'It is the things you cannot see that are strong enough to kill you' (My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult)

Member Name: angiebabyqueen

Product:	My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
Date:	13/04/06 (16350 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: the most heartwarming book I have ever read

Disadvantages: Be prepared with the tissues

After reading many reviews on both Ciao and DooYoo, I thought I must read this book, after all, it sounds like a heartfelt book. And you know what; I took your advice and haven’t regretted it. I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down. This is a story that seems so real in life, what with designer babies starting to be born, and it breaks your heart just reading it.

*the Story*

At the age of two years old, Kate was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia, and needed many operations to live, such as bone marrow transplants, blood fusions and possibly organ donations. Jesse, Kate’s older brother, isn’t a match and neither are her parent’s, Sara and Brian Fitzgerald. The doctor that was dealing with Kate’s illness told both Sara and Brian that if they had other children that they might just be a match for Kate, being able to save her life. Sara wasn’t ready though to have any children without it being a perfect match, and so made a designer baby with all the right gene’s to save Kate. All they needed was the placenta after the birth to save Kate and hope that she didn’t have a relapse. After all, Chemotherapy wasn’t working properly. Kate was only given a small chance to live past her fifth birthday.

Nine months after being designed in a lab specially, Anna was born and the placenta was taken away to help save Kate. Kate was well and didn’t have a relapse until Anna had turned five. From the age of five onwards, Anna has had to give blood to her sister, has had to have bruises around her body, and has had to have many injections for other various fluid’s in order to save her sister. Anna has never had a normal life, and never will. At the age of thirteen, she has had enough, and when Kate next relapses, has been told she has to give Kate a kidney transplant in order to save her. Anna doesn’t want to and is prepared to take her own parent’s to court for a medical emancipation so that her parent’s can’t tell her to give anything else to her sister. Anna is prepared to let her own sister die in order to have a life. But there is more of a story behind all of this.

Anna goes to Campbell Alexander, a lawyer to be able to stop her parent’s from using her body anymore. The thing is, is Campbell is a hard hearted lawyer who seems to not care for anything. But deep down he has a past, a history and a heart. The story unfolds to tell his story of heartbreak and heartache. Eventually, Campbell agrees to fight for Anna’s case and so the court case is soon up and running.

Jesse, both Anna’s and Kate’s older brother, has never had a normal life either, and has always had to do something stupid or outrageous in order to get some attention, and fourteen years on after the diagnosis of Kate’s illness, is on drugs, alcohol, smoking and doing far worse things. All he wants is a bit of attention and love, and yet no one except Anna and Kate can see this. Jesse is the only person out of this dysfunctional family that knows about the court case to start off with, except for Kate that is. Jesse is a screwed up kid and you can’t help but feel sorry for his side of the story throughout this story.

Sara Fitzgerald has always thought that she has been doing the right thing for Kate, and all she wanted is to save her child, but is it right to make a child, to design a child in order to save another child, and possibly ruin the rest of your family in the making? This book certainly questions that idea. When Sara finds out about Anna having a medical emancipation, Sara turns back to her old career of a lawyer and fights against her own daughter in order to save her other daughter.

Brian, Anna’s dad has always had doubts about trying to save Kate, about designing a baby to save Kate’s life, about making Anna have painful experiences in order to try and save her sister’s life, but has never spoke about it. He feels that since Kate’s illness, Sara hasn’t been the same, and that their marriage is breaking down bit by bit, but will anything be able to make him speak out about his inner feelings, about how he feels, or be able to save his marriage? Brian’s escape route is his workplace, as a fire-fighter, where he can escape the dramas, the traumas and the reality of his home.

There is one more character in this story though, and that is Julia, who is put on Anna’s case to try and find out what she really wants deep down and what is best for her. Julia has to find out from the whole of Anna’s family as to how they feel and what they feel, and then come up with a decision as to what should happen at the end of the court case. Thing is, is there is a past history between Campbell and Julia, so will this interfere with the case?

