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lupitaestela's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Drug use and Alcohol
Medical consent issues, Toxic parental relationship,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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Medical content, and Medical trauma
morgan_byrd's review against another edition
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.
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Blood, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury
eurekareads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I couldn’t remember other books that made me question my morals the way this book does. This compelling novel by Jodi Picoult triggered many internal debates within me about ethics, morals, love and law.
“My plans for her are no less exalted; I plan for her to save her sister’s life”
Sara’s daughter, Kate is just two years old when she’s diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. Her only hope was a bone marrow transplant–this is how Anna was ushered into the world. The girl who felt like she had never belonged to herself. A combination of perfect genetic material only conceived for her sister’s benefit. Until one day, at the age of thirteen, Anna has decided that she doesn’t want to be a donor anymore. She’s suing her parents for the rights to her own body.
As the story unfolds, I became totally engrossed in the moral dilemma of the Fitzgerald family. The whole time, I was mentally debating where I stand between Anna and her mother. I remember annotating my book with “there is more to this case than the letter of the law”.
I could easily give this book a five star rating if it wasn’t for the ending. I knew from the moment I opened this book that this isn’t going to end well. BUT THE ENDING WAS PURE AND UTTER BULLSHIT. It was ridiculous and unnecessary. I’m talking about killing a young girl who just won a medical emancipation from her parents. A girl who finally has a shot in life. Worst cop-out ending but I still gave it a four star rating and I’m just going to pretend that the last three pages didn’t happen
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Gaslighting
I could easily give this book a five star rating if it wasn’t for the ending. I knew from the moment I opened this book that this isn’t going to end well. BUT THE ENDING WAS PURE AND UTTER BULLSHIT. It was ridiculous and unnecessary. I’m talking about killing a young girl who just won a medical emancipation from her parents. A girl who finally has a shot in life. Worst cop-out ending but I still gave it a four star rating and I’m just going to pretend that the last three pages didn’t happenbelfrybatz's review against another edition
challenging
sad
tense
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
2.0
It was very slow, and the characters particularly the mom were extremely unlikeable
/flawed but not in a good way. The ending shocked me and made me sad, but came way too late to make me interested in the plot.
/flawed but not in a good way. The ending shocked me and made me sad, but came way too late to make me interested in the plot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use
danielle2121's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, and Car accident