Rating: 
Summary: Cue the violins for this Lifetime movie
Review: First rule of choosing a book: if the author's name is in larger type than the book's title, then it probably isn't very good. Jodi Picoult reached that point with her previous novel, Second Glance, and unfortunately this rule is holding true for her.Picoult's an excellent writer, but My Sister's Keeper is terrible. First she falls into her usual trap of assuming that her female target audience can't appreciate a thoughtful, well-told story without the inclusion of a romantic subplot - here it is even more tacked-on and gratuitous than in her other novels. Then she throws in a distracting gimmick - here, it is the lawyer's "shocking" medical secret, which is telegraphed from the beginning, has nothing to do with Anna's case, and after the buildup throughout the novel, is neatly deflated and disposed of after its "dramatic" use. Finally, she ends the book in such a way that all the chapters before are essentially pointless, as Picoult realizes she has painted herself into a legally correct but morally distasteful corner and needs a deus ex machina to fix the situation. I really wanted to like this book - Picoult has a gift for description and if at times her dialogue is wooden, her ideas are intriguing enough to make her books compelling, one-sitting reads, even with their usual 400+ page length. But as in the past, I've raced through her latest novel only to be disappointed and vaguely disgusted at the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Gut-Wrenching, Sad, Funny, Insightful and Thought-Provoking
Review: "When I was little, the great mystery to me wasn't how babies were made, but why." Unlike her friends and classmates, who were interested in the mechanics of baby making, "I paid attention to different details. Like why some mothers only had one child, while others seemed to multiply before your eyes ... Now that I am thirteen, these distinctions are only more complicated [for me] ... I was born for a very specific purpose ... I was born because a scientist managed to hook up my mother's eggs and my father's sperm to create a specific combination of precious genetic material ... In my first memory, I am three years old and I am trying to kill my sister. As we got older [and I was told why I was 'created'], I didn't seem to exist except in relation to her. It made me wonder, though, what would have happened if Kate had been healthy." So begins the story of a family. The kind of family we used to call "nuclear" until that became a dirty word. Sara, a stay-at-home mom, and Brian Fitzgerald, a firefighter, seemingly had it all. They had two children: a son, Jessie, and a younger daughter, Kate. They were stable, educated parents, active with their children and in the community. But in the real world, does this kind of happiness and accomplishment really have a chance to survive? That old cliché about "a little rain must fall into each life" hits this family like a tsunami. When Kate is two she develops what looks like "a line of small blue jewels" down her spine, and her mother knows immediately that she is not seeing normal bruises. They go to the doctor, he takes blood, and everybody waits for the results; of course, they're not good. The family doctor wants the tests repeated in the hospital, in the hematology/oncology department. There, after a series of painful and invasive procedures, they learn that Kate suffers from "APL ... a subgroup of myeloid leukemia. The rate of survival ... is twenty to thirty percent, if treatment starts immediately." The treatments keep Kate alive for about five years until her body explodes with runaway cancer cells. She desperately needs a bone marrow transplant or she will die. Sara Fitzgerald vows that she will do anything, absolutely anything, to keep Kate alive. And her determination leads her to conceive the idea of having another child, one who will be genetically engineered as a perfect match for whatever Kate needs to survive. Approximately nine months later, Anna is born. When she asks, her mother is perfectly truthful and tries to reassure her of her special place in their family. Even as a very little girl Anna doesn't buy that line. She says, "See unlike the rest of the free world, I didn't get here by accident. And if your parents have you for a specific reason, then that reason better exist. Because once it's gone, so are you." But Anna is a rebel, and while she unquestionably loves her sister with all of her heart, she begins to wonder if that means she has to go so far as to donate one of her kidneys to keep Kate alive. She has lived all of her thirteen years with questions like this that went unasked and unanswered. She resents never having been asked if she wanted to endure painful procedures and extended hospitalizations when she was healthy. Now, with the prospect of major surgery that will deprive her of a major organ, she decides that she must do something --- she hires a lawyer to help sue her parents so she can have medical control over her own body. MY SISTER'S KEEPER by Jodi Picoult is the amazing, gut-wrenching, sad, funny, insightful, moving and thought-provoking story of this American family. This new novel is by far her best achievement and a leap forward in her literary oeuvre. Readers are asked to think about all of the technological wizardry in the world --- of the ways in which these technologies are used or, unfortunately, abused, and how the results of redirecting fate sometimes feels like the dizzying sensations experienced in threading one's way through the mirrors of a funhouse. In a graceful portrait, masterfully written in high-pitched prose, Picoult raises the ethical, moral, constitutional, personal and mostly unanswerable questions about how anyone can make a life-or-death decision about a terminally ill loved one for whom extreme measures must be taken to play for more time. Where does the patient's right to stay alive infringe upon the life of someone else (in this case, a sister)? One of Ms. Picoult's gifts is her sense of humor. Even in the face of the tragedy that befalls her characters in this highly emotional novel, she manages to imbue the book with lighter, delightful moments. No one can question the absolute love this family feels for one another; at the same time, however, they work at cross-purposes. Readers will smile, they will cry, they will be outraged and they will cheer ... what they won't be able to do is put the book down. It is definitely a cover-to-cover read. --- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, emotional tale.
