#BookReview The Spark Of Light By Jodi Picoult

Thank You very much to the publisher –  Hodder & Stoughton and The Pigeonhole for the review copy.
ISBN13: 9781444788129
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release date: 30 10 2018
Price*: Kindle £9.99 (GBP)/  Hardback £6.99 (GBP)
Kindle $N/A (USD)/ Hardback $17.39 (USD)
Pages: ~ 400
My rating: 9/10
You can get this book here:
Amazon UK
Book Depository
What I learned from this book: What runs through people’s minds when it comes to abortions.

Description of the book: The Center for women’s reproductive health offers a last chance at hope – but nobody ends up there by choice. Its very existence is controversial, and to the demonstrators who barricade the building every day, the service it offers is no different from legalised murder. Now life and death decisions are being made horrifyingly real: a lone protester with a gun has taken the staff, patients and visitors hostage.

Starting at the tensest moment in the negotiations for their release, A Spark of Light unravels backwards, revealing hour by urgent hour what brought each of these people – the gunman, the negotiator, the doctors, nurses and women who have come to them for treatment – to this point. And certainties unwind as truths and secrets are peeled away, revealing the complexity of balancing the right to life with the right to choose.

How this book made me feel: I heard legends about this author and I do have few of her books on my TBR, so when people from The Pigeonhole offered to give it a try, I had to pick this book. For those who don’t know what The Pigeonhole is, it is a book reading app/website, where you can read books in bite-size staves, and share your thoughts with other people reading the same book, just like a book club. (I am not asked to promote this page and I don’t get anything from The Pigeonhole, I just think it is a good website.) Back to the review 🙂

Wow, this book does have a good punch to throw, and I absolutely loved it. The main topic discussed in this book – abortions. This book tells multiple stories from multiple perspectives. One of few abortion clinics in Mississippi has a man entering the clinic, who starts shooting, remaining alive are being kept as hostages. Jodi tells the stories of everybody inside, plus few extra characters, who are very related to the story itself.

This book has a very wide and diverse variety of characters, and they all have an amazing story to tell. I really liked all the characters, I think they were very well developed and incredibly gripping. I thoroughly enjoyed their stories and all the emotions which they brought to this book. I really liked, that the characters kept travelling back to when they were little, that allowed me to connect with the characters even more, and I loved to see what were their values in life, or how life shaped them to be the people they were now.

The narrative was incredibly indulging, and I always wanted to find out, what is going to happen next. The book is written backwards, and even though it was a unique experience and it made perfect sense while reading, I am not sure I really liked this type of writing. I did find it confusing sometimes because there were quite a lot of characters, and their stories kind of mixed up for me sometimes. There were plenty of important topics discussed in this novel, such as single parenthood, father’s love for their daughters, abortions, religion, teenage pregnancies, rapes and many more. One thing for sure, the research was done for this book was impeccable. You can feel the real stories breathing through the experiences of the characters, and it really got me thinking. I wasn’t expecting any twists in this story to be honest, but I can promise you, this book brings some very unexpected turns and surprises. 🙂

Jodi’s writing style is absolutely incredible, she delivered such a sensitive topic while stating facts and points of view but not being judgmental. She states pro-choice point of view as well as pro-life and allows the reader to make a decision. The chapters were quite long, but they were divided into small parts, so it did not drag for me at all, and it was quite a page-turner. I really liked how the book ended, I think it rounded up the story very nicely. So, to conclude, this book is very powerful and deep, but at the same time and incredibly interesting read. It does require an open mind and ability to look at the things from different angles. I do think this book is a brilliant read, with amazingly crafted characters and very absorbing plot, and I do strongly recommend to read it.

Thank you for your time! 😉

About the Author: Jodi Picoult is the author of twenty-four novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Small Great Things, Leaving Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Between the Lines, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister’s Keeper. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.

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*-the price was taken from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com on the current date. The price might change at the time of your purchase. The links used in this post for book purchases are affiliates.