My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Synopsis: My Sister's Keeper is a story about a girl who is diagnosed with APL, a rare form of leukaemia, at a young age. Her parents are willing to do anything to save her, to the point where they create a 'spare parts child', first to donate cord blood at birth, then blood and bone marrow.
This is where things are complicated, when Kate is diagnosed with end-stage renal disease (kidney failure). Her parents want Anna, the 'spare parts child' to donate a kidney, and Anna, who apparently has had enough of being her sister's lifesaver, decides to file a lawsuit, suing her parents to the rights of her own body.

Suitable for: Anyone who has Time for a Book that Drags on and is Filled with Flimsy Junk
Age Group: Teens and Adults (or older children capable of handling a more mature topic)
Star Rating: 2/10

Verdict: Put very bluntly, My Sister's Keeper is a book with a good storyline which is ultimately wasted by the quality of the writing. Picoult drops metaphors in every chapter which were clearly intended to be deep and meaningful. Which I, as a normal person, has no brain capacity to absorb (a lot of junk about a house being bulldozed and rebuilt-literally-and then the narrator, in this case the mother, ends by saying 'but you know what? They rebuilt.) I mean come on. It is being over-dramatised far, far, far too much and it ends up becoming a load of cheesy junk. How does a house being rebuilt have any relationship to a kid with leukaemia?
Enough of that. Apart from too many failed metaphors supposedly containing the Meaning of Life, the characters personalities are completely cliche; there's the Teenager who Rebels, the Kid with her Own Opinions, and the Saint. Oh please. Added to that heap of failure there is also an amazingly stupid and completely irrelevant sub-plot about Anna ('spare parts child')'s lawyer, and the counsellor/social worker being in love. This is meant to be a book which questions ethics and morals and the basis of human society and the legal system, not a love story. Even Twilight would be a better choice than this if I wanted to read a love story (and considering how much I dislike Twilight, that's saying something).
Spoilers Below
The ending was an epic fail. It was too predictable, and far too unrealistic. Leukaemia Kid is miraculously cured. Dad gets over Spare Parts's death. Mum mourns but gets over it. Teenager who Rebels becomes good.
I personally know a cancer survivor, and someone who died from cancer. And either way, that's not the way it works.

The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard

The Deep End of the Ocean is the story of a three-year old boy, Ben, who is kidnapped. His mother, Beth, wanders then in a self-centered haze. Nine years later, however, Ben is found again-this time as Sam Taylor, mowing Beth's lawn.
The real problem for me with this book is that some parts of the first part drag on for far too long. We already know about Beth's main characteristics and flaws as they are demonstrated in the first few chapters. Mitchard goes on too much about this and it can get fairly boring in parts. However, in the second part of the book, you really start to see a dysfunctional family breaking down slowly, and it is quite interesting to see the different reactions characters have to this (e.g. the older child becomes 'bad' i.e. rebels, the mother becomes increasingly self-absorbed, and the father becomes a workaholic).
However, a fair warning would be that this book contains, from the start, no happiness. Happiness does not exist in Beth's world. It is a story of how a family can survive but die in spirit. The story is left unfinished, with a trailing end, and we never quite know what will happen next.
This book left me with many questions. How can we define a 'good mother'? What would a family struck by tragedy do? And finally, was Ben (Sam Taylor) ultimately better off being raised by his kidnappers? It leaves a lot of room for thought.

Suitable for: Parents and Grandparents

Age Group: Adults

Star Rating: 8/10