost near the end it was so good but then the ending came and honestly I was very disappointed with it. Also there are multiple POVs and I wouldn't have minded it but what they do is during the book they constantly switch between present time and their past memories so I had to constantly read paragraphs over and over to make sure what was currently going on and what was a random memory they just put in the middle. They do this for every point of view. It was a good starting book but the ending honestly stopped this from being a 4.5 star book for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Death, Drug use, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Abandonment and Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

ananyaramesh's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

i liked this book but im conflicted. it’s definitely something i could do a literary analysis on if i had to bc there were a lot of interesting decisions that the author makes. however sometimes her narration is SO early 2000s that if i didn’t know the author, i’d lowkey think she was a male author. the court scenes were also i feel kind of unrealistic and too tv-drama.

and the ending?? i originally hated it but i kind of understand why she did it. it makes the whole premise of the book pointless but emotionally it’s good.

idk maybe my rating will change but overall i did like the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical content, and Medical trauma