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

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My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

24 reviews

thee_eclectic_eccentric's review against another edition

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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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juleskr02's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring 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

4.0

as i read this novel, i constantly thought about how i could do nothing else but compare it to the film adaptation, but by the end, i was caught by such surprise that those comparisons didn’t even matter.

my sister’s keeper has been my absolute favorite film for the longest time. there isn’t a viewing where i don’t cry. so of course i was ecstatic when i could finally land my hands on a copy of the book, especially paying only $1 for it from a thrift store! i had no idea what was in store for me, truly.

there were plenty of similarities between the book and film. i mean, the plot has to stay the same for the film to be a true adaptation. and i found myself identifying a good chunk of lines in the book that were identical to those of the film. but as always, the book is way more gruesome and sad than one could even imagine, considering the film is already super depressing. by the end of the novel i was in tears as the ending completely threw me for a loop.

the way this book is written is so smart. my favorite books are always the ones written in first person, so having this book written in first person from a plethora of points of view was a treat. jodi picoult plans the story out with a specific schedule, the plot following consistent weeks with each character’s part in different fonts. it’s really clear in reestablishing the different parts of the novel. something i also really took notice of is how each character was written. like how sara’s parts were always from the past, up until the trial. i think that really symbolizes her lack of acknowledgment in moving on and letting go. and the last point of view being from kate is just so powerful. i also love that it’s jesse who has the first and only mention of the exact words of the title.

i really enjoyed campbell and julia in the novel. that’s something that doesn’t get touched upon in the movie, and i think it’s adds a bit of romance to a story that overall lacks that quality. and they also make the courtroom scene that much better, specifically campbell!

this book touches on such serious topics that are written yet in a beautiful manner. this novel wrecked me, but i expected nothing less since the film did the exact same.

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seawarrior's review against another edition

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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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ansfaiv's review against another edition

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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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shushkeepitdown's review against another edition

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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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morgan_byrd's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

2.0

Its been a while since I read this because I read it before I made this account.
This book is very eh, it has a lot of good starting points but it doesn't really do anything good with them.

There is serious comentary to be made about how children don't have full bodily autonomy and how that can be abused, about how a minor with severe and possibly fatal illness might want to choose palliative care instead of continuing to fight, how necessary it might be to prioritize the needs of one of your children over another when that child is in crisis and the strain it can put on a family. At first it seems like the book might go in that direction and maybe my expectations were to high but all the pieces are right there and there's no way this is or should be a coffee table novel.
I don't think the book properly explore or elaborates on any of these issues.

The main plot is intriguing at times, the 2 subplots not so much.

One is a romance subplot with so much backstory and honestly why is there a romance subplot. It adds nothing to the story.

Subplot two is about the neglected older brother who kind of faded to the background with everything going on throughout the families lives and it much more relavant but still weak.

spoiler commentary about the ending for all who care It

The ending is a cop out, the arguement almost doesn't matter because she dies and her sister get her organs and thats it. Shes all better now, not sick or disabled anymore (cancer recovery doesn't work like that except in very rare occasion and especially not people who've had it for years). Family problems are semi-resolved even through grief. It seemed like for a couple pages there was set up for a sequel. The premise of a first book about a girls right to not the save her sister and a second about that sisters right to maybe just give up. Both about bodily autonomy. It does not do that.

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lulunyx's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

Gut-wrenching, emotional and a beautiful exploration of an impossible situation. Not a full five stars because I am still bitter and sobbing over the ending (even if the author note explains it, still felt like a cop out that was emotionally devastating).

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