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Handle with Care

by Jodi Picoult (Goodreads Author)

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 52,376 ratings · 5,560 reviews

"Every expectant parent will tell you that they don't want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they'd been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of "luckier" parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been...more

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Published (first published March 3rd 2009)

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Feb 25, 2009 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction

Typical Picoult plot and characters. The end really bothered me as it seemed unnecessary.

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Mar 17, 2009 Lani rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Caryl, Tamara, Picoult fans

Shelves: chicklit

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Picoult's books are incredibly formulaic, and their strength really lies in whether or not you care about the topic they address. I expected to be more intrigued by this one - OI ("brittle bone disease") and a wrongful birth suit. Either I just wasn't in the mood, or it read too much like My Sister's Keeper, or I spent the whole time anticipating the expected resolution...

I actually found the teenage daughter, Amelia, more interesting. Probably because she was the character I could most relate...more Picoult's books are incredibly formulaic, and their strength really lies in whether or not you care about the topic they address. I expected to be more intrigued by this one - OI ("brittle bone disease") and a wrongful birth suit. Either I just wasn't in the mood, or it read too much like My Sister's Keeper, or I spent the whole time anticipating the expected resolution...

I actually found the teenage daughter, Amelia, more interesting. Probably because she was the character I could most relate to, and I liked the fact that Picoult gave her more of a personality than some of the other family members in her other books. Amelia had her own demons to fight that reflected a lot of the family struggles, and I guess I wish there had been more of an examination of her bulemia and cutting. If nothing else, I felt that the solution of "send her away to a facility" was a copout on the part of her parents. Rather than really addressing the issue, it was just brushed aside.

I expected this to be a much more heartrending book, but I never felt particularly involved in the wrongful death part. The emotional bits seemed to be more related to the friend vs friend parts, the husband vs. wife part, and the wife vs. the world parts. It never seemed to come down to wife vs. wife in which the mother actually has to face what she is really saying - that she wishes her daughter were never born.

I thought the adoption plot was jimmied in a little bit, and I didn't feel that I needed any backstory on the lawyer. Similarly, I was irritated by the brief husband/friend makeouts and sexual tension. I think time would have been better spent highlighting the OB's marriage issues rather than just shoving her into Sean.

I skimmed through the last 50 pages to the expected conclusion of - high profile trial resolution and main character death. This one was a little too TOO My Sister's Keeper, and I thought it was a little cheap. I did like that the family had the check on the fridge for months, though I was disappointed that the check ultimately went to waste. There were clearly PLENTY of OI families, foundations, or SOMETHING that could have used that money....

I just wasn't particularly impressed by this book, though, as always, I'm sure that if these were issues you were really interested in, this would be a great book. Picoult's books are always impeccably researched, and she clearly gets a realistic picture of the life she is portraying. It is always interesting to find out the seemingly mundane details of extraordinary lives that you wouldn't normally be able to relate to.(less)

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Nov 22, 2012 Eva Leger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Picoult fans & people who like thought provoking fiction

Recommended to Eva by: I love Jodi Picoult

Shelves: b-fiction, keepers, a-i-own

OUTSTANDING. AMAZING. I DIDN'T WANT THIS BOOK TO END. I WOULD HAVE LOVED FOR THIS TO HAVE BEEN THREE TIMES THE LENGTH THAT IT WAS.
I can't say enough great things about this book. I'm already biased because I'm a big Picoult fan but I'd have felt this strongly even if this had been written by someone else. I'm utterly amazed at what Picoult manages to do with these books.
Other authors try and some even succeed with taking a issue like a school shooting, a disability, etc. and making it very tho...more OUTSTANDING. AMAZING. I DIDN'T WANT THIS BOOK TO END. I WOULD HAVE LOVED FOR THIS TO HAVE BEEN THREE TIMES THE LENGTH THAT IT WAS.
I can't say enough great things about this book. I'm already biased because I'm a big Picoult fan but I'd have felt this strongly even if this had been written by someone else. I'm utterly amazed at what Picoult manages to do with these books.
Other authors try and some even succeed with taking a issue like a school shooting, a disability, etc. and making it very thought provoking. Picoult manages to give us a 100% realistic look into how these situations effect numerous people. I've been engrossed with certain books before but it doesn't happen often and needless to say, it takes a special author to pull me in to that degree. Picoult does it every single time.
Handle With Care has me now wanting to learn all I can about osteogenisis perfecta. I hope Picoult lives a long, long life and that she keeps writing the entire time.