A day or so after Anna has filed for a medical emancipation, Kate relapses and the only thing that can save her is by having a kidney transplant. If she doesn’t have it, then she will die. Will this change anyone’s views within the whole story?

This story has accounts of Jesse, Anna, Sara, Brian, Campbell and Julia, all engrossed with their problems and all centred around Anna. I found the story confusing at times, going from one character to the next, but I don’t think I would have preferred it any other way, although I would have liked to see an account of Kate within the novel, as I think that this would have been good to have seen what she thought.

This is a truly heartbreaking novel, and advise those of you who decide to read this, to have the tissues at the ready as I was crying hysterically at the end. It has quite a twist to it that I wasn’t expecting, but when you think about it, it makes sense due to various reasons. This book has everything from love, to hope, to despair, to comedy, to heartache, to loss to death, and it really reaches out for your heart and you just feel so grabbed by the book that you won’t want to put it down. This is a perfect novel to read, either on holiday (even though it may bring your spirits down a little if on holiday) or just in between spare time. I think that mainly women would be emotionally caught by this novel, but I think that the male population amongst you would also be caught out by the language and the heartache within this novel. This took me a week to read, and that was in between school, coursework, ciao, internet and socialising. I advise that you have tissues ready and that you are a strong reader in order to read this and understand it. The language used within this book is challenging, especially with the medical language within, but this is a truly wonderful book to read. I thoroughly recommend that you give it a try and a read. A ten out of ten for the whole story and the book. After this, I am going to read a few more of Jodi Picoult’s novel’s and will let you know how I go with them.

*A Few Quotes*


Here are a few quotes I thought that really stood out within the book, except for the last few, as they might just give away the ending, but these quotes give you a glimpse into the novel, that has somehow stolen my heart away. Enjoy.

‘But if you took every memory, every moment and stretched them out end to end, - they’d reach forever’

‘I learn from my own daughter that you don’t have to be awake to cry’

‘My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh my friends –
It gives a lovely night!’

‘There is always a winner, for every person that gets is a person who must give.’

‘It is the things that you cannot see coming that are strong enough to kill you.’

‘He smiles at me, and I am suddenly seventeen again – the year I realize that love doesn’t follow the rules, the year I understood that nothing is worth having so much as something unattainable.’

‘Her collarbone was a mystery. ‘I knew you were beautiful under there,’ I said and that was the first spot on her that I kissed.

‘I didn’t come to see Kate because it would make me feel better. I came because without her, I don’t know who I am’

You, if you were sensible,
When I tell you the stars flash signals, each one dreadful,
You would not turn and answer me
‘The night is wonderful’ D.H Lawrence ‘under the oak’

‘Nobody ever wants what they’ve got’

‘I had the heart of a relationship, but no body to grow it in’

‘I wondered what happened when you offered yourself to someone, and they opened you, only to discover you were not the gift they expected and they had to smile and nod all the same.’

‘…Goldfish. Bright as a penny, he swims in circles, happy to be going nowhere.’

‘We both turn eagerly, grateful for someone who keeps us from having to recognise the strangers we have become.’

‘There is no fire without some smoke.’ John Heywood, Proverbs

Doubt thou that the stars are fire;
Doubt thou that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt that I love.
- William Shakespeare, hamlet


‘There are only two times a day a guy can get excited: during the day and during the night’

‘The moon did her best. She carved each of these blocks of sorrow into a man or woman. She spent the rest of her time watching out so that the other stars wouldn’t fall. She spent the rest of the time holding onto what scraps she had left.’

Pages: 407

RRP: £18.99 Hardback version
Available: all good libraries, book shops, and on Amazon from £2.94 used and new, or Amazon price in paperback of £3.99.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this novel if you do decide to read.

Angiexxx

Summary: If you love heartfelt boks, this is one for you.