Amateur Book Review - My Sister's Keeper

The book is about Anna, a 13 year old girl who was the product of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, who has spent her life giving blood, marrow, platelets and more in order to keep her sister Kate alive. The book is about love, sisterhood, family, and controversial medical science. For those who love a court room story, there is a little of that there although as someone who isn’t into those kind of reads, it worked for this story.

Anna decides to hire an attorney to fight her parents for emancipation and keep the kidney that they have scheduled to remove, or Kate will die.

The story was great and one that will hit a nerve with most readers. What do you do if your child is sick and dying but you are told that by having another, you could save her life. I chose not to have a tubaligation for this reason. Before kids I probably wouldn’t have thought this was something that was morally correct. After having my babies, I knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do for them, including having another baby.

My girlfriend and I had a wonderful conversation about morals and what we would do in this situation. We had very different opinions along with one of her daughters who chimed in that she would never want to hear that she was born to save a sibling.

I think that depending on which character you are sympathizing with at the moment your morals will change. You can sympathize with the father, the mother, the dying sister, the ignored brother, or 13 year old Anna and understand why they do what they do.

My biggest problem and it wasn’t so much a problem well into the book was that each character had their own chapters, making them the primary character. I found that I had to keep going back to find out who was who.

I enjoyed the book and felt a connection to Anna, her father and to her brother Jesse all for different reasons. My heart ached at the end and I think the ending will stay with me longer than I want it to.