I suppose I should say a bit about the book and not only how much I loved it huh? Okay, here you go- the book follows the O'Keefe family, mom Charlotte, dad Sean, and two daughters, Amelia is the oldest and Willow is the youngest. Willow was born with osteogenisis perfecta with essentially will leave her with hundreds of broken bones during her lifetime, along with many other possible damaging issues such as hearing loss, not growing to your full potential, etc. This disorder drastically changes a life. Reaching for something can break a bone, someone bumping into you can break a bone, turning over in your sleep can break a bone. Something like that is unimaginable to most of us. Imagining your baby with it is even harder. Charlotte's ob-gyn was her best friend of almost a decade and eventually, after a bad break at Disney World, while the O'Keefe's are meeting with an attorney they learn about wrongful birth lawsuits. Learning about this type of lawsuits can be chalked up to one of the most devastating things to affect the O'Keefe's- quite possibly, behind Willow's disorder, the most devastating. Charlotte decides to go ahead with a wrongful birth lawsuit against her best friend for numerous reasons, one being that the money won in a settlement would allow Willow to live a better life.
(I feel the need to point out here that I just had to make a correction to my review- I was typing as if I was writing to Willow- anyone who has read the book will know why it happened but it was totally unconcsious and that's how much the book has affected me.)
Anyway, the O'Keefe's were handling Willow's disorder and the rest of their lives okay before learning about this type of lawsuit and after learning about it- everything falls apart. Charlotte and Sean each have their *differing* opinions, Amelia starts to have many emotional and mental problems and Willow- I don't have the words to say how this affected her. (I feel like this was a non-fiction book when it wasn't.)
Each chapter talks to Willow from a different person. Her father one chapter, then her mother, Marin, the lawyer, Piper, the ob-gyn, Amelia and so on.
Overall, this has to be in the top five or so books that have made me think the most. I read someone's review that the twists and turns in the book were common and were able to be read far before hand. That's something I'm normally quite good at and I didn't feel that way at all with this book. I thought some of the things that happened were really far out there, although quite realistic. I didn't seen most coming AT ALL.
Two months ago if someone had asked me which Picoult book I'd recommend to someone who has never read her I would have probable said Harvesting the Heart, The Pact, Plain Truth or Keeping Faith. All of them are GREAT, GREAT, GREAT books. But now, I'd recommend this one. Maybe that's because it's so new to me still, because I hadn't read any Picoult's in awhile before this one, or for some reason that I don't see, but this is what I'd recommend regardless.
Anyone who likes fiction that makes you think, serious fiction should read a Jodi Picoult book. They aren't the kind of books that leave you sad even though they do have many serious and saddening issues. You come away having learned something from every book.(less)

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May 04, 2011 Rachel rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-hate, non-sci-fi-fantasy

This book was by far the worst i've ever read in my life, I got a third of the way through then gave up and read the ending, which was completely ridiculous and made the book quite pointless.

I have to start by saying I'm disabled and have used a wheelchair for 8 years now and quite a few of my friends are also disabled so I have a good knowledge of how people with disabilities and our families live and cope with everyday situations. Now I can't speak for everyone, but the characters in this book...more

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Mar 08, 2009 Leeann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Picoult fans

This book was a mixed bag.

