Book Review - A Spark of Light - Jodi Picoult

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.

I usually enjoy books by Jodi Picoult but wasn't sure how this one would pan out given the subject matter - abortion - which is so emotive.

I think Picoult has done a great job at doing her research and presenting both sides of the argument. However I really did not like the way the book was written in a reverse time frame which was quite confusing at times, especially given the number of characters involved. (I don't think I could have coped with that on an audio book at all!) Also, I know that she has tried to include as much information as possible but there is one section in the book that outlines the procedures of an abortion which was very graphic.

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