My Sister's Keeper...Jodi Picault

*may contain spoilers so be warned*

I really liked the themes this book brought out. The nature of death and how it is unpredictable. I was really surpised by the ending of the book, all the while I thought that Kate would die but just when the writer prepares you for getting to know Anna more, she has to take her away. At first, the Fitzgeralds were told to expect the death at any time and but then when Anna was born and Kate had a regular supply of blood from Anna, Sara focused on planning to keep Kate alive. For her it was always a matter of "if we get the meds in time, then Kate can be kep alive for longer" or "if we prevent her from doing this, then we can prolong her life" and Sara never thought that there are some things that you can never prevent no matter what. Sara worked so hard to prepare for Kate's death: the photographs, keeping every memory of Kate alive, dreading the life to follow if Kate died, but death defeats any plan or preparation. We can never know when death will strike....Sara as a parent never expected she'd have to prepare for the death of her child and in another level, she was so preoccupied with Kate that she never thought that she should make bonds with the other members of her family. It need not have been Anna in the end, it could have been Jesse too. Jesse is a troubled kid and Sara didn't have time or the energy to get to know him well (before Anna's death that is).

The author's decision to kill Anna is both good and bad. I think it works well in this case because it addresses the issue of how one can never plan death. Also, in terms of Anna's character, I felt it was a good move in thi case because she did not have to go through everything in this world. She was literally unwanted and she might as well remove herself from such a place. Even if Anna had lived, she would have been constantly under the pressure of having to donate her organs or her blood for Kate. She'd have still been ignored by her parents. But in death, she is remembered more. Her death is literally like a blow to the readers, it came when we least expected it, just like an accident.
On the other hand, the author did not give Anna an opportunity to excercise her rights. We don't even know if she would have stuck to her word and not donated the kidney to Kate. We dont' know how her family would have responded to her after the trail, if they would have noticed her more or not. In some ways, by killing Anna its like the author herself is deciding what to do with her: Anna is trying to fight against a force that "designed" her and made her do things she had no choice over. The author does just that: by giving Anna a voice and letting her get to know the readers, and then taking her life a way so cruelly, the author is doing the very thing that Anna is fighing against.

I liked the technique of having Kate's voice in only one chapter, the last chapter. I think this is a very powerful move becase all the while we wonder who is Kate, what is her mind like..and when we just hear about other people talking about her, it is as if she is dead to us. However, when we hear her in the last chapter, we know she is alive. We only hear Kate when Anna is dead. I think this means that they cannot co-exist. In the real of the home, Kate rules but in the book, Anna rules...until her death, when Kate rules again.