I will agree with readers that say it reminded them very much of My Sister's Keeper. I thought that Picoult did a nice job of developing Amelia's character and perspective. While I did find this book quite gripping, I find that Picoult needs to be wary of being too formulaic. Her twists and turns are becoming predictable; thus, when one happens it doesn't affect the reader in an emotional way. The twists almost become detrimental to the book- much like a soap opera that...more

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Dec 31, 2008 Jackie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: work-review-related-reading, 5-star

I haven't read anything by Picoult in a few years, and I had forgotten how brilliant she is at blending multiple voices throughout a hefty, impressively researched novel. This book grabbed me hard and didn't let me go (sleep was lost, bus stops missed, etc). The personal, ethical, moral and social issues contained in this book will keep bookclubs talking for weeks.

The story, in a nutshell, is a mother of a precocious but severely disabled child decides, in order to get the cash necessary to keep...more

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Feb 14, 2009 Audrey rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ok, so I just finished Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult (due out April).

This was the first Jodi Picoult book where I really struggled to finish it. I found it very repetitive & much too similar to My Sister's Keeper - just a different disease.

There were family problems, questions of morality, several characters having personal problems, it just seemed to be one big book of problems. & very whiny one at that.

It was written very well & I love the style in which Jodi Picoult writes, but...more

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Mar 09, 2009 Janet rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 21, 2009 Ellen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
While I still like Picoult's descriptive writing and the way she raises moral and ethical issues, I have to agree with other critics that she needs to take a step back and reassess. Her books are getting to be too similar in plot and characters.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

I also had a big problem with the situation that sets up the main action in the book. The family goes to FL on vacation, the child with OI has an accident and breaks her femurs. Because they forgot the letter from the daughter's treating...more
While I still like Picoult's descriptive writing and the way she raises moral and ethical issues, I have to agree with other critics that she needs to take a step back and reassess. Her books are getting to be too similar in plot and characters.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

I also had a big problem with the situation that sets up the main action in the book. The family goes to FL on vacation, the child with OI has an accident and breaks her femurs. Because they forgot the letter from the daughter's treating physician in Boston and it's Saturday, there is no way to confirm their contention that she has OI and that they are not abusive. This is ridiculous! Doesn't the specialist who treats patients who can break bones when they sneeze have an answering service for use in emergencies? He's with Children's Hospital in Boston, one of the best pediatric hospitals in the world! It wouldn't mattter that it's a weekend! How about the fact that the parents know everyone by name in their community hospital's ER? These characters are otherwise intelligent people and the father is a police sargeant who should know how the system works. Can't they ask the social workers, medical staff, or police who are about to arrest the father to call that hospital??? Even if the parents don't request that they call the community hospital in NH or Children's in Boston, the FL hospital staff and police would certainly have thought to do so. On top of that, the older daughter who is smart and insightful in the rest of the story, innocently (and inexplicably) answers the questions of the social worker in a way that's sure to implicate her father. It's only after the father is arrested, the mother is detained, and the older daughter is moved into emergency foster care that the mother talks with her best friend and OB/GYN, who "somehow" gets the phone number of the specialist and calls him. Picoult even implies through the thoughts of the father that the OB/GYN and best friend "has the nerve" to use her connections to "cold-call" the specialist at 3:00 a.m. Yikes! I expect more realism from Jodi Picoult.(less)

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Mar 06, 2009 Alissa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

I was really enjoying reading this latest from Picoult, especially since I hadn't enjoyed her last book.

I was also interested in learning more about OI, since a local family was recently on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and their son has OI.

However, after all the drama and tension, the ending just fell flat to me. So I ended up being disappointed overall by the novel. Didn't have that sense of satisfaction I usually get after I finish something really good.

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Mar 15, 2009 Mary Jo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, here's the thing... Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors. I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. She handles current topics in her books and makes them poignant and real and... well, she just really makes you THINK, something we often don't like to do.

