My Sister's Keeper

Written by Jodi Picoult and recently made into a beautiful film starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, and Joan Cusack, My Sister’s Keeper is a beautifully tragic tale of sacrifice, love, betrayal, and moral justice.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By the age of thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, shots, and transfusions, so that her older sister, Kate, might somehow battle the leukemia that has plagues her since early childhood. Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate, a life and role that she has never questioned until now. Like all teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she really is and what she wants to be. But, unlike most teenagers, Anna has always been defined in terms of her sister. So Anna makes a decision that, for most people, would be unthinkable. A decision that will shock and tear her family apart and perhaps have fatal consequences for the sister that she loves.

The beautiful thing about the books of Jodi Picoult is that they are about situations and complications that have or can happen in real life. Not only that, but they cause the reader to think about how he or she would react if put in the same situation. There is a fine line between what is legally right and what is morally right and Jodi Picoult’s books perform tightrope and livewire acts with that line, sometimes coming to conclusions and decisions that will shock and deeply stir the reader.
The book is written in the first person register and is also written from the perspectives of all the central characters: Anna, her mother, her brother, her lawyer, her father etc. Not only does the book jump from character to character, it also jumps from one time frame or memory to another. For half the book the characters are remembering fateful moments and for the other half of the book, they are dealing with the present conundrum. Not since The Time Traveler’s Wife have I read a book that jumps so abruptly from moment to moment. It does take some getting used to, but once you’re comfortable with the style of writing, you will not be able to put it down.
Filled with love, betrayal, moral justice, and some decisions that will shock you as well as break your heart, My Sister’s Keeper is a breathtaking, tear-jerking, heartbreaking read. Incredibly sad and tragic, but at the same time really beautiful. A rare gem of a book.