A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

I was thrilled to receive a copy of "A Spark of Light" By Jodi Picoult from Net Galley and Ballentine Books Publishing in return for an honest review.  I have been hit or miss with Jodi Picoult for years.  When she is good she is great (see: The Storyteller, Small Great Things) when she is off she is really off (see: Tenth Circle, Lone Wolf).  This novel set right in the middle with me.

Trigger warning before you pick this up.  This book dives VERY deeply into the subject of abortion.  All sides of abortion, pro-life - pro-choice - providers, protestors, medical abortions, surgical abortions, fathers, mothers the whole gamut.  Picoult does a wonderful job of balancing the polarizing sides of this issue, the good the bad and the ugly of why and how abortion is and will remain a hot button in this country.

I gave the book a three-star rating even though I wanted so badly to rate hit higher because I feel like this is a very important story to tell and Jodi Picoult is a perfect voice to tell it.  But the rating stands for two main reasons:

1. The format.  The chronology of events goes backward starting with the consequences of what happens to these characters and working its way back hour by hour until the very beginning.  (There is an epilogue to tie up some loose ends but...it still felt unsatisfying).  I understand why she did it as there is a twist or two in the late chapters that are facilitated by the flashback style of storytelling but I'm fairly certain those reveals could have come into the plotline in a different way.

2. Character count.  There was a LOT going on - many different characters to keep track of within each hour block of time and, if you aren't reading this book in a few sittings, it can get confusing to keep track of which backstory belongs to which character.  Again, I know why the author did it this way and I'm glad that each of the characters existed in this novel because they all had an important to story to tell but, especially with the timeline in reverse and the fact that there was nothing but an extra line break to indicate the jump to a different character, it became pretty disorienting pretty fast.

I'm half tempted to go back and read this book in chronological order and see if it helps.  Maybe one of you can do it and get back to me on how the experience of this story differs between mine and yours.