This book started out very slow and at first I wondered if I was even going to be able to get through it. As the story progressed, I couldn't quit, couldn't put it down, HAD TO absorb as much as I could even though at times ther...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Vivian rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a long time fan of Jodi Picoult's work but have been disappointed with her last few efforts. This was no different. While the premise is interesting and the story is told in many voices, I was distracted by the form of the novel in which the characters speak to directly to Willow. And what's with the recipes? Charlotte is no longer a pastry chef. Once the story has been set up with the child's rare disease, it doesn't go anywhere from there. There is nothing new here. We all know what a deb...more

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Mar 23, 2009 Krystel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is about Willow and her family. Willow has brittle bone syndrom and after a disasterous trip to Disney the family finds out they have a good lawsuit case. The lawsuit is a "wrongful birth" case. The trial is masked as a malpractice suit but the underlying and obvious message is that the mother would not have given birth to her daughter if she had known of her disease within an appropriate amount of time. The story really kind of beats to death the idea that the mother loves her daughte...more

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Apr 24, 2009 george rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: grown-up-books, read-in-2009

I have mixed feelings about Picoult's latest novel. On the one hand, I really enjoyed once again the introduction of a controversial topic in mainstream fiction and the presentation of all points of view. On the other hand...well, there are a lot of other hands. Yes, from what I can recall, this is too similar to My Sister's Keeper. The ending was completely unnecessary. The chapters--written as if they were letters to Willow--just didn't flow the way Picoult most likely intended. Not to mention...more I have mixed feelings about Picoult's latest novel. On the one hand, I really enjoyed once again the introduction of a controversial topic in mainstream fiction and the presentation of all points of view. On the other hand...well, there are a lot of other hands. Yes, from what I can recall, this is too similar to My Sister's Keeper. The ending was completely unnecessary. The chapters--written as if they were letters to Willow--just didn't flow the way Picoult most likely intended. Not to mention that Picoult's writing has pretty much become formulaic. Then there were things that didn't really ring true to the characters (Sean not understanding why the law firm wouldn't take on his case, for one--hello, he's presented as quite level-headed and intelligent in the rest of the book. Yes, there's a lot of emotion, but even embarrassment is not an excuse for presenting him as dumb on just one page when the rest of the book never alluded to that. And that's just one example).

Then there's the character of Charlotte--I hated her; which was a good thing because it kept me engrossed in the book. I hated her because I cannot accept, or believe, that anyone would be stupid enough to believe that this lawsuit wouldn't change anything for the worse. I hated her because she is a great example of how our litigious, "I'm not to blame--she is" society operates. I loved (and hated) how easily she was entranced by the idea of a lawsuit that would destroy the life of at least one person she loved in order to make--in her mind--another's easier. I hated her single-minded determination to protect one daughter while ignoring another. But while I hated her, I had to admire her at the same time for her resilient strength and determination to follow through with what she believed was the only right thing to do.

I did like the book for the same reasons I generally like Picoult's books: the thought-provoking subject and introduction to a new issue that one might not have really thought about before (in this case, I had--but it did make me re-evaluate my position several times); the variety of characters and different points of view; good research; and an easy, quick read. Picoult still has what I love about her, but if I could give her one piece of advice it would be to SLOW DOWN. The quality of the books seem to degrade a little more with each one and my theory is that it's probably because she's pumping one out a year. It's worth a read and not a waste of time, but cannot be judged on the same level as her earlier books. (less)

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Mar 11, 2009 Ryan Mac rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: spring-challenge

This book was good but a few things bothered me about it and I am glad that I have made it through the Jodi Picoult books so I can take a break for awhile. First off, this book is being compared to My Sister's Keeper due to similar themes and family issues. I would agree but argue that My Sister's Keeper is much better. Second, can anyone be that stupid (referring to the mother Charlotte)? Even after being presented numerous times with situations suggesting that she was ruining their family and...more

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Mar 12, 2009 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A typical Jodi Picoult ethical/medical dilemma story. The ending was not a total surprise that I found quite annoying. I felt manipulated.

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Mar 30, 2009 Cassie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 31, 2009 Laurel-Rain rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jodi Picoult’s latest provocative tome, “Handle with Care,” leads us down a typically controversial path when a young mother, Charlotte O’Keefe, sues her obstetrician, Piper Reece – who also happens to have been her best friend.

