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Book Review of Small Great Things

Small Great Things
Small Great Things
Author: Jodi Picoult
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
jodymcgrath avatar reviewed on + 110 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


Ruth is a nurse in the neonatal unit in a Connecticut hospital. She is great at her job and has been there for over twenty years. Once she put her name in for a promotion, but the job was given to another woman who had ten years less experience. Ruth is doing an exam on a newborn, when the father orders her out of the room and demands a different nurse. Her boss agrees to his wishes. Ruth is not to touch the baby. When Ruth is the only nurse on the floor and the baby starts having trouble breathing, what is she to do? Does she try to save the baby or stay away like the parents and her boss told her to do? It sounds like an easy answer, but the truth is when you are a black woman living in a white world, you learn fast that every decision you make is never easy.

This book is told by three POVs. That of Ruth, the black nurse; Turk, the white supremacist father; and Kennedy, the white defense attorney. This book was hard to read. Not because of the writing, it was beatifully written, but because of the subject matter. There is so much that is unjust in the book that it leaves you angry that we live in such a hateful world. This book is written to make you feel and question yourself. It isn't written to only entertain you, but to hold a mirror up to you and remind you of who you are and how you became that person. Was it a struggle? Was it easy? Why is being white not the first thing those who are white think of when we identify ourselves, but it is the definitive identity of other races?

This book is a fantastic book that I think everyone should have to read and reflect upon. Don't think you are going to read this book for fun though. This is one of those books that stay with you for a very long time.
* I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review *