Handle with Care Book

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.