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By happenstance, I came across the movie trailer for Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper and it caught my interest. I was at the bookstore 2 days ago, saw it on the display counter and got a copy of the book. It took me about 8 hours to finish it.
How do I find it?
I find that the premise was ... (continue)
By happenstance, I came across the movie trailer for Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper and it caught my interest. I was at the bookstore 2 days ago, saw it on the display counter and got a copy of the book. It took me about 8 hours to finish it.
How do I find it?
I find that the premise was good, the execution a pain, and at the ending, I get a wham!
From the back cover of the book: Sara Fitzgerald's daughter Kate is just two years old when she is diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. Reeling from with the helpless shock of it, Sara knows she will do anything -- whatever it takes -- to save her child. Then the test results came back time and again to show that no one in their family is a match for Kate. If they are to find a donor for the crucial bone marrow transplant needs, there is only one option: creating another baby, specifically designed to save her sister. For Sara, it seems the ideal situation. Not only does Kate live, she gets a beautiful new daughter, Anna, too. Until the moment Anna hands Sara the papers that will rock the whole world. Because, aged thirteen, Ana has decided that she doesn't want to help Kate live any more. She is suing her parents for the rights to her own body.
Now, doesn't that sound promising for a good read. Sad to say, no. It started well, and I was 4 hours into the book before it started to lose me and from them on, I have begun to speed read as I went along.
Picoult took the story through with each chapter taken from the first person perspective, of the main characters in the story. You have Anna, Sara, Brian (the father), Jesse (the brother), Campbell (the lawyer) and Julia (the woman, as all stories need a woman, and this woman who is the guardian ad litem, is the lawyer's old flame). I would say that it is quite a good approach to a story, if and only if, you have the skill and capability to hold your audience. She did not have that with me. And what's worse, each chapter begins with a different time frame, dislocated from the previous chapter. When I start each chapter, left just afresh from the last one, and about 5 sentences down, I would frown as I try to figure out where in the timeline of the story am I now. As it happened too often, I ended up trudging on and hoping that it will come to me as I read on.
I have never read a book so infuriating, especially when I it started so well. I cannot stand Sara, I am bored with Brian, I could not believe Julia, and Campbell sound quite hollow though I like him, except for his wisecracks about why he has a service dog, the first few was alright but it just went cheesy from there. Only Anna and Jesse were the more believable characters. And the ending was like a "WHAT???"
It is suppose to be a good story. I only wished the story was better told.
And if you need a more emotional but true to my sense of feeling review of this book, read this, I totally agree with him: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1H27OVUNTHLKH/ref=cm_cd_pg_oldest?ie=UTF8&cdPage=1&cdSort=newest
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