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lupitaestela's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
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
- 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
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.
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
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.
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
- 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
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
niiici's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Cancer, Death, and Car accident
Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
Minor: Ableism
shushkeepitdown's review against another edition
- 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
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
childoflokii's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Car accident, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
belfrybatz's review against another edition
- 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
/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.
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use
darkpoet's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
I extremely disliked that in the end Anna did this because Kate wanted to die. I wish that Anna did do the selfish thing by wanting her own life. You first see her character as someone who wants to not have the only purpose of her life be used as Kates donor but towards the end we see that she made the choice because of Kate and not herself. Anna and Jesse were pushed aside as children and were extremely neglected and I thought that it was refreshing to finally see a story where someone isn’t willing to throw their life away for someone whose dying. (Not to say that i don’t feel bad for cancer patients) In the end all the growth that I had thought Anna went through was pointless because in the end she wasn’t given the choice she had to pick what was best for Kate. I wanted Anna to finally be ready to love her family but also know that when she gets older she will leave and not come back because of the circumstances. I also didn’t like how they went though the whole conflict of Anna finding her own worth just for it all to come back to Kate. I feel like this could have a deeper meaning of everyone comes back to the people dying and forgets that everyone is dying and deserves love and attention. This ending I accepted for the time being because I knew Anna would be able to have a life of her own without being linked to Kate. I was stunned though when Anna was in the car accident and pronounced brain dead. It seemed like a definite shock ending but at the same time a easy way to wrap this book up. But what absolutely destroyed me was after this entire thing Anna’s life came down to saving Kates. Anna’s whole purpose became to save Kate and i find that absolutely disgusting. Anna was going to finally have her own life and own purpose and instead she started her life for Kate and ended it for Kate. Anna was shown through her whole life that her only purpose was to save Kate and instead of her finally breaking through she ends up saving her in the process of herself dying. I cried hard to this book and was touched by it but the ending left me feeling disgusted at Anna’s mom and even Anna’s dad at some points and i wish Anna would’ve gotten to know how special she was without her sister.
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child abuse, Car accident, and Abandonment
maxreadssometimes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use