202. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

BOOK REVIEW: A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult (courtesy of Times Reads)

Abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks. This medical procedure has been around for decades and decades. Primitive methods have been recorded in papyrus scripts and etched on walls. But is abortion the right or the wrong decision? Is it lawfully supposed to be legal or cordoned off with laws?

One of my favorite authors of all time, Jodi Picoult returns with a powerful and provocative new novel about ordinary lives that intersect during a heart-stopping crisis. This piece of fiction with settings from real life will set you on a heart-touching and mind-reeling journey through the world of abortion and its many situations.

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center, a women's reproductive health services clinic (otherwise known as an abortion factory to pro-life activists). Its staff offer care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then a desperate and distraught gunman, Hugh Goddard, bursts in and opens fire, taking hostages.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. To his horror, he learns that his 15-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her adolescent life with a cast of unforgettable characters trapped alongside her in the clinic, including the disturbed gunman himself.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, the story traces what brought each of the very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent?

This wonderful book will inspire debate, conversation and hopefully understanding. With a box of tissues by my side, I actually had to restrain myself from sobbing at a few touching parts. The internal debate of an expecting mother when she wants to abort due to unavoidable circumstances, that's real heart pain. 

To me, this book has given a much-needed voice to women out there who want to make a choice that others look at as simply horrible. Not encouraging abortions, but giving a clear picture of what it actually means, this is one of the few meaningful reads I have read in this year. I give it my 100% thumbs up and recommend it to all those who want a read that touches both mind and soul.