My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult

Author: Jodi Piccoult
ISBN # 034083546X
Publisher: Hodder
1^st Published: 2004
407 pages

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, & injection to help her sister, Kate, fight leukaemia. Anna was born for this purpose, her parents tell her, which is why they lover her even more. But now she can’t help but wonder what her life would be like if it weren’t tied to her sister’s… and so she makes a decision that for most, at any age, would be too difficult to bear, & sues her parents for the rights to her own body.

My Sister’s Keeper is very cleverly written – in the first person from multiple points of view. In this way, the reader is never allowed to get bogged down in any one character’s thoughts or emotions, but is forced to open themselves to the vulnerabilities of each of them.

It’s a story that really makes you think, long & hard, about all sorts of moral & ethical dilemmas & consider what your own actions might be under similar circumstances, which, of course, is impossible to do unless you are smack-bang in the middle of it yourself.

Piccoult doesn’t allow the seriousness of the subject to darken the tone at all & her style remains light enough to keep this from being an incredibly depressing tome & instead it comes across as something light & emotionally inspiring, & it features some of the most evocative passages I have read in a very long time – Anna’s own creation myth is something completely surprising & is both beautiful & sad; giving a very telling glimpse into her state of mind.

I won’t lie & say I didn’t see the twist in the tale coming, but I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried real tears anyway, because although I didn’t want it to be so, it was the most fitting way for things to happen.

My Sister’s Keeper is something rather special & will linger in the memory long after the final page has been turned. The characters are all flawed, all sympathetic, & all human – their portrayal is incredibly real & you can’t help imagining their lives continuing outside of the story we get to see. I can only hope they’re happy.

Rating: 9