147 of 158 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Jodi's finest..., March 4, 2008
I wanted to love this book. I really, really did. After hearing Jodi speak at the National Book Conference last September, and from being a fan for many years, I'd been waiting anxiously for March 4th to come around, and so was beyond thrilled last month when my boss at the bookstore where I worked parttime (not a Jodi fan herself) snuck an ARC in my mailbox before anyone else saw it.
If you know and love Jodi's books, you know that they follow a formula, and you're ok with that. They all center around a legal/ethical/social/medical issue that's come to a head; typically have at least one sassy yet insecure single female in an investigative/advisory role (who frequently finds love by the end of the story), and all end with a twist. This twist leaves the reader in one of any number of states - lost in thought, changed on a certain issue, outraged at society, or drowning in a pool of tears. (Almost literally on that last one - in fact, when My Sister's Keeper came out in bookstores, one promotion included a pack of kleenex with every sale; also, Jodi told the story at the NBF about how her daughter, upon finishing the book, stormed upstairs, slammed her bedroom door, and would not speak to her for the rest of the day). For Jodi's fans, this formula works, though reading a number in a row (as I did when I first discovered her 6 years ago) can become tiresome (I took a long break after that, and in fact skipped the two books between My Sister's Keeper and Nineteen Minutes - 2 of my three favorites, along w/ Plain Truth).
So having a background in bioethics, and being fascinated by criminology, I eagerly awaited this book and had the high hopes that I'd count it among my favorites. But this book, though gripping, made me roll my eyes WAY too often. Being a fan of Jodi's means that, in exchange for finding that rare book that you cannot put down, you also often have to suspend a bit of disbelief and roll along with some fairly unbelievable plot devices. Trust me, I'm willing to do that. But imbuing a character with supernatural abilities? Really? I just don't think this 'hook' was necessary to keep a reader's attention on a story dealing with as loaded and controversial a topic as the death penalty.
Additionally, there was WAY too little focus on the background of the victim's family and the events leading up to the murders for which the main character, Shayne, was sentenced to death. The book made me feel very little sympathy for the woman whose daughter and husband were murdered, simply because her character was hardly fleshed out. Way too much focus was put on characters that, though entertaining and interesting, could easily have retreated to the background while still being worthwhile to include - particularly Maggie Bloom and the priest.
I was also pretty annoyed that The Twist of the book seems to impact everyone besides Mrs. Nealon. Far be it from me to dance around the issue of whether or not to include a spoiler here - as a Jodi fan, I definitely know better. Suffice it to say - once you know what the twist is, especially if you've ever had a child you've loved, you may also think it was just too 'easy' that her reaction seemed like such an afterthought.
That all being said, there were some positives. As a bookseller, I've gotten to a point where, if I see one more book called or 'the Mona Lisa Lexicon' or 'the Codex Conspiracy' or 'the Templar Legacy' (wait, I think that's a real one) or any other book trying to steal the thunder of the DaVinci code in all its trite glory, I will just cry. So when this book seemed to head in that territory, I very nearly stopped reading. But in the end, Jodi gave that genre a nice little ironic kick in the butt, and for that it earned 2 stars alone. The 3rd star is because, somehow, at the end of any Jodi novel, no matter how blah, I still have goosebumps for a good 20 minutes after putting it down.
See my review of Nineteen Minutes to know that I bow to Jodi at her best, but unfortunately, this was just not it. Better than Salem Falls, but no Plain Truth or My Sister's Keeper. In any case, keep an open mind and enjoy! I'm anxious to hear what others think...
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86 of 95 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Picoult tackles the death penalty and the lost books of the New Testament in her latest offering, March 4, 2008
Jodi Picoult's fifteenth novel is set around an angel-like death row inmate with a profound desire to donate his heart to the sister of his victim. The challenge? Lethal injection would render the organ useless. The inmate starts performing miracles from prison (turning water into wine, reviving a dead pet, healing terminal illness) and media quickly labels him the next Messiah. Admirers start congregating outside the prison campus. A national dialog opens, and the mother of a dying child must ask herself if she can put away her hatred to accept the donated heart of her deceased child's killer.
Change of Heart, like other Jodi Picoult novels, is told in brief chapters from over a dozen points of view. She tackles a new moral dilemma - the death penalty - complete with a true crime shock factor, courtroom drama, tension-filled romance, and an incredible twist at the end. Picoult has done her research and also introduces the Gnostic texts - namely the Gospel of Thomas, disregarded as the Church as heresy when it was discovered and published in 1975 - as a key plot element. The work comprises 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. Picoult artfully portrays her death row inmate, Shay Bourne, as a man eerily similar to that described in the Gospel of Thomas.
Picoult succeeds at creating a general outline of Shay Bourne as a religious figure via a number of inventive modern-day twists on New Testament writings. Once she created the setting of a religious novel, however, she used miracles to escape plot holes willy nilly. How does the heart of a 30 year-old man possibly match that of a teen girl? Oh, it's a miracle. The same priest who convicted Shay as a jury member is assigned as his spiritual advisor? Miraculous coincidence. Let's not even mention that the entire plot twist which makes our convicted murder a martyr is (a) exploitative of child abuse as a hot button issue and (b) flimsily based upon the defendant just "not mentioning" most of the story surrounding the murder of his victims during his first trial.
In other novels, the author has balanced the stronger elements of her formula against the weaker ones. My Sister's Keeper had a touching, tension-filled romance that helped carry the book, for example. In Change of Heart, the romance is weakly developed, one-dimensional, and requires a stereotypical over-stressed, weight-watching, desperate female character. The courtroom drama is for pure literary effect - fans of legal thrillers will instantly notice that lawyers seem not to have consulted their clients at all before throwing them on the stand and that arguments are occasionally based on legally irrelevant but passion-fueled aspects of the moral dilemma at hand.
So how can I give this book four stars? Easy. If you picked up a Jodi Picoult novel, you know what elements to expect. You've accepted that you'll have to suspend belief during the legal proceedings. In Change of Heart, she succeeds with some great flourishes re-casting the son of God in the modern day. She's provides a powerful look inside the death penalty which is sure to inspire valuable dialog among readers. I learned a thing or two about religious texts, inspiring me to do some additional research on my own after finishing the book. I'm giving my copy of the book to a friend who might enjoy it.
In a recent interview, Jodi Picoult stated that she is at work at a new novel about a wrongful birth suit in which a mother sues her obstetrician for not disclosing that her child would be severely impaired.
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