Handle with Care | Jodi Picoult
Title: Handle with Care
Author: Jodi Picoult
Year of Publication: 2009
Number of pages: 551
Why I chose it: After reading Nineteen Minutes (and loving it), I went back to the bookstore for more of Picoult books. This one sounded the most interesting, so I picked it.
Do I recommend it? I'm not sure. Personally, I feel it isn't the author's best, but others might enjoy it. I didn't feel it was as emotionally engaging as I'd expected it to be given the plot summary. It's possibly due to the fact I didn't sympathize with any of the characters (apart for one). It will suffice to say that if I had to recommend a Jodi Picoult novel to someone, this won't be my first choice.
See, here's the thing about Jodi Picoult's novels. I agree with less positive reviews about her repeatedly using the same formulas, which at some point makes her books tedious. This is partly why I read other stuff in between two novels by her, I assume it gets boring otherwise when you guess how a book is going to end. That being said, she always writes with such skill, and her novels are so well-researched, you can see the enormous effort put into each one of them, which makes me wonder which is more important - originality or skill. No one can argue with her ability to write multiple points of view like no other, a skill I constantly wish I've had with my much more amateur experience in writing.
Particularly for this book, I can definitely see how it could be compared with My Sister's Keeper, theme-wise. In the center of the story is Willow, a six year old girl who was born with a brittle bone disease (also known as OI). When her mother decides to sue her obstetrician (and her best friend) for wrongful birth, the family is slowly falling apart. Now, I don't know anyone who has OI, but I know Picoult is doing her homework as far as research is concerned, and so I got a pretty clear idea as for how awful such a disease is for the person who suffers from it and their surroundings. That being said, there wasn't one point in the book where I felt sympathy towards Charlotte, Willow's mother. It's really difficult for me to read through a book in which I dislike the main character, and since Charlotte played such a central role in the plot here, I pretty much struggled throughout the book. On the other hand, I immediately felt a personal connection with Amelia, having been in her shoes (but not to the same extent) so I often felt each of her words was echoing my own.
This is the third novel by Picoult I read, and so far, my least favorite. Apart for Amelia, I didn't feel particularly close to any of the characters, Willow included. I didn't dislike them, but I didn't like any of them either. The ending was quite disappointing as well, partly because I sort of guessed what was coming. Since it feels wrong to leave this book with nothing but bad review, here's a good one - the weaving together of voices and points of view is masterfully done, as always.