RULE 1: STOP GETTING IRRITATED BY AND ANGRY AT EVERYTHING.
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"Maliah, Jodi Picoult again?"
"Did you, like, buy every book she wrote?"
No, I didn't but Jodi Picoult is now officially my favourite author. If you've read a book written by Jodi Picoult before, it's plain to see why. She's bloody talented and good at writing! The only con to reading them is that I start to lose confidence in my own writing too. My writing is totally immature compared to Jodi Picoult's.
"When the warden finished, he faced Shay. 'Inmate Bourne, do you have any final words?'
Shay squinted, until he found me in the front row. He kept his eyes on me for a long moment, and then drifted toward Father Michael. But then he turned to the side of the tent where the witnesses for the victim were gathered, and he smiled at June Nealon. 'I forgive you', he said.
Immediately afterward, a curtain was drawn. It reached only to the floor of the gallows, and it was a translucent white. I didn't know if the warden had intended for us to see what was happening behind it, but we could, in macabre silhouette: the hood being placed over Shay's head, the noose being tightened against his neck, the two officers who'd secured him stepping backward.
'Good-bye', I whispered.
Somewhere, a door slammed, and suddenly the trap was open and the body plummeted, one quick firecracker snap as the weight caught at the end of the rope. Shay slowly turned counterclock-wise with the unlikely grace of a ballerina, an October leaf, a snowflake falling.
I felt Father Michael's hand on mine, conveying what there were not words to say. 'It's over', he whispered.
I don't know what made me turn toward June Nealon, but I did. The woman sat with her back straight as a redwood, her hands folded so tightly in her lap that I could see the half-moons her own nails were cutting in her own skin. Her eyes were tightly squeezed shut.
After all this, she hadn't even watched him die."
- An extract from Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
(2008)
I have recently completed the book, Change of Heart. I had actually been reluctant to buy the book; the summary didn't catch my attention. Although after reading the discussion questions at the back, I thought maybe I'd give the book a try. I'm glad I did.
June Nealon has suffered more than anybody had. She has not only gone through the loss of a loved one but three. After losing her first husband in a car accident, June marries the town's beloved policeman, Kurt Nealon, and together they bring up her daughter, Elizabeth, from her first marriage. June, pregnant with her second child, Claire, comes home one day only to find out that their carpenter Shay Bourne had shot both Kurt and Elizabeth to death. Shay is hated by the nation for taking away the lives of both a beloved policeman and an innocent little girl and is sentenced to death. 11 years later, Shay is still alive due to his many appeals to postpone his death sentence. June is about to experience the loss of a forth loved one when Claire is dying of heart failure. Shay gets to know about Claire's predicament and decides to donate his heart to Calire after his death. But June is reluctant. How could she give her daughter the heart of a muderer?
Warning: there will be heavy mention of religion. Christianity, to be specific. I know, I didn't expect it too. I'd give the book a 4.5/5. I'm looking forward to reading Jodi Picoult's next novel.
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BIRTHDAY COUNTDOWN: 3W 1D (22D)
