My Sister's Keeper

Since Meredith already gave a full plot summary, I'm going to keep this as more of a book club discussion. Things I liked, things I didn't. But WARNING: There will be spoilers in this. Anyone has already read the book, leave comments and feedback!

WARNING AGAIN -- SPOILER'S BELOW

Okay, so things I liked. I loved reading from the different perspectives of the characters. Simply reading Anna's side makes you think Sarah is a monster. But after reading her perspective of going through Kate's diagnosis, I could do nothing but absolutely relate to her. Having a 2 year old myself, I found myself being unable to judge Sarah because her situation was absolutely unthinkable.

I also liked the bond that seemed to exist between Jesse and Anna. Despite their differences, they shared a lot in that family and Picoult did a great job of showing what I think would be a very accurate relationship in that situation.

I liked the ending. I hate that Anna had to die, but what a great way to end the book. I mean, really... what other outcome or ending would have left you satisfied? And it made me think... after we know that the kidney transplant worked, did some readers change sides? Did people who supported Anna in her medical emancipation suddenly decide against it when they found out the procedure worked? Not that it was relevant any longer, but in a real life scenario (I can only imagine this is what Picoult WANTS us to consider)....

There wasn't much I didn't like about this book. The only thing I could've done without was the side-bar relationship between Campbell and Julia. It was really distracting from the real point of the story, to me. I didn't care what happened between them before while I was reading and at the end, I didn't care if they ended up together at not.

I also didn't like that we never got to hear Kate's side of the story... but at the end you see why it made sense that she wrote it that. It was brilliant writing, really.

As for the issue at hand.. it was a heartbreaking story all the way around. Absolutely heartbreaking. I never took sides with either Sarah or Anna, but when Anna says she's doing this because this is what Kate wants, I have to say that I thought THAT was what was most important.