When I grow up to be an amazing novelist, I want to be just like Jodi Picoult. I bought My Sister's Keeper years ago and never really read it. But I picked it up against after seeing previews for the movie. (As we all know, the book is generally better than the movie.)
And, OMG, excellent character development! She rotates the narration through several characters, using different fonts to help distinguish which was has the reigns. There's a surprise ending, so I won't discuss the book's message too much.
The basic premise of the book is that a 13-year-old girl, Anna, is suing for medical emancipation from her parents. Her parents genetically tailored her to be a good blood/bone marrow match for her sister, Kate, who is two years older than her, to help fight an aggressive form of leukemia. Well, the fight has gone on for years, and many procedures, longer than originally expected, and now she wants to own her own body, so to speak.
But of course it's much more complicated than that. All the characters are. An example that won't screw up the ending for you:
Jesse, the oldest of the three and the only boy, essentially becomes a juvenile delinquent -- setting things on fire, stealing a judge's Hummer, etc. Kate's has been in the hospital for a few days with severe hemorrhaging when Jesse stole a chemical from the science lab and blew up his school's septic system. His mom notices a bruise in the crook of his arm when she's yelling at him in the car:
And, OMG, excellent character development! She rotates the narration through several characters, using different fonts to help distinguish which was has the reigns. There's a surprise ending, so I won't discuss the book's message too much.
The basic premise of the book is that a 13-year-old girl, Anna, is suing for medical emancipation from her parents. Her parents genetically tailored her to be a good blood/bone marrow match for her sister, Kate, who is two years older than her, to help fight an aggressive form of leukemia. Well, the fight has gone on for years, and many procedures, longer than originally expected, and now she wants to own her own body, so to speak.
But of course it's much more complicated than that. All the characters are. An example that won't screw up the ending for you:
Jesse, the oldest of the three and the only boy, essentially becomes a juvenile delinquent -- setting things on fire, stealing a judge's Hummer, etc. Kate's has been in the hospital for a few days with severe hemorrhaging when Jesse stole a chemical from the science lab and blew up his school's septic system. His mom notices a bruise in the crook of his arm when she's yelling at him in the car:
It is telling, I suppose, that my mind immediately races to heroin, instead of leukemia, as it would with his sisters. "What's that?"
He folds his arm. "Nothing."
"What is it?"
"None of your business."
"It is my business." I pull down his forearm. "Is that from a needle?"
He lifts his head, eyes blazing. "Yeah, Ma. I shoot up every three days. Except I'm not doing smack, I'm getting blood taken out of me on the third floor here." He stares at me. "Didn't you wonder who else was keeping Kate in platelets?"
He gets out of the car before I can stop him, leaving me staring out a
windshield where nothing is clear anymore.
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