Charlotte’s second child, Willow, is born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta – brittle bone disease – that not only leads to broken bones, several even in utero, but in this harrowing plot, hearts and lives are shattered into shards.

The crux of the suit surrounds the issue of c...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Shannon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although I enjoy readying Jodi Piccoult, I found that I had a hard time with this one. I love her writing style and enjoyed that it jumped back and forth between who the story was being told by, but I found that I really didn't connect with a lot of the characters. I knew from reading her other books that you go into it knowing its not usually a cheery, feel good book. However I felt that the whole book was just one depressing thing after another, whether it was the family or her lawyer or anyon...more

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Mar 15, 2009 Shona rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like all of Picoult's books, the plot is centered around a controversial topic. This time the story revolves around the issue of a wrongful birth lawsuit involving Willlow - a girl born with OI (brittle bone disease). Picoult makes you care about the characters and you find yourself trying to think how you would handle the same situation. I normally love her books, but there were a few things in the story that seemed a little out of place and the ending was horrible. After you have so much inves...more

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Apr 02, 2009 JoAnne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well... I am a big fan of Picoult and was anxious to read her newest book. This book is like many of her others: she allows you to see a complex issue through the eyes of each of the affected characters. I was ready to learn a lot, and I did, but I found the book painful to read and had to force myself to keep going. That is not to say that I didn't love some of it, but I found the deteriorating marriage and the descriptions of the broken bones overdone. It was the opposite of subtle and the end...more

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Sep 25, 2009 Tami rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My daughter, who loved my sister's keeper, quit reading this one and handed it back to me saying it was too much like that book. She doesn't really ever stop reading a book so that made me leary of this one. I haven't read, and probably won't read, my sister's keeper after having started "Handle with Care". It is yet another study in disfunctional family dynamics set around a sick child. Each of the family members, and the occasional family friend, doctor or lawyer take turns telling "their stor...more

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Apr 21, 2010 Jamie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Ummmmm . . . not my favorite book.
Fast read, just wanting the carnage to end. I did want to try all the recipes.
I find wrongful life lawsuits particularly demeaning to human morality. The result of them is Doctors which must council their patients to have an abortion if “anything” presents as less than normal. To that end. . . my doctor stated that it was nice that I declined a tri-screen test once at the beginning of a pregnancy as then not only would I not know if there was a problem, neither...more Ummmmm . . . not my favorite book.
Fast read, just wanting the carnage to end. I did want to try all the recipes.
I find wrongful life lawsuits particularly demeaning to human morality. The result of them is Doctors which must council their patients to have an abortion if “anything” presents as less than normal. To that end. . . my doctor stated that it was nice that I declined a tri-screen test once at the beginning of a pregnancy as then not only would I not know if there was a problem, neither would she and then she would not be liable for it.
This is the second Jodi Picoult I have read (the first being My sister's keeper) and I hated both books endings. As if the entire story is not tragic enough they both end in utter horror. I feel as if all her characters are 1 dimensional in one trait -- selfishness.
Finally as to this story it just was not believable that the main character would sacrifice her whole life (friends, spouses, children, etc . . .) in pursuit of a lawsuit based on a premise she herself could not have followed through on.
Personally, I feel individuals who seek to sue their doctors on the basis of wrongful life, if they win their case and are awarded money should have their children removed from their custody and the money and the “problem” child go to someone who really cares. Most people won't adopt disabled children because of the costs, but a sweet, intelligent, disabled girl that came with 8 million dollars would be very adoptable -- and all problems are solved -- the mother gets her wish, her problem is effectively terminated.
There was a moment where I thought maybe the book would redeem itself. When the husband leaves and withdraws from the lawsuit, I thought he was then going to use the lawsuit as the basis for his own lawsuit against his wife for full custody. That would have been karma. That she would in fact lose parental rights to her kids because of her lawsuit. He would win the custody argument easily – since she didn’t want one of her kids and clearly was neglectful of the other.
(less)

