I thought that overall this book was a good read. It was engaging and the narrative style was different from a conventional narrative where there's only one point of view. I think that by doing that, Picoult really drives home the point that with certain sensitive issues (especially the one that Picoult addresses), there is no right answer, nor is there a situation where everyone can be happy. I really liked that about this novel.
Now, this is where I start talking about my issues. I started to pick up on small motifs and themes throughout the novel that didn't translate to anything and didn't extend through the entire novel. I'm not sure why and perhaps I was overreading it but like in the beginning there's this theme or motif or whatever of newborn babies and it repeats itself a couple times but then it never comes up again. I think that what irritated me about that is that it really didn't seem to have any point. However, as I write it out, I can see why Picoult only chose to leave it in the beginning. I feel like there were other motifs that didn't translate all the way through but I can't think of any right now.
I really liked how different sections started out with a quote about fire and the motif and theme of fire was carried throughout the novel. I think one of the most important quotes to relate fire to the rest of the novel was when Brian gives advice to one of his employees on women - he says something along the lines of how women (or relationships, I forget which) are like fire - it's beautiful and alluring and when its under control, is very useful. However, when it's out of control, it destroys. I probably got something wrong there... at any rate, fire was used as an escape, as a way to get attention, and as a way to bond. Even the idea of astrology and with Anna's name I thought worked really well throughout the novel.
There are other things I could talk about as well, but the biggest issue that I wanted to talk about with this novel was the ending. (By the way, I'm going to be spoiling it so if there are any readers out there, I highly recommend reading the novel first before continuing... though now that I've said that, more people will probably just continue reading...)
Anyway, I have very mixed feelings about the ending because I felt like it was really contrive but I'm not sure if it was necessarily a bad thing. I liked the ending because it was different and honestly went against what was expected. However, I really felt like it was somewhat contrived and sudden. Within the last couple of pages, Anna is suddenly killed off in some kind of car accident that is caused by the heavy rain. There isn't any emotional trauma with Kate and we only get her narrative at the end. Although Anna dying was unexpected, Kate's point of view I feel was really two-dimensional as well because we never got how she felt throughout the entire novel - I'm not sure if the narrative would've worked with Kate's point of view so I suppose Picoult didn't have a choice there. I think that the idea of Kate doing ballet was also somewhat forced. Perhaps it's because I know that you can't just become any kind of ballerina teacher without having professional experience and for Kate to have become a professional ballerina at 16 or 17 after miraculously recovering from leukemia is highly unlikely. I felt like it was a fluffy ending to ease the shock of Anna's sudden death. I guess I had a feeling Picoult didn't want to drag the book out any longer and just tried to tie up all the loose ends and explain whatever else needed to be explained. I mean I think that the overall effect worked pretty well but again, it just seemed a little forced.
On the topic of being forced, I also felt that the whole idea of Anna dying and Kate surviving was also contrived. I could be being a little too harsh but I honestly felt like Picoult chose to have the other sister survive after Anna wins the case precisely because she felt like the reader would have expect the ending to be neat where Kate dies and the rest of the family copes with it but manage to become a "real" family and Anna grows to be this beautiful, successful hockey player or something. If anything, I would have to say that the undertone of this novel is ironic cynicism. Everything that goes wrong goes wrong - perhaps to evoke a sense of pity from the reader and I feel like it was believable until Anna died.
Now reflecting back on the rest of the events of the novel, it almost lowers the credibility of the other events (how they never really got to spend a Christmas together and it was always during holidays that Kate got sick, etc. etc)
I guess my final verdict on this novel is that it's a good read - not sad and depressing like I thought it would be, but definitely not something that is really academically strong and wouldn't be classified under a "must-have-and-tell-everyone-to-read" kind of book.
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