“There wasn’t a moral difference between the embryo you used to be and the person you were today. So the unborn were smaller than toddlers – did that mean adults deserved more human rights than children?”
Not only is the delicate topic is going to be hard to write about, but the fact that Picoult has been a favorite ever since My Sister’s Keeper is going to make it harder for me to just express my thoughts on how much I admire her writing. Absolutely enjoy her bold and honest style of writing. She puts across the hard-hitting truths with such ease that you don’t realize when it hits you and you are left with those thoughts floating around in your head. Her writing gives you all the feels and hits just the right notes, which has the power to make you take a peak inside your head and think on these sensitive topics she tackles with such honesty.
There are different ways to approach this story, you are either pro-life or you’re not. Or you’re stuck in between these choices. Personally not having deep knowledge on women’s rights on abortions in the U.S., I am going to stick to what I know and what has sunk in so deep down now, through the book.
It’s already been six hours since this man walked into The Centre and started an open fire. People are dead, shot, injured and many of them are just petrified with what they have just witnessed, still anticipating if they will get out alive. Some women had come to The Center (a women’s reproductive health clinic) for a simple abortion procedure; instead they are faced with a gun pointing to their head, this is definitely not how they imagined their day would pan out.
“This was indeed some crazy world, where the waiting period to get an abortion was longer than waiting period to get a gun”
Everyone had his or her own reasons to be at the clinic on that particular day. Hugh’s worst nightmare comes true, when he arrives at the center to negotiate with the shooter, only to find out that his teenage daughter is one of the hostages he’d have to save.
Picoult puts across both sides of debate so intricately and effortlessly, without pushing you to pick a side. She explores the theme from all points of view; the repercussions of going through the many methods of aborting at different stages. The meticulously described practice is gut wrenching; giving me the occasional chills. Giving us the different circumstances of these women taking the decisions they are taking.
The story is gripping from the beginning, starting with the day ending and flipping the pages, hour-by-hour to how everyone got to The Centre in the first place. Picoult’s writing has always had a way of grasping me in completely; leaving you in shock with its climaxes; and this novel did just that.
“It seemed to Wren that having a mother had a lot less to do with a few sweaty hours of labor and delivery and a lot more to do with whose face you always looked for in a crowd.”