I'm not sure it even makes sense to review a book that has 223 customer review on Amazon.com. After reading a few of them I began to think that I wouldn't have picked this book if I had read the reviews first. I hope my review doesn't have that affect on anyone.
Jodi Picoult, in her recent novel "Change of Heart", apparently wants to comment on the social dilemmas of the death penalty since she has the "murderer" protagonist being sentenced to death in New Hampshire which has not (according to the book) had an execution in 58 years. But then she adds into the plot the desire of the condemned man to donate his heart to the murder victim's younger sister who will die soon if she doesn't get a new heart. Thus, Picoult sets us up in a lose lose situation. We develop sympathy for both Shay Bourne, the convicted murderer, and Clair, the girl who needs a heart. We can't have both of the characters live.
Instead of a defense or condemnation of the death penalty or even a balance argurment for and against the death penalty, we end up having to deal with the ethics of organ donation. Picoult tells the story in the first person bouncing around between main characters that made me feel I was really "in their heads" and seeing the situation from their standpoint. Very effective.
Finally, there is the Christ imagery woven into the story. I could almost hear my freshman English professor saying, "What character is the Christ character and which situations parralel Christ's life and surroundings." This imagery certainly woulldn't have been necessary but it adds another dimension and doesn't take anything away.
I'm ready to read another Jodi Picoult book.
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