Helpful Score: 4
I'm obviously in the minority here, but I thought this book sucked. I was being generous when I gave it 2.5 stars. Actually, the idea, the concept was great - really made me think as a parent "what would I do?" - but the ending was such an f-ing cop-out. The story is as much about Anna and her growing up as it is about the family. Having Anna die and having her attorney (who, btw, just fought for her to have medical emancipation so she wouldn't have to give up her kidney) donate her organs was another jarring example of how Anna was, really, just a "spare parts" daughter. Kate was always the most important to the mother and Anna was only conceived so that Kate would live. Anna never had an identity outside of "Kate's on-call donor" and when she was given the opportunity, the possibility, of being something else, Picoult snatched it away and made it all about Kate again. Obviously, Kate was the character Picoult cared about, and IMHO, she shouldn't have written it so that Anna got emancipated; she should have had the judge side with the mother and do the transplant anyway. And all the mumbo-jumbo about "Anna had to die so I could live" was b.s. and, by that point, completely expected. Anna's out of the picture, Kate's healthy and everything goes back to the perfect family picture that the parents set out to have in the first place.
Major thumbs-down and this book effectively put me off reading anything else by Picoult.
Major thumbs-down and this book effectively put me off reading anything else by Picoult.
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