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Mar 04, 2009 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some books are hard to talk about with giving away too much. Jodi Picoult's Handle With Care is one of these. Anyone reading a summary will get a feel for the plot. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe have two daughters, Amelia and Willow and could be the picture of the average American family. But average they are not as Willow suffers from a rare, disfiguring disease, osteogenesis imperfecta, a disorder which causes bones to break easily.
The story beings with Charlotte as narrator. “Things break all t...more Some books are hard to talk about with giving away too much. Jodi Picoult's Handle With Care is one of these. Anyone reading a summary will get a feel for the plot. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe have two daughters, Amelia and Willow and could be the picture of the average American family. But average they are not as Willow suffers from a rare, disfiguring disease, osteogenesis imperfecta, a disorder which causes bones to break easily.
The story beings with Charlotte as narrator. “Things break all the time. Glass, and dishes, and fingernails. Cars and contracts and potato chips. You can break a record, a horse, a dollar. You can break the ice. There are coffee breaks and lunch breaks and prison breaks. Day breaks, waves break, voices break. Chains can be broken So can silence , and fever.” Picoult is the queen of metaphor and references to break and broken are peppered throught the book. As Willow grows and medical costs rise the O'Keefe's must find a way to foot the bill. If she files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her ob/gyn who did not tell her that her child would be severely disabled, and if they win the lawsuit, the resulting compensation would ensure Willow would get the care she deserves. It also means that Charlotte must say that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she’d known about the disability in advance. To add another element to her dilemma, the ob/gyn is not only her physician but her friend.
Picoult twists this story every which way and that, almost too much for me. She puts the whole family, Charlotte, Sean, Amelia, the family of Piper (ob/gyn), the lawyers, both sides, plaintiff and defendant, the community, the whole lot, under a very powerful microscope and dissects them piece by piece. It can be painful to read.
Jodi Picoult is my adopted author. This means I sponsor her books at my public library. I do this as I have been a fan since I read Plain Truth many years ago. Though in all I learned a great deal from reading Handle With Care, I wouldn't say it is Picoult's best effort. Without spoiling the story for others here are my complaints. First, I believe the use of single narration, each character, telling their story in solo chapters, has been overdone by Picoult. I want something new. There's way too much use of, for a lack of better word, gimmick. I didn't think I'd ever say that but for me, this tactic makes the whole less believable and satisfying. Her characters are well developed, almost too much so. And the plot twists; well, twists too much. Saying this I'll still give it a four out of a five star. I cared about the characters, some made me angry, some made me cry. I learned a great deal. The exploration of relationships is Picoult at her best. In the end I was left with lots to think about. The story will stay with me and I would like to discuss it with friends. So what's my problem? Perhaps my overall pique is is just being plain picky. What more do I want from a book? Perhaps you can tell, I'm compromised in my opinion, on the one hand this, on the other, that; left a bit unbalanced in the end. As I hold Jodi Picoult in high esteem, I want a little less gimmick a bit less analyzing of every angle with the end result being the sum of the fine storyteller Picoult is. Read Handle with Care for yourself and see what you think. (less)

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Jan 11, 2011 Jennefer rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am not happy with this book at all and just when I thought Songs of the Humpback Whales would be my least favorite book by this author, I stumbled upon Handle With Care - this book was poorly edited and the worst part being the utterly unfathomable ending! I just finished this book today and I am not sure that time will heal Picoult's attack on my reading brain. I thought the ending of My Sister's Keeper was a giant cop-out until I re-read the foreword and figured out why the ending was, in re...more I am not happy with this book at all and just when I thought Songs of the Humpback Whales would be my least favorite book by this author, I stumbled upon Handle With Care - this book was poorly edited and the worst part being the utterly unfathomable ending! I just finished this book today and I am not sure that time will heal Picoult's attack on my reading brain. I thought the ending of My Sister's Keeper was a giant cop-out until I re-read the foreword and figured out why the ending was, in retrospect, quite decent, if unhappy. However, Handle With Care has an ending that is simply inscrutable when judged from any conceivable angle. Nothing made any sense.

The recipes that are thrown in the book because the main character used to be a pastry chef drove me crazy too - what was the point of those!

I understand why a mother would want to sue a doctor for wrongful birth but only to attain financial resources from a deep pocket that is needed to keep the affected child alive, comfortable, and with a reasonable quality of life. And I believed that was the only reason this lawsuit was pursued. So, why was the hard-fought check never cashed? A specific point was made that the check was more than 6 months old. A check older than 180 days can no longer be cashed at all. Was it only because the child died? And died a completely unnatural, unreasonable, insane death? By having the child die, Picoult negated the entire point of her book -- that every life has value. She essentially said just the opposite -- that this life was meaningless. Huh? I was so perplexed and angered by this!

Before I got to the ending, however, I had to wade through a swamp of simple editing errors, errors that were so obviously crying out for correction that I can believe only that there was NO editing whatsoever. Does Picoult write too many books too quickly to have them properly scrutinized for even simple mistakes? Was the imputed editor too intimidated by her employer to point out such egregious errors? How could an author who boasts of and thanks so many physicians who helped her with the medical science confuse the bones of the human arm with those of the human leg? Come on -- any 8th-grade student knows which are which. The typos and misspellings throughout are an insult to the publisher.

I tell everyone who is interested in reading this book that they must refrain. If they have half a brain, they will be furious if they do. And, like me, they may never get over it. (less)

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May 07, 2009 Katherine Spencer Inskeep rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Jun 02, 2009 Anita rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2009

Handle with Care is the story of Willow, a young girl with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or OI, brittle bone disease. Her bones break from the simplest of acts, bumping into a table, sitting down etc. Her mother, Charlotte, her father Sean, her sister Amelia are all impacted by Willow's OI, keeping her safe, getting her the best medical care, and the cost of this care in financial and emotional strain is devastating.
On a special family trip to Walt Disney World, Willow falls, a bad break and ends up...more

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Apr 14, 2009 Tauna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: jodi-picoult, medical

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Apr 08, 2009 Bree rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, fiction

Hmmmm...I'm just not sure what to say. The book started off really awesome, I couldn't put it down. I realized partway through that it was really following closely to the "formula" that she used in My Sister's Keeper, which was slightly annoying...but still, it worked well for the subject. Parts of the trial were unrealistic, IMO...especially one BIG part (you'll know what part if you read it - it's just so left-field and would NEVER happen in a courtroom). And then the ending...gah! WTH?!

I hate...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Natalie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There is Saturday afternoon and I'm perfectly fine. And then comes Picoult's book.

ginnt

Handle with care is making me shiver, cry, shout and act like crazy.
girl

Willow is making me cry. I'm so, so, so sorry becouse of Amelia and Sean.
I'm feeeling terrible becouse I and my family are perfectly healthy and I'm not thankful enough for that.

But I don't like Charlotte. I would never like any of Picoult's mother's- I don't know why.

Oh, can somebody made me stop thinking about this book? And this ENDING? OMG.
DIE

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About Jodi Picoult

Picoult was born and raised in Nesconset on Long Island, New York. Her first story, at age 5 was "The Lobster Which Misunderstood." She studied writing at Princeton University, graduating in 1987, and had two short stories published by Seventeen magazine while still in college. Immediately after graduation, she took on a series of miscellaneous jobs, from editing at a textbook publishing company t...more

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Quotes from Zerbrechlich: Roman

“When you love someone, you say their name different. Like it's safe inside your mouth.” — 1,022 people liked it

“It was one thing to make a mistake; it was another thing to keep making it. I knew what happened when you let yourself get close to someone, when you started to believe they loved you: you'd be disappointed. Depend on someone, and you might as well admit you're going to be crushed, because when you really needed them, they wouldn't be there. Either that, or you'd confide in them and you added to their problems. All you ever really had was yourself, and that sort of sucked if you were less than reliable.” — 890 people liked it

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