SlowReader's Kingdom

Change of Heart has to be my least favorite book by Jodi Picoult. As always she picked an interesting topic that opens to so many discussions but this time, in my opinion, she messed up badly.

In this book a convicted murderer is sentenced to death. As a last wish he wants to donate his heart to a young girl who is suffering from a heart disease. This girl happens to be the sister and daughter of the girl and man he killed. To be able to do so he can’t be given the deadly injection but must be hanged instead. Add to that some religion and you have the perfect controversial story that I love to read about in Picoult’s books. Unfortunately, I got angry with how the story was portrayed very quickly. Picoult portrayed the murderer as the victim. From the very beginning every situation ended with him being the poor victim. Most of the book we do not even hear about the young girl and the mother who were the actual victims. Picoult even states it at one point, how sick it is that we always know the names of the murderers, series killers, and rapists, but hardly ever remember the names of the victims. But at the same time she does exactly the same thing. She focuses on the murderer. Additionally I got so frustrated with the lawyer and the priest in this book. They did not detest or condemn what he did. They helped him like he was a friend in an awful situation. Three-quarter of the book their behavior made no sense at all.

I usually enjoy Picoult’s books very much but Change of Heart was a disappointment.