About this title: "New York Times" bestselling author Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into her characters' hearts and minds. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Atria
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781416576402ISBN:1416576401
Description: Very Good. Unread publisher overstock copy! ! Pages are crisp and clean! Remainder mark on one end. Very light shelf wear to cover. Orders shipped next business day. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Atria Books
Date Published: 2008-03-04
ISBN-13:9781416576402ISBN:1416576401
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781416576402. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Atria
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781416576402ISBN:1416576401
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
"If you haven't read the book it's about a girl (Kate) with leukemia whose parents had a second genetically matched child (Anna) to help with blood and bone marrow to save their first daughter. As the girls grow up, more and more is required of Anna until she's had enough of being nothing but an organ donor.
There are a lot of interesting points in the book, like what do you do when you have to pick one child over another, how do you balance your time and love between children especially when one requires more from you, and at what age can you be responsible enough to make choices about your own body instead of letting your parents word go as law. Even at a young age, a child's sense of self and decision making should always be respected. Even a three-year-old should be asked, not even such catastrophic questions as do you want to donate blood, but would you like to give your teddy bear away. If a child even considers emancipation, then you have crossed the line. Use your persuasion skills with children, not force or games.
The character I enjoyed the most in the book was Jesse, the older brother who had fallen off the deep end in an attempt to get his parent's attention and still went unnoticed. I liked the quiet things he set about doing to help his sisters. Although I did not find him very well developed, I liked the father, Brian, too. I think he truly did love both his daughters and wanted to set out to do good by both of them. Even though Sara kept saying she loved both her daughters, I failed to find the evidence. All I got was a brazen woman who bullied everyone, especially Anna, into saving the only daughter she did care about. I found her completely unsympathetic, even the chapters written in her perspective, especially then. When she told Anna she couldn't go to hockey camp because she had to be around in case Kate when into relapse, I was disgusted. Yes a sick child would take up more time and emotion, but not to the exclusion of other children. How hard is it to yank Anna out of camp if necessary? Picoult wanted to show a woman who loved both her daughters but had to make tough decisions in order to keep both of them alive, but it fell flat. She tried to credit her with too many contradictory emotions and never fully justified her behavior.
I wasn't satisfied with the family dynamics. I found the emotional neglect completely at odds with the scenes of a loving huggy family Picoult threw in to convince us that it was a good family with good intentions. Sara and Anna constantly saying they loved each other just didn't jive with the way Sara treated Anna. I could not picture this child on the verge of growing up wrapped up in her mother's arms when she's being scolded and manipulated by that very woman. But if I found Sara a hard character to pin down, I found Anna even more elusive. Again, too many contradictory motives that just didn't make sense. I got why Anna and Kate loved each other, but I didn't get why the rest of the family did. I think the idea of the story was a good concept, but I think it was under developed.
When you read a second book by an author it's easier to pay attention to the writing style and not get so carried away with the story. Her techniques were a distraction from the story. Picoult is very good at doing research to get statistics on paper, but that's all her characters feel like it. None of these characters had a real breathing personality. They were just stereotypes of what she wanted to portray and therefore not very deep. Even the little memories of the girl's childhood felt like stock photographs set to these vague lives. Throw in a politically correct tendency to add variety to your characters with random stereotypes and I enjoyed the story more for the case study it could be then the story it was.
Spoiler: I found the twist at the end unnecessary. I keep asking myself it is the most tragically beautiful ending and I'm not sure it is. Even though I get the point of it, I think I would have rather had a resolution that required a decision, a choice. I liked what Kate said at the end that Anna took her place and how it showed how much of a shadow she was, but it felt a little like a cop out. I want to know what Anna would have done and how her parents would have reacted if she said no or how belittled she would have felt had she said yes."
"My Sister's Keeper was one of the most heart wrenching stories I've ever read. Anna's sister, Kate, is dying of a rare form of leukemia. She was conceived as a genetic match to help save her sister's life. It was supposed to be a one-time deal, but over the course of her 13 years, Anna has donated multiple times. Her sister is in need of a kidney and Anna's decided she's had enough of being told how to use her body. She decides to sue her parents for medical emancipation and refuses to give up her kidney. She knows the possible consequences of her actions, but she wants to be the one to make the choice, not her parents. What follows is a harrowing tale told in the view of six people affected by Anna's decision. I really can't say too much else without giving anything away, but this is a must read, albeit an emotional one."
"I am torn as I write the review for this book. I am amazed at how masterfully Picoult is able to tell a story from viewpoints of half a dozen people, and really pull it off. There is no stereotypical heroine/villain in this book. As I read each chapter from a different character's viewpoint, I developed compassion for each one in an amazing way. I downright bawled my eyes out at the end and felt I had truly gained something from the read. I considered it a great shame to have to sift through so much bad language and sexual content throughout the book. Wish it wouldn't have been in there, hence the four stars. It totally would have been a strong 5."
I hated this book so much. I only kept reading it because I had to find out why Campbell, the lawyer, had a service dog, since he kept that such a secret.
I hated the clichés (Julia chose just that moment to crash through the door... Anna chose that precise moment to speak up... Rita chose this moment to gag on bad writing...).
I hated the overwrought melodrama. Everything was just so saturated with heavy-handed tear-jerking prose that the book was soggy and just about dripping. About halfway through the book, I started skimming it, looking for dialogue relevant to the plot. Brian's metaphors about fire and Sara's reminiscing about the kids' childhoods and Campbell's backflashes about Julia and Julia being pathetic in every possible way and Anna's cluelessness just got so very dull. If I was ever to find out why Campbell had that dog, then I needed to get through the material faster. Putting the book down to groan out loud every few paragraphs was taking too long.
The characters were two-dimensional and irritating. They really were just like paper dolls, given name tags, dressed up in stereotypes and given lines to say (and melodramatic thoughts to spill out). It was like, This is the mom and she's a big martyr who puts her children first all the time... she's a GOOD mother, she just got blinded by trying to be too good, so she seems kind of bad now. But we'll be on her side in the end because of her deep insight. Waggle mom paper doll and have her blah, blah, blah and then Over here is the Big Bad Lawyer doll... ooooh, he's a ruthless go-getter with a hazy past, but he'll have some secrets to pull out at the end so we'll realize he's a decent, stand up guy after all. Waggle lawyer paper doll and have him blah blah blah, and so on.
The plot was all right through all of that until the big Law and Order courtroom twist at the end. That was just a convenient trick to get out of actually trying to find a solution for such a dilemma. She worked it up to such a point that there was no way out that would sit well with an audience, there was no good way to wrap it up, so she pulled a rabbit out of a hat. Then she went a step further and did something that I guess some might find bold, but it just made me shout a stream of obscenities and then made me thankful that I had just skimmed the second half of the book and didn't really invest in it at all. Otherwise, I would have been furious with such an ending.
This is the second Jodi Picoult book I've tried to read. I didn't like the other one either (Vanishing Acts), so I guess I won't be reading anything else by this author."
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