Book review

Book Review: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Since I was bed-bound all weekend, I cranked through all 423 pages in one day.

This book is phenomenal.

The general gyst of the story is about a chick (Anna) who is born specifically to be a cord-blood donor for her sister (Kate) who's got leukemia. Her parents specially "picked" the same genes as the dying sister to make sure they're an exact match.

13 years later, Anna's had to donate bone marrow and platelets and other medical mumbo jumbo...and now Kate needs a kidney, and Anna doesn't want to give it. So she seeks out an attorney to have the right to NOT give her kidney, knowing that without it her sister will die. Opposing counsel? Her own mother, who used to be a lawyer in her previous life before the world of cancer came through...

What really makes this interesting is that the story progesses on a day-by-day basis until the trial, and everyone involved has a chapter. The lawyer, the chick responsible for making sure Anna's taken care of, the parents, the brother....So you can truly sympathise with all sides.

The ending is a wee little bit predictable, but still shocking to say the least.

This one paragraph actually had me bawling (okay, to my defense, I was on my deathbed...a Hallmark commercial would have made me cry). This is Sarah (the mom)'s chapter, she's in the hospital talking to Kate about her time at some camp for kids with cancer:

I pull my chair closer to the hospital bed. "Do you remember the summer we signed you up for camp? And the night before you left, you said you'd changed your mind and wanted to stay home? I told you to get a seat on the left side of the bus, so that when it pulled away, you'd be able to look back and see me there, waiting for you." I press her hand against my cheek, hard enough to leave a mark. "You get that same seat in Heaven. One where you can watch me, watching you."

Man, if the thought of ever having to tell your child that doesn't rip you apart,nothing will!