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

emotional sad 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

1.0

not sure why, but this book had so much potential to be a decent read. but it wasn’t. 
 
i was mistakened that this book would talk about sisterhood & dysfunctional family. while that is the case, it was not appealing at all. 
 
yes, yes. i know that it’s not the point of the book, but i found the characters all insufferable. everyone was annoying and in dire need of therapy. in literary fiction with insufferable characters, i would prefer if i knew why the characters would act this way—but this novel just poses an interesting moral question instead. 
 
my sister’s keeper follows anna, the savior sister. she was born specifically to be the donor of her sister, kate. kate suffers from leukemia, and this unfortunately continues throughout kate’s life. 
 
while it does tell a character’s story, i still firmly believe that it was unnecessarily long. i’m sure that jodi picoult tried to be “philosophical” but failed. there were so many inner thoughts that bothered the hell out of me. i don’t think there was a chapter i didn’t roll my eyes in. if you told me that this was written by a white man, i would definitely believe you. because why the hell was there ROMANCE in the middle of a book about leukemia??? jesus!!! i feel like picoult tried to write something unknown back then, but there was seriously a lack in research and depth. you’d think that in over 500 pages it would give you profound knowledge, but no. everything is surface level. the novel was just purely written & full of cliches. cliches are usually okay, but in this given case, i don’t think that’s the ideal. 
 
do not even get me started on the ending. it was rushed & you can tell that picout ran out of creative juices. or she was just tired of writing. because that’s the dumbing ever. it was like the cherry on top of this being a bad book. if she looks at her reflection thinking that she’s a genius, she should think again. i feel like she added the “plot twist” as a shock factor—but it simply just didn’t work. 
 
overall, i did think it had great potential but ultimately failed to deliver. while it aimed to explore sisterhood and a dysfunctional family, the characters were unlikable and lacked depth. despite its length, the book remained superficial, full of cliches and unneeded subplots. i know that a lot of people love this book, but personally it’s just not for me. 
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