Review: I have read most of Picoult's novels and mostly enjoyed them. The premise of this one - harvesting the various tissues and bodily fluids of one child for another - was irrestistible. I think she did a very good job with a difficult story, told by many different characters in different voices and viewpoints. However, the ending seemed contrived to me, so I could not rate the book 5 stars. And as other reviewers have said, have those hankies handy! I like her style, though, and I think it is a difficult thing to pull off a novel like this, so I do recommend this book highly. VERY hard to put down! Well worth your time, as are many of her other books.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping, a terrific read
Review: I was drawn into the book on the first page and could not put it down until I finished it at 2AM. The author does a tremendous job of presenting 7 different, and distinct viewpoints. Every character, including the unattractive ones, comes across as believable and sympathetic. The central premise of the book could never happen, however. No parent is ever allowed to donate one child's kidney to another. Indeed, teenage donors have had to petition the court to be allowed to make a donation because both medicine and law recognize that no child could fully understand the risks involved. It is a tribute to the author's skill that we never question this and several other literary devices that could not possibly happen. The ending is a disappointment because it is so obviously contrived. I cried my eyes out anyway, but it really was not in keeping with the integrity of the story. Picoult makes a powerful statement about an important and timely issue. It will be difficult for any reader to consider cloning or other reproductive technologies without thinking about this story. The author makes it very clear that no one should be conceived as a means to an end. Every child deserves to be wanted for who she is, not what she can give.
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: this is by far one of the best books i have read in a long long time. From the first page i fell in love with the charictors. Picoult draws you into the story of Anna and the people around her, you feet attached to every charictor. if you are an emontonal person have tissues from page 400 till the end! I cried at the end and i NEVER cry. I highly recomend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Audiobook is fantastic!
Review: I absolutely loved "My Sister's Keeper." The audiobook is phenomenal! The story is told from the viewpoints of the central characters, each read by a different narrator. Each narrator (possibly with the exception of the reader for Julia/Izzie's characters), does a great job and helps to make the characters real. I listened to this book and then listened a second time - I've never done that before! This is perhaps my favorite audiobook ever!
Rating:
Summary: An emotional ride that's worth every tear
Review: I think I actually stopped breathing a couple of times while reading this one. It's amazing. Simply the best book I've read since finishing Jodi's Second Glance. The Best emotional ride ever!
Rating:
Summary: You'll Cry a River
Review: Words can't express how deeply this book moved me. My Sister's Keeper pretends to be just a lengthy tale, but somehow permeates itself into your heart by novel's close. Conceived to be a donor to leukemia-ridden Kate, Anna has been poked and prodded through several medical treatments to save her sister's life. She's tired of it all. Anna just wants to be left alone, made to feel normal, and allowed to be her own person. At least that's the story Anna tells her lawyer. Underneath it all, everyone's got a story and is lead by their own emotions to do what's best for Kate, as evidenced by the plot's seven different viewpoints. I wept for Anna and Kate, wrestled with Sara and Brian, and hoped for Campbell and Julia. Jodi Picoult has a flair for rich, colorful characterizations and for weaving an affecting yarn. A little long winded, but I loved it. I mean, it's been a while since a book has made me cry like a baby.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read, but ultimately disappointing
Review: The book was very absorbing (I read it in one sitting-I couldn't put it down). However, I thought there were too many voices telling the story (at least 7 characters tell the story from their perspective) and that at times they sounded too much like one another. Also, a subplot involving the main character's lawyer was a waste of pages. Finally, I felt robbed by the ending. It undermined the integrity of the central moral message of the book; the ending would be better suited to a soap opera, not a work of serious fiction.
Rating:
Summary: A Hauntingly Reaslitic Novel- must read!
Review: When i first began reading My Sister's Keeper, i was not sure i liked the story jumping around from every character's point of view, but that uncertainty quickly disappeared. This is an amazing book because it seems so real, more like non-fiction. I'm very busy and do not really read for pleasure much, but i couldn't put it down and finished it very quickly, you should do the same!
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