Change of Heart ~ Jodi Picoult

I've come to the conclusion that for want of spoilers (and given that I just learned how to do so) I will put the body of most of these book entries behind a cut tag.  I've retconned all of the entries I've done on this so far this year so hopefully you can choose whether to be spoiled or not.

Jodi Picoult is almost definitely my favourite author.  When we started the Creative Writing course (both times) you had to introduce yourself  to the person sitting next to you then they introduced you to the group.  Both in September and then when we restarted in January one of the questions was "what is your favourite story and why".  And in September I really didn't know, kinda panicked and just went "Chronicles of Narnia" which I do love.  But then afterwards sat there for ages going "argh my favourite story is Pride and Prejudice why didn't I say that?!"  So this time round I remembered

One of the other questions which was asked in September was "Who is your favourite author and why."  And that question I knew the answer to easily.  My favourite author is Jodi Picoult.

On Thursday after my contemporary knitting class, I spent maybe 20 minutes chatting to a friend who was in the coffee shop.  We were talking about books and reading and I was telling him about my goal to buy less new books and how i'd decided not to buy any new books until I'd read certain ones I already had.  Or March.  Or both.  Then I went to get some food shopping and saw Change of Heart had been released in paperback and was £3.50.  Yeah, a brand new book by my favourite author for basically half price, knowing you won't find it cheaper if you try?  Straight into the basket with the book and straight out the window with that goal.

I read this through in less than 24 hours.  I started in Friday night before bed, intending to read till about page 50 (I like to read at least that far if I can when starting a book) then go to bed.  I was a little past page 200 when I admitted I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and called it a night.  And picking it up again was one of the first things I did Saturday morning.

What I really like about Jodi Picoult books is how they take a gritty subject and make it real, make you care about the characters.  And how they make you think.  With Change of Heart that's definitely true.  Organ Transplants, the death penalty, religion and Gnostic gospels all combine with exactly the right pace and realistic admirable characters to produce a fantastic story.

I particularly liked the cameo return of Ian Fletcher from Keeping Faith (and an even briefer return of Mariah and Faith from the same book).  It was nice to see how they've "moved on" however briefly it was.  And once again I totally failed to spot the twist when it came (or even that it was coming).  The mini twist on the last page was also good.

Highly recommended.