"If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?"
I am supposed to give a review on The Fault in our Stars by John Green. However, we answered our English 23 bring home exam from 4pm to 3am, leaving me no time to finish reading the book. So I decided to give my old review of My Sister's Keeper from my old blog. Here goes...
My Sister’s Keeper is yet Jodi Picoult’s best book for me. Although the first parts are kind of boring and just like A Change of Heart (her other novel, which I have read), the story is told in different points of view of different characters on every chapter so it’s also a bit confusing especially if you forgot whose POV you are currently reading. Yet the book surprised me. Why? Because of the ending. I haven’t had the slightest prediction or idea that it would end that way. SPOILER ALERT!
So here’s Kate, the oldest, who got AML, a rare type of leukemia with a rare cure. And there’s Anna, a designer baby. She was genetically cloned to be a perfect donor for her older sister since Jesse, the middle child, wasn’t a match. Sara and Brian, the parents, went to a geneticist to make every cell, every gene, every thing in Anna to be just like Kate’s so they won’t worry about donors when the latter needs them. I can’t even believe as soon as Anna was born in the world, she had already donated something for Kate. It was the umbilical cord, I think. Correct me if I’m wrong.
"They don't really pay attention to me, except when they need my blood or something. I wouldn't even be alive, if it wasn't for Kate being sick."The case here is: Sara and Brian gave a lot of attention to Kate, which made Anna felt like an outcast. She was only given attention when they needed her for a donation of an organ, blood cells, and even bone marrow. It’s like Kate was the center of attention in the family since she was way beyond ordinary. Plus, she needed a kidney and Anna would provide it to her. Jesse also felt that way. Because of that, he rebelled. Anna, however, didn’t rebel. She just filed a lawsuit to sue her parents of medical emancipation.
You might think that Anna filed the lawsuit for her parents to see her, to feel her need of attention, to become visible to her parents’ eyes. But no, she didn’t do that for those reasons. She did it because Kate asked her to, and she was convinced that she didn’t want to donate her kidney to Kate. Kate, moreover, didn’t want to suffer anymore. She didn't want to go to hospitals anymore, and experience receiving organs and stuffs that may prolong her life on earth. She wanted to die. And when Anna told her she filed the lawsuit, she thanked her. God! She thanked Anna.
"I wondered what happened when you offered yourself to someone, and they opened you, only to discover you were not the gift they expected and they had to smile and nod and say thank you all the same."
Well, I guess you already know what the ending is. Anna died and her kidney (only one) was donated to Kate. Kate lived, and regretted having asked Anna to file the lawsuit because if she didn't ask Anna to, if they weren’t signing those papers that night, she could have been still alive and she was the one to be dead. But Kate was thankful, still.
It’s just… I don’t know, heartbreaking and shocking. I was teary-eyed when I found out about Anna being dead and Kate regretting it all. It was a sister’s love after all. Even though Kate has the eye of her parents, even though Anna was being left-out, even though parts of Anna’s body are being donated, she still loves Kate. A sister’s unconditional love.
Books are forever.
Yours, Marry
