Book Review: My Sister's Keeper

 “Sometimes to get what you want the most, you have to do what you want the least.”

My Sister's Keeper was kind of the Inception of the book world for awhile.  Everyone who read it said that their mind was blown.  I haven't seen all the brains all over the place from all the apparent minds that have been blown by these two things, but I will take their words for it.  So, I wanted my mind likewise blown and decided to read My Sister's Keeper.

My Sister's Keeper is a story about Anna.  Anna's older sister, Kate, has had Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia since the age of three.  Their older brother, Jesse, is not a perfect match for transplantation, so their parents genetically engineered a perfect, 6-point HLA antigen match (through Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis), Anna.  Anna has donated cord blood, granulocytes, lymphocytes, bone marrow, stem cells, and more to Kate.  Now, at age thirteen, Anna is done.  She does not want to give the next thing up, a kidney.  So, she is suing for medical emancipation from her parents.

It is an intriguing idea and poses some interesting ethical questions.  But, my mind is still intact.  Mostly because the ideas were posed, and the book had a lot of potential, but it all just fell flat in the end.  The writing was "meh," the characters were not developed and the ethical questions it raises are never developed or even addressed that well. 

A note:  it contains strong language, but not anything I hadn't heard in high school.  Keep that in mind for younger teenagers.  There is some sexuality (and not just innuendo).

First problem:  The most intriguing character was Jesse, the older brother, who feels like he is worthless.  He is neither the rescuer (Anna) nor the apple of his parents' eye (Kate).  His story is, I think, the most interesting part.  It's good to have intriguing side characters.  But if he's the best part of the book, you have a problem.

 Second problem:  The most likeable character is the father.  And other than Jesse, who is a juvenile delinquent, he is the only likeable character.  You have a problem, guys, if you only have two likeable characters and one is a juvenile delinquent.

  Third problem: I don't feel bad for the mother.  At all.  She is bonkers.  First, she is convinced that Kate will live, but pursues this obsession at the expense of her other two children.  Someone needs to give her the Tevye talk.  What is the Tevye talk?  "Go home, Golda.  We have other children at home."  Second, I know that she has a rough life.  It's rough to have a child with cancer.  I get that.  But that doesn't mean that you can belittle the struggles of everyone else around you.  To quote Charlie from Perks of Being a Wallflower, "I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact that they were upset.  And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have.  Good and bad...Maybe it's good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there.  Because it's okay to feel things.  And be who you are about them."  You have a struggle, but everyone else does, too.  And they're doing the best that they can with what they have.  And it is especially wrong to belittle the feelings of your children (!) and expect a five-year-old to not feel pain because their sister is in more. Sometimes, she even sacrifices the feelings of Kate to spare her own.  There were probably only two times in the book that I didn't want to smack that woman upside the head.  You crazy!

Fourth problem:  There is a random romance subplot that adds approximately zero value.

In the end, it had so much potential.  It was a fast read and engaging.  But it didn't live up to 1/4 of its potential.  2 out of 5 stars.