A review by blowp0p
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

2.0

~This review is full of spoilers~

I liked that it seemed that Mrs. Picoult actually seemed to do some measure of research about the different forms of cancer and treatments for it. I like that Ana wins her case. That's about the extent of my likes on this book.

So, we all know parents are suppose to love their children equally but that it doesn't always happen. And that when that doesn't happen usually parents are fairly decent at hiding how much more they like kid a more than kid b. This doesn't happen in this book.

Jesse, the oldest is basically neglected and Sarah, the mother, outright says that she gave up on him.
Kate, the middle child has the world revolving around her and it's not hidden at all.
Ana, the youngest feels invisible and ignored.

Being a child of a 2 child family (and the oldest) I can't actually related to a 3 child family but from what I've heard of others who do live in families with 3 or more children, this is a fairly common structure for them. And it pisses me off. However, I can emphasise with how Kate and Ana are portrayed as my younger brother has a lot of medical issues and things revolve around him and at times I do feel invisible and ignored when I'm asked for my opinion on things. So I can understand how Ana feels on the front of having a sibling have a medical issue that everything revolves around (luckily my sibling doesn't have one that has him in the hospital often and is fairly manageable and hasn't required me to donate any part of my body towards).

Now, back to the book.

Jesse being neglected turns to arson in what seems to be a feeble attempt at getting his parents to give a shit or care. Ana is being pressured to donate a kidney to Kate that the doctors seem to think might not be the best possible thing for her because of how bad Kate's immune system is. Sarah doesn't seem to want to really listen to Ana. So, Ana in turn saves up money and sues her parents, Sarah and Brian, for medical emancipation.

There's a whole side story about her attorney and her guardian ad litem having a romantic past and blah blah blah. That really didn't make much of a difference to the story.

The end was the only part that really got any semblance of emotion other than anger from me but it also made me angry too because it felt like a cop-out. She spends the entire book fighting to not have to donate her kidney and then winds up in a car accident that she dies from and her kidney still gets donated regardless. And miraculously because it was a life for a life Kate winds up living well beyond doctor's expectations.

Read it or not that's on you. But I don't recommend it.