My Sister's Keeper

by Jodi Picoult

Reviewed by Coral

How far would you go to save your daughter’s life?

When Sara and Brian Fitzgerald’s daughter Kate is diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia at the age of 2, her parents are told that her chances of living to adulthood are low. When their older son, Jesse, is ruled out as a donor for Kate, their doctor mentions the possibility that a future child could be Kate’s genetic match.

And so Anna is born, genetically chosen so that the stem cells in her umbilical cord could save Kate’s life. Kate’s remission is all too brief and soon Anna is undergoing more procedures to donate marrow and other genetic material to save her sister’s life. When Kate’s kidneys begin failing, 13-year-old Anna is scheduled for an operation to donate a kidney to her sister without ever being consulted.

Anna files for medical emancipation from her family, seeking to make her own medical decisions. Without the kidney, Kate will likely die. No matter the outcome, for the Fitzgerald’s, this trial may cost them one of their daughters.

This is another book I picked up after seeing the previews for the movie (and another instance where I still haven’t seen the movie before reading the book). Knowing that Cameron Diaz plays Sara in the movie, I am not sure if I was more pre-disposed to disliking her than I would have been if she was just the character on the pages.

The choices that Brian and Sara are faced with are hard ones. Faced with losing a daughter, they are willing to try anything that offers them a chance, no matter how slight, to save Kate’s life. And while I can understand that, it’s hard to ignore how this makes Anna feel. I liked that the book raised these questions and that it made you think about it from both sides.

This is part of why I disliked the ending of this book so much. The book builds up the whole question of “how far is too far” and then this ending comes out of nowhere and I feel cheated.

I could have done without the Julia-Campbell subplot.

Actually, I could have done without Jesse’s subplot as well. It was nice to see how the situation was affecting him, but it seemed a bit much. I would have enjoyed it if he has faced more consequences for his actions.

I regret having to give this book a low rating, but I absolutely hated the ending and it really affected how I see the book as a whole.

Grade: D