What would you do to save your sister? Anything? That’s not an answer, you need to be more specific. Would you bleed for her? Would you give up something you wanted for her? Would you honor her wishes even if you do not agree? What is anything? When your sister is dying, there is not a lot of options you can choose between, but what if she was constantly dying? Not the “each day everyone is getting closer to their death date” type of dying, but from a sickness, that could one day just kill her off, but you do not know when that one day is. From the good days to the bad days, you are just waiting for that day, that day known as the end, the end day she dies. what would you do to stop it? More importantly, what would you not do?

Brian and Sarah Fitzgerald have two children as their identical twins. Jesse, their son the male version of Sarah, and Kate, the female version of Brian. They were the joy of Sarah’s life, making her not regret giving up her job as a lawyer, and traded it in for the new job of being a mother. During bath time when Kate was two, there were bruises along her spine. Like any mother, she grabbed the safety blanket, left Jesse with the neighbors, and took her darling daughter to the emergency room. It was there on those hard plastic chairs, with Kate is sleeping in her lap, Brain comes over from the station (he’s a professional fireman), they find out Kate was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL). A rare form of leukemia that like most cancers is pretty much deadly, but can be stopped if caught on soon. In order to save Kate, they must find a donor, the issue is further away from the family you go, the higher rate of mortality there is. With only Jesse, who was not the match, Sara was determined to do anything to keep Kate alive. 

Anna knew how she was born, her parents never thought to hide it from her. She was made for Kate, to be her lifeline. She made headlines a few years ago as the first “designer baby”. Her parents picked out the egg in Sarah that would closely match Kate DNA, and spent nine months waiting for Anna to be born. Born December 31 (not carrying about the prize if she was born five minutes later), they used the blood from the umbilical cord to save Kate the first time. The second time was when she was old enough to feel and know what was going on. Frequent blood draws became Anna’s life, as Kate kept relapsing, never fully healing. The worst was the bone marrow transplant, one that made Anna spend a night in the hospital and left her feeling weak for weeks. Still they had their good times, the first time her family watched her play hockey, those times Jesse drove her around, her gossiping about boys with Kate in their share room. When Kate kidney’s started failing, the family had no question that Anna would step in and donate one to save her sister’s life. What they did not expect? Anna didn’t. Instead she found Campbell Alexander, a lawyer whom she put in charge of her trial against her parents for the right of her body. This thrilling novel takes you deep into the dynamics of favoritism, family and love, in this heart shattering novel of what it takes to save your sister.

Jodi Picoult, an author of twenty-three novels, with many of them on the New York Times bestsellers, it is no doubt why. This classic five-person family, the father who saves lives every day, but cannot save his own daughter. The mother willing to give up everything she owns to save her daughter, but does not have the right stuff for it. The brother, the rebel, the one crying out for someone to notice him, to make his issues priory number one. The sick child, one who is willing to accept death, but her family is not. Then the vessel, the harvest cropped, made for the purpose to save Kate, after all her parents never even wanted a third child. With a little side romance of a cold hearted lawyer, met his old love and law partner who are both assigned to Anna’s case, this story truly dives deep into the dynamics of a family. “Either this girl loses her sister, I think, or she’s going to lose herself”. Picoult, writes this book from the point of view of everyone, from Anna, to Julia and Campbell, to Jesse, with each of these chapters switches changes fonts of the story (which can get kind of annoying). Eight days is how long this novel takes, eight days to change a lie, destroy another, a story that is not to take likely. Anna would do anything for Kate, and Kate for Anna (if she was able to), as each of them are willing to die for the other, with an ending that will tear your heart out, nothing will make you want to lie in a pool of your own tears than this heart wrenching story.