If you’re a fan of Jodi Picoult then she is doing a tour of the UK to promote the release of Small Great Things. You can find out more about her tour here.
My 4.5* review:
I used to be a huge Jodi Picoult fan and would read everything that she wrote. I remember desperately trying to get hold of her older books many years ago as I just had to read them. I can’t remember why but that changed and I stopped reading her books a good few years ago now.
I heard a lot of positive things about The Storyteller and downloaded it onto my kindle but never quite got round to reading it. But when I started to hear murmurs about Small Great Things I knew that it was a book that I wanted to read. Picoult and the publishers did a very brave thing, they asked reviewers if they wanted to read a book without prejudice. The readers were not told who the author was, and everything that I heard was positive.
And so I started to read Small Great Things. Firstly there is nothing small about this book, at just over 500 pages it is a long read. The length of the book means that the character development is very good, we spend a good amount of time with the main characters and get to know them well as the story develops. The downside is that it takes a long time to read (for me anyway) and at times I would think about all the other books I want to be reading. But saying that I never felt that the story was dragging. I do feel that the book could easily have been shorter and that this wouldn’t have had a huge impact on the story, but I feel that the book benefited from being longer than average.
Picoult is good at getting the reader to think and Small Great Things is no exception. I did feel that a lot of the situations discussed were more related to certain areas, or states, of America more than the UK. Of course maybe it is possible that I am being naive but the UK doesn’t have the slavery history that the US does and the ingrained racism. Having said that since the Brexit hate crime has increased dramatically in the UK, something that has shocked and saddened me. Maybe Small Great Things should be given to everyone to read, and to make them think.
While some of Small Great Things was a little bit predictable and the end was certainly tied up nicely, maybe a little too nicely, but it is still a very powerful book. The writing is excellent and the research that Picoult clearly put into the book is impressive. The way that she talked about nursing and labour and delivery was spot on and if I hadn’t known better I would have thought that the author had training in that area. I would be interested to know how minorities feel about Small Great Things and the fact that it was written by a white woman.
Yet another accomplished and well researched book from Picoult. Has this book converted me back to reading Picoult’s books? Well yes, it most definitely has.
I received a copy of Small Great Things via Netgalley in return for an honest review.
Blurb:
When a newborn baby dies after a routine hospital procedure, there is no doubt about who will be held responsible: the nurse who had been banned from looking after him by his father.
What the nurse, her lawyer and the father of the child cannot know is how this death will irrevocably change all of their lives, in ways both expected and not.
Small Great Things is about prejudice and power; it is about that which divides and unites us. It is about opening your eyes.
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult will be released on 22nd November 2016 and is available to pre-order from Amazon UK and Amazon US.
If only I could read faster 