Jodi Picoult's drama novel "My Sister's Keeper" often crosses the borderline of thriller. The cover of the novel gives us an insight into what we're going to discover in the pages. From the name of the book and its unique and rather original looking cover I draw a thin picture of what I was about to read. My first guess was that it's the story of two girls, sisters of course, who have a pocket full of secrets each trying to hide it from others. After reading the book, I sure do feel the shallowness of my thinking.
"My Sister's Keeper" is the story of Anna who sues her parents for medical emancipation when she's expected to donate her kidney to her sister Kate who is dying of leukemia.
One of the most striking thing about this novel is that the storytelling is not third person nor is it by a single person. The narration is done by multiple characters each giving their part in first person. This was a really nice way of taking up the storyline as the reader wouldn't be bored and also, we get to see what's in the heads of other characters in a little more detail. The storytelling juggles between Anna, her sister Kate, her brother Jesse, her mom Sara, her dad Brian, her lawyer Campbell Alexander and her guardian ad litem Julia. There are moments when one dialogue continues into another's narration and I found that quite comfortable. We also get a decent view of what a situation really means to different characters. That said I'll close the narration part and move on to the interesting and well defined characters. My personal favourite was Campbell Alexander and his 'service dog' Judge (that's a really nice name for a dog whose owner is a lawyer). Campbell is a humorous guy whose narrative I always look forward to. Anna was a surprising character as we neared the climax. All other characters were quite ordinary and faded.
The novel had its share of twists which I never expected in a novel like this. The climax was just brilliant that it left me in tears. After reading this one, my initial thoughts were did I really praise 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green? Sorry to say this but compared to Jodi Picoult's the other one was a complete trash of utopian romantic-cancer drama. I'm sorry John Green. I really am. Anyway, I'm very glad I read this one. Definitely recommend for a one-time read. I'm sure you will question what you would have done if you were in Sara's shoes. Much praise for Jodi Picoult for writing such an amazing novel which I'm sure will leave you thinking.
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