if you're going to read one book this year...
...make it My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. To quote someone who I can no longer remember, this book is like being punched in the stomach. Over. And over. The wind is knocked right out of you and it almost hurts to breathe. This book takes your heart and squeezes, and you're left so in love with the characters that you want to gather them up in your arms and tell them it's all going to be okay.
But we know, just from the summary, that it's not. It's so not. Somebody has to go, and the question is, who? How much of herself can you ask a little girl to sacrifice?
Thirteen is the age where most girls are trying out makeup, giggling over boys, learning about embarrassing stuff like bras and periods. It's the age of discovery. It's the cusp of womanhood. It's one of the best and worst years of your life. It's scary and exciting and beautiful.
For Anna, though, thirteen is just another year. Because she really only exists in terms of her older sister, Kate, who has APL - a very rare type of leukemia. I don't know how much any of you know about leukemia, but it's not something you can really 'cure'. You can go into remission, which means it's gone - at the moment. But there is always a chance of relapse. It can pop back up at any moment.
Anna was Rhode Island's first 'designer baby' - created in a petri dish, chosen specifically because of she was the genetic match to Kate that their older brother wasn't. She was created not because her parents wanted another child, but for the sole purpose of saving her sister, and that's what she's been doing her entire life.
Now, at age thirteen, they're demanding something bigger than blood or bone marrow - they want a kidney. This surgery would prevent Anna from doing what she loves - hockey - because it would put her one remaining kidney at risk. So she makes a choice that threatens to tear apart her family - she hires a lawyer, unbeknownst to her parents, and sues her own family for medical emancipation.
This book is everything a book should be. Each chapter is told from the point of view of different characters - the invisible lost cause of an older brother; the once-lawyer mother who is convinced she knows best; the fire-fighting father who is no longer sure what's right anymore; the attorney who is every lawyer stereotype you can think of; the sister who knows she's dying and is starting to feel too tired to fight anymore - and of course, Anna herself, who is only alive as long as her sister is dying.
This book hits on so many moral issues and does it so well that I can't express it in words. The author flawlessly writes each side of the argument in such a way that you find it hard to believe it's the same person creating these characters who are so very different.
Anna wants to live in terms of herself. No one asked if she wanted to give pieces of herself to prolong Kate's lost life. In fact, when she was five and seven, they had to hold her down to get the needle in her.
But Sara refuses to accept her daughter's dying, and will do anything, at any cost, to stop it. Even if it means putting both her daughters at risk. She simply doesn't understand why Anna wouldn't want to be a donor anymore - because if she was a match, she would give anything it took. She is convinced Anna must feel the same.
READ THIS BOOK. It will stay with you - I guarantee it.
The end hits you in the head with a mallet. It seems to say, If you weren't paying attention, I bet you are now! It's the last thing you expect, and somehow, it doesn't surprise you in the least.
And The Epilogue, oh. It is The Epilogue to end all epilogues. It deserves those capital letters. The last line, like the first line, punches you in the gut and leaves you parched for more - dying to see more of their lives ten years on.
READ.
But we know, just from the summary, that it's not. It's so not. Somebody has to go, and the question is, who? How much of herself can you ask a little girl to sacrifice?
Thirteen is the age where most girls are trying out makeup, giggling over boys, learning about embarrassing stuff like bras and periods. It's the age of discovery. It's the cusp of womanhood. It's one of the best and worst years of your life. It's scary and exciting and beautiful.
For Anna, though, thirteen is just another year. Because she really only exists in terms of her older sister, Kate, who has APL - a very rare type of leukemia. I don't know how much any of you know about leukemia, but it's not something you can really 'cure'. You can go into remission, which means it's gone - at the moment. But there is always a chance of relapse. It can pop back up at any moment.
Anna was Rhode Island's first 'designer baby' - created in a petri dish, chosen specifically because of she was the genetic match to Kate that their older brother wasn't. She was created not because her parents wanted another child, but for the sole purpose of saving her sister, and that's what she's been doing her entire life.
Now, at age thirteen, they're demanding something bigger than blood or bone marrow - they want a kidney. This surgery would prevent Anna from doing what she loves - hockey - because it would put her one remaining kidney at risk. So she makes a choice that threatens to tear apart her family - she hires a lawyer, unbeknownst to her parents, and sues her own family for medical emancipation.
This book is everything a book should be. Each chapter is told from the point of view of different characters - the invisible lost cause of an older brother; the once-lawyer mother who is convinced she knows best; the fire-fighting father who is no longer sure what's right anymore; the attorney who is every lawyer stereotype you can think of; the sister who knows she's dying and is starting to feel too tired to fight anymore - and of course, Anna herself, who is only alive as long as her sister is dying.
This book hits on so many moral issues and does it so well that I can't express it in words. The author flawlessly writes each side of the argument in such a way that you find it hard to believe it's the same person creating these characters who are so very different.
Anna wants to live in terms of herself. No one asked if she wanted to give pieces of herself to prolong Kate's lost life. In fact, when she was five and seven, they had to hold her down to get the needle in her.
But Sara refuses to accept her daughter's dying, and will do anything, at any cost, to stop it. Even if it means putting both her daughters at risk. She simply doesn't understand why Anna wouldn't want to be a donor anymore - because if she was a match, she would give anything it took. She is convinced Anna must feel the same.
READ THIS BOOK. It will stay with you - I guarantee it.
The end hits you in the head with a mallet. It seems to say, If you weren't paying attention, I bet you are now! It's the last thing you expect, and somehow, it doesn't surprise you in the least.
And The Epilogue, oh. It is The Epilogue to end all epilogues. It deserves those capital letters. The last line, like the first line, punches you in the gut and leaves you parched for more - dying to see more of their lives ten years on.
READ.