Review: Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

Such an important and timely story, and I'm so glad an author with Picoult's clout chose to tell it.

This tells the story of the people working at a women's health clinic when they're attacked by a "pro-lifer" wanting to avenge his daughter who had an abortion. (As the story progresses, you realize his daughter didn't even have an abortion there, but that's what he thinks when he shows up and starts shooting.)

I thought Picoult did a good job of showing what everyone was going through - the doctors, nurses, office staff, as well as the patients, and the police officers outside. I also realize that she was making an effort to show all side of the story and claim that the pro-lifers aren't really evil. That's nice and all, but it's a little difficult to convince me there's any good in anyone who feels women shouldn't be allowed to control what happens to their own body. But respect to the author for making that extra effort to try and claim they don't really want to control women.

Anyway, I was glad to see that the author was showing the necessity of abortion clinics and how they work to help women. These people are putting their lives at risk every day so that someone else can live the life they want. She went into the different reasons why people - the doctors and patients - found themselves in these situations. These women aren't there because they're selfish, they're doing what they think is best at this point in their lives.

I didn't love the way in which the story was written, going back an hour with each chapter. It made the story feel a bit repetitive because we already know what's happened to a lot of the people. I know the purpose is to reveal more about each character, but it made it too easy to set the book down. Also, there's a bit of a twist in the story involving the nurse, and it's there for shock effect, and I know Picoult's books tend to have something like that in them. But I didn't like it, it felt very unnecessary and a little confusing. There's an even bigger twist involving some of the other characters. That part, I thought was interesting. In the end though, what you realize is there are so many people living lives they didn't want because of accidental or unplanned pregnancies. They did what they felt they should and brought the unplanned child into the world, and in doing so, had to give up their own dreams and plans. Even if their lives turned out okay, it wasn't the life they'd wanted, and years later, they find themselves in a constant state of disappointment, missing the life they gave up in order to bring a child into the world.

Overall though, a very good book providing a lot to think about.

I received a copy via NetGalley.