Well, better late than never! After a computer malfunction, and a website meltdown, it's nice to finally be bringing you my weekly book review!
Since this week's book is hard to talk about, both in terms of content and from a chronological stand-point, this is gonna be a rather short review, and more opinion based post than my reviews normally are.
If you need to catch up as to why I do a weekly book review, check it out here!
So, sit tight for my review of this week's book A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult.
So, I'm going to start this review with a trigger warning. Normally I wouldn't, but this book focuses on some pretty serious topics. So, if a book/ review about abortion and active shooters is going to make you uncomfortable, I would stop reading.
A Spark of Light begins at 5pm, at the end of a hostage and active shooter situation at The Center, a woman's health center that also performs abortions.
The story focuses on the people in the Center, the hostage negotiator handling the situation, and the shooter.
With multiple points of view, the story covers all types of people, like a woman who just got an abortion, one of the doctors in the clinic, a girl who's there to get birth control, and a pro-life activist trying to get incriminating evidence, as well as the shooter himself.
The story counts back from the end of the crisis to the beginning of the day and what led everyone to be at the Center that day, which makes it a little difficult to retell in a review without giving away too many details.
There were so many things I liked about this book! I read My Sister's Keeper by Picoult, and was excited to read another book by her. I loved the layout of the book. I thought having it count backwards from 5pm to 9am was so original! I loved how it filled in details in reverse almost, and how characters who were dead in the beginning of the novel were alive again at the end.
I think Picoult has an excellent style that is both lyric and straight-forward depending on the character. She is a very versatile writer overall! I loved getting to see both sides of the pro-life/ pro-choice argument from the different characters and why they think and feel that way. Picoult did a good job of not being biased, or coming across as preachy, throughout the novel.
My only complaint is that some of the scenes were very graphic, like a detailed description of an abortion, a medical procedure, or people getting shot. It was shocking, and a little grotesque, but necessary to the story.
I really enjoyed A Spark of Light! I give it a 4 out of 5!