“Most babies are accidents. Not me. I was engineered. Born to save my sister's life.”
Every now and again you read a book that really gets to you. That touches deep to the core and leaves you thinking about it long after you have finished reading it. Well for me this was one of those books. Those opening words are spoken by Anna Fitzgerald, an 11-year-old girl who was conceived in vitro as a genetic match for her leukemia-stricken older sister Kate. Whenever a part of Kate’s body fails, Anna’s parents Sara and Brian immediately offer up the needed part of Anna's body for donation. Because of this, Anna is unable to lead a normal life, as she must always “be there” for her sister. When Kate turns 13, one of her kidneys fails. This time, however, Anna is unwilling to donate the needed kidney and with the help of attorney Campbell Alexander, sues her parents for “medical emancipation,” or the rights to her own body. Kate will not survive if she does not receive the kidney.
The story examines the emotions of main characters and how they react to the situation they are faced. It also examines their past experiences and gives us more of an understanding of what they have been through and why they feel the way they do.
I am not going to go into the characters in a lot of detail as you get to know them all well in the book. However the main characters are Anna and her sister Kate. They also have a brother Jesse who has gone off the rails and their parents don't know what he is up to. Sara and Brian are the parents. Sara spends all her time looking after the children, mainly dealing with Kate's health problems and ferrying her back and forward from the hospital. Brian is a fire-fighter and although feel in control when fighting fires feels out of control at home.
Campbell is the lawyer that Anna hires, a mysterious complex character who has a "service dog" but won't divulge what is wrong with him. Finally Julia is the person appointed by the court totry to work out what they think is in Anna's best interests. She knows Campbell from the past and they appear to have had some history.
As you can probably tell from the short description above this is an emotional book. The author has chosen a very emotive subject but also one which is very topical in today's society with more so called "designer babies" being conceived. For many parents it will strike a chord making them ask to what extremes would they be willing to go to, to save their child. Would they put the health and wellbeing of one child at risk because if they don't the other will die? You can't read this book without asking yourself, what would I do in those circumstances.
I won't give any clues to the ending of the book but will say that my husband came back into the lounge and asked me if I had finished reading the book and I just burst into tears! I cry quite easily but this book certainly did get to me. Towards the end of the book you are trying to guess how it will finish but you just don't know. Jodi Picoult has said that her son read the book himself and at the end she found him crying on the sofa and he stormed up to his room unable to speak to her because he was that angry at her!
I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants a gripping read about people, emotions and relationships. It's well written and will keep you reading to find out what happens. All I recommend is that you have a box of tissues ready because it's a book that gets you.
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