Caught in the Middlereview by Maryom
Anna is no ordinary child. She was conceived as a designer baby to provide cord tissue that would save the life of her sister Kate, terminally diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia. Over the years she has given blood and bone marrow, now aged 13 she is being asked to donate a kidney and Anna feels its time to take a stand against her parents, to take legal action against them for the rights to her own body.
Thought provoking novel raising questions about the morality of 'designer babies' a child conceived merely for the use of its spare parts - but at the same time an immensely readable, moving story of one family's struggle to come to terms with having a terminally ill child. Anna is shown as a caring, loving teenager, caught between the pain and suffering of her sister and the trauma that she must undergo, again, to help. I didn't feel the lawyer's romantic sub-plot was really needed - and perhaps detracted from the main story-line but the only bit I wasn't happy with was the ending which just seemed too convenient and a bit of an easy way out of the dilemma.
I actually read My sister's Keeper soon after Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, a novel with similar themes in which children are replicated solely for use as bodyparts donors and I think it influenced my reading of and response to My Sister's Keeper, making it seem, in comparison, lighter weight.
Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Hodder
Genre - adult,
Buy My Sister's Keeper
from Amazon
