Author: Jodi Picoult
Published: 2008
Publisher: Atria Books
447 pages (hardcover)
Summary: After the loss of her first husband, June Nealon thought her life was made perfect again when she remarried to police officer Kurt. The two of them, along with daughter Elizabeth from her first marriage, are excited about a new addition to the family, another daughter. But things take a downward dip for the absolute worse when Shay Bourne, a carpenter working on repairs on their home, kills Elizabeth and Kurt. Shay is the first person in seventy-two years to be given the death sentence in New Hampshire, and he seems to have completely resigned to the fact that he will die for what he has done. The only thing he wants to do now is to donate his heart, after he dies, to Claire Nealon, June’s other daughter, who has a heart condition. Claire is the only reason June ever got through that tragedy, and she desperately wants Claire to live, but can she accept the heart of the man who killed half her family?
My Thoughts: Yes, I have been raiding my sister’s bookshelf lately (and 99% of the books she owns are by Jodi Picoult). Anyway, I didn’t realize, when I picked this up, how religious this book is. It’s not that the book preaches to the reader in any way, but I suppose because of the topic of the novel (capital punishment), religion can’t help be brought up. All the characters have religious beliefs that affect how they see the Shay Bourne case, and a lot of religious history is brought up too — which is kind of a lot of stuff to digest when you’re non-religious like me (and so you know just how deep under the rock I’m living, I had to Wikipedia ‘Catholic’). But not only that, as other characters notice as well, Shay Bourne has an eerie resemblance to Jesus Christ, from his occupation and age, to the miracles he performed. Which, by the way, some of them were truly impossible. The book explains some of them at the end, but there is still a lot unexplained. I suppose this keeps Shay mysterious in that way.
The big question: Did I like this book? Overall, yes. I don’t find it nearly as good as My Sister’s Keeper or Handle With Care; I didn’t feel hooked onto it the same way I did with the first two. In fact, I found much of the middle portion of the book to be kind of, well, dull. The beginning and the ending were wonderful, with that addicting quality that Picoult’s books usually have (or at least, the two books of her’s that I’ve read haha, three now). My favourite character is probably Father Michael. He tries his best to break the stereotype of a priest, so he wears jeans and button down shirts and zooms around town on his motorcycle.
I didn’t find this book quite as addicting or entrancing as the first two Picoult books I’ve read, but this one definitely is enjoyable. One thing I liked very much about it in comparison to the first two Picoult books is that I actually liked the ending this time. I think it suited the novel perfectly, given the circumstances of the characters, and I have no complaints about it. (If you’ve read my ramblings about the other two of Picoult’s books, you’d notice I always complain about the ending. I’m all for a good twist at the end, but there’s a difference between a ‘surprising twist’ and a ‘WTF twist!’)
My Rating: 3.5/5
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