A Spark of Light: A Novel

Anyone who has ever read a Jodi Picoult book knows that she writes about controversial subjects. This one is no different. I was prolife before reading this book and I am still prolife after reading the book. I knew it was a story about a hostage situation at a Center where not only abortions are performed but women can go for gynecological care. I hated the reverse writing style. It was confusing and disjointed. The events all take place over the course of a day, beginning at the end. It took me about 1/2 way to finally "get it". I don't want to give away each character and their connection to the hostage situation. I did like the background of each character and how they ended up at the Center. They were not all there how I expected. But I did think they were all the stereotypical people (caricatures) you would expect, except for Olive, a 68-year-old lesbian going to the Center for routine care.

This was a tough subject. IS a tough subject. But the author did a good job of presenting all the sides and galvanizing arguments. I listened to this one, and sometimes had difficulty making transitions from one female character to another. The other degree of difficulty was the narrator did not announce the timestamp on the chapter titles - which was confusing, as the timeline jumped around. At one point a character was dead. But in a later chapter, which it turns out was earlier in the timeline, she was alive. This was done to delve into the backstory of each person who came into the clinic that day. This book isn’t all that old, but now seems eons ago, given the state of politics now. And not to the betterment of women’s health.

I really like Jodi’s books, but this one was hard to follow. A lot of moving around to different character’s experiences and the time sequences were a lot to follow.

I’ve read a lot of Jodi Picoult books, one of the things that is stand out to me is the level of research done by the author. This book being centered around the topic of abortion is really well written. It’s very clever in the way it is written as it’s telling the story backwards, something that must have been extremely challenging to do. It sends you as a reader in different directions and each chapter you have to remind yourself that the things you’ve just read haven’t happened yet. I’m not sure I feel that I’ve had the satisfaction of knowing what happens in each of the characters lives which is my only criticism and why I’ve given this a 7, but it is refreshing and a lot of work has clearly gone into writing this one. Thank you Jodi, will continue to read your books.

This book took me a long time to read, and I am not sure why. Maybe with the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe vs Wade it was too hard for me to grasp that our choices are being made by the government and not by our own selves. I liked both perspectives of the book and felt it was very well researched, but it wasn't a story I was eager to pick up each day.