Spark Of Light by Jodi Picoult – 352 pages
ARC courtesy of Ballantine Books in exchange for an honest review.
Book Blurb:
The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.
After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.
But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.
My Review: 4 stars
Spark of Light brings up so many important and controversial issues. It’s sure to be a book club hit. Since I read The Pact in 1998, one of Picoult’s earliest books, I became a huge fan. Many of you know that for a while however, I was frustrated; I felt the books were becoming too formulaic for me. Thankfully, that was a quick spell and she got right back on track. Her last book, Small Great Things is now one of my absolute favorites from her large pool of work.
As has become her trademark, Picoult tackles subjects that are often taboo, will incite readers, cause either disagreement or overwhelming support. So having the reproduction clinic as the setting, and in some ways as its own character, is certain to bring on debate What’s beautiful about this, is that hopefully, this kind of book can spark (no pun intended) civil and calm conversations about both sides of the issue.
In this book, the writing is strong and the characters were well drawn. Her use of going backwards in time was a welcome surprise. At times it worked well, but often led to too much repetition. I do appreciate her trying something different though. The many characters at this reproduction center were each there for different reasons. Not only abortion. Amen for having characters on either side of the coin to offer opposing points of view. The laws in Mississippi regarding abortion were brought to light especially those that protect the fetus, rather than the mother.
Finally, I learned a lot in this book as far as perspective and rash judgment calls. I also thought the running theme of father and daughter relationships was a good one.
Quotes I liked:
This was indeed some crazy world, where the waiting period to get an abortion was longer than the waiting period to get a gun.”
-“We are all drowning slowly in the tide of our opinions, oblivious that we are taking on water every time we open our mouths.”
-“You don’t look at another person’s plate to see if they have more than you. You look to see if they have enough.”
-“Laws are black and white;
lives of women are shades of gray.”
-“It stood to reason that both life and death began with a spark of light.”
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