Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Beim Leben meiner Schwester by Jodi Picoult, Klaus Timmermann, Ulrike Wasel

8 reviews

bubblybelle's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

man, i was really looking forward to this book and it was honestly a big let down. don’t get me wrong, there were parts of it that were very interesting and very impactful, but a lot of it just felt like it dragged.

the characters internal monologues were often confusing and hard to follow. a lot of the metaphors felt very repetitive. and then the ending. don’t get me started on the ending!!! it completely came out of left field and for what!!!

my biggest frustration with the ending truly was that we spent the WHOLE BOOK building up anna’s autonomy and sense of self, and then in the end it was ripped away from her anyway. in the end she didn’t get to be anything more than a donor. it was supposed to be anna’s story and yet it still turned around to be about her sister. not to mention the fact that it went against kate’s wishes!! and kate’s doctor’s orders!!! ugh 

finally, the love story between campbell and julia was just frankly an unnecessary subplot that left a lot to be desired

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide attempt and Pregnancy

pewterwolf's review against another edition

emotional sad

• 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

3.5

This is one of those books where it feels like every one has either read or know the vague outline of. And the author of this is one of those authors that I have been meaning to read for YEARS, but I keep putting off due to the Hype Monster that surround them and their novels.

this is very much not my typical go-to read.

And yet, I found this quite a compelling read. Even though it took me a few weeks to read (mainly because I was focused on other things so reading took a back seat), I kept coming back to this messy family drama and these quite unlikeable characters. Ok, mainly unlikeable is the wrong word. Flawed and selfish.

The parents are so focused on her ill child, they forget about their other children (the mother more than the father). The eldest son is forgotten and considered a disappointment by his parents so he acts out. Anna feels like she has no voice or choice, but is uncertain over her choices and Kate who wants some control over her life but is unable to due to her illness.

I think that, yes, even though these characters are really flawed and make/do quite unlikeable things, I found them really interesting to read as, yes, they are flawed and make some really questionable decisions, but you see where they are all coming from.

It’s a nice relief to have Anna’s lawyer, Campbell, and Julia, the court appointed Guardian ad litem storyline running alongside. We have Campbell who has a service dog but we don’t know where and we have Campbell and Julia having a teen romance, but Julia (and the reader) don’t know why Campbell
ended it.

So, as you guess, I did like it. I didn’t love it, but I think that’s because I was on my guard with it. You see, I knew that the movie adaptation of this was changed and, even though I haven’t seen the film, I knew what the ending was changed from so I knew where this was going so I couldn’t invest in these characters like I should have. But would I have liked this twist in the tale had I not known? I have no idea. I would be shocked and I think I would have been very annoyed/angry over it.

And yes, I was very aware that this book was trying to emotionally-manipulate me on multiply occasions.

While I’m not sure if this book deserves all the attention that it has received, I am glad I have finally got round to reading it and I do plan to read more Jodi Picoult in the coming months (I have my eye on either Nineteen Minutes, Small Great Things or A Spark of Light, but we shall see where I go next…)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Blood, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

amydeppe's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Medical content, and Car accident

Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, and Medical trauma

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

fernash's review against another edition

reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Blood, Car accident, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Pedophilia tag for mention in joke, no pedophilia actually occurs.

crystalxqueer's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Child death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pregnancy and Gaslighting

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

Moderate: Excrement and Pregnancy

Minor: Drug use, Sexual content, and Alcohol

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

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

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

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

Moderate: Sexual content and Abandonment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship