Book Review: Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
I was in Jarir the other day trying to find books to read when I stumbled into an entire shelf of Jodi Picoult’s novels. I’m not really the biggest fan of her books, they need a lot of concentration and a box of tissue -my sister’s keeper for example?-.But then I found this one, Change of Heart, published in 2007, and it caught my attention.
A man is convicted of a double murder of a girl and her father, leaving her pregnant mother with nothing to hold on but the baby she’s holding.
The baby grows up with a heart defect, needs a heart transplant, and the murdered who is on death row wants to donate his heart for her to make up for what he took. What kind of mother would allow her daughter to take her family’s murderer’s heart, but it is a heart, how can she say no when her daughter is out of time?
Its a very very VERY good book. Definitely going on my shelf. 460 pages long, not an easy read at all as you need to concentrate and pause every few minute to contemplate what you have just read and discuss it in your head with yourself, but it is quite a page turner! It was in my bag going everywhere with me, that’s how good it was.
It is heart-wrenching though. One must be of a very strong heart when reading it, or else they might simply put it down for somethings are overwhelming. It provides a lot of issues to contemplate, issues regarding religion and faith and humanity and fairness. Most issues concern Christianity though with a sprinkling of other religions in the mix.
A lot of legal talk is there as well with many pages of court room scenes. You now when an American movie starts out very good then in the middle of the movie onwards its all in the court room with legal talk? I don’t like that part, but this book has a very similar tendency to drag the story line into the court room. If you are a fan of law and order you will love it though.
Again, this book is not very everyone. Only those with a really strong heart. There is a nice couple of twists in there as well plus a blooming love story on the side, very cleverly woven indeed, I liked that. I have a few more -newer- Jodi Picoult books to read in my shelf but I need to first recover from the buzz left in my head from this one first with a very light read. Recommended? Yes, if you can handle that much pain and confusion, then highly recommended.
