Not what I expected, the timeline of the story threw me a bit, and I kept getting confused. She did a good job telling all sides of the story and she is quite good at writing about polarizing topics. I did not realized what the topic of the book was at first, not sure I would have chosen it if I knew beforehand. But it was good, up to Picoult's standard.

As a fan of her writing, I have noticed Jodi Picoult’s topics have gotten more fiery as the years have passed, and they continue to be thought-provoking.

The Center is a women’s clinic serving all their health needs. Everything changes when a man with a gun enters the building, begins shooting, and takes everyone hostage. My first questions are who is this man and why is he so distraught? I knew there would be more to his story.

Hugh McElroy is a hostage negotiator for the police. He arrives on scene and completes all the typical first steps in a grim and terrifying situation like this only to have his phone buzz with the news that his teen daughter, Wren, is one of the hostages.

Wren shares her story inside the building, while also shedding light on the other hostages, including clinic workers among others. There is Catholic Dr. Louie who believes he exercises his faith in his daily work. A nurse hero is also there. Also inside is a pro-life protestor who disguised herself as a patient that day only to find herself on the other side of the rage she herself was feeling. The characters in this novel are what make it a cut above. I felt empathy for each complex character; it was easy to with the way they were written.

The structure of the book is interesting. It goes backward through the day of the stand-off. I enjoyed it because it was different, but I had to remind myself a few times the story moves backward retracing how everyone arrives at the clinic that day.

As with all her books, it seems as if Spark of Light is meant to ignite a dialogue about an important topic to many. The storytelling is second to none, all the varied emotions are checked off, the research is firmly present, and the exploration of both sides is offered. Fans of Picoult should find much to love here.

I’m ecstatically grateful I had the opportunity to read an early copy of this book. Thank you to Random House/Ballantine. All opinions are my own.

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult is a story told by Picoult in a voice that has become totally her own. It takes place on the day a shooter has descended on an abortion clinic. People are dead; people are wounded. They all came in wounded and came together at this moment in time for a variety of reasons, just as would be at the point of any tragedy. How will it all end? Will any of them ever be whole?

There is the Roman Catholic doctor who performs abortions for his own reasons; the protestor who has entered the clinic under false pretenses to gather intel to use in the campaign against it; the young teen who has been brought by her aunt to get birth control. On the outside is the police negotiator, the father of one of the hostages.

This book is about abortions, but it is also about people and how each of them got to be who he/she is. It is a heart-rending story of lives that have taken detours. It was difficult to read, as there is so much pain. It was worth it, though. I recommend it. Enjoyed is not the correct word but it was worth my while to read A Spark of Light. Jodi Picoult is always worth the time.

I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. #netgalley #asparkoflight
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I have to say that I was very disappointed with this book. Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors, but this book was just not up to par with her other reads for me. While I found the story interesting to read, I did not like the fact that it was told in reverse. I felt that most of the tension occurred in the beginning chapter of the book and was then dissipated as the story progressed. While I realize this story only told a "day in the life" of the people held at the clinic, I really became invested in the characters and wanted to know what happened to them after the standoff was resolved.

I've come to expect a twist at the end of the novels; this book's twist took me by surprise but was rather small. I did like how Ms. Picoult presented both sides of the abortion issue though. A well written book, just not one of my favorites of hers.

Let me first begin by saying I love this author. The first book I read by her was Nineteen Minutes. It seems a good many of her topics are on sensitive issues. I wasn't sure what this book was about going into it, especially after reading her last novel "Small Great Things".

The novel is pretty much told in reverse order. (I don't want to give any spoilers). It starts with a hostage situation at a woman's clinic that provides abortions as well as various other services. The story speaks on the issue of abortion as told from the perspective of an array of characters. Picoult does an excellent job with the research and the sensitive subject matter.

Sometimes I have a hard time following along at the beginning of her novels as there are always so many voices and perspectives due to the difficult subject matter. This was easy to follow. There were several twists, all a tad bit predictable.

Overall, the book was an excellent read and one I would definitely recommend.

Title: A Spark of Light
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Five
Review:

"A Spark of Light" by Jodi Picoult

My Thoughts....

This was definitely a read that dealt with both sides of the issue of abortion that did cause it to be a somewhat hard to read however, I did find the read 'riveting, powerful and surprising.' "A Spark of Light" was about a group of people who were caught up in a hostage crisis at a health clinic in Mississippi that performs abortions. The story was quite interesting in the way it was presented in that it was told in a reverse chronological order [backwards] where the story will explore the abortion issues from both sides while presented characters who were there in the hostage situation for various reasons. Some of the reasons were from: 'to terminate or prevent pregnancy, perform procedure or assist in other ways, or protest with each character having their own story which included the gunman ....his family and the negotiator and his family. As this story will continue flashing forward to a stunning epilogue.' I did like how this author was able to give the readers 'human faces' on both sides as each character told their story .

The reader will have to keep up with what is going on because this read will have quite a few jumps from one character to the next one as this story will continue to the end.

One thing that is for sure this story will give the reader quite a bit to ponder over long after the read especially with that twist at the end. I will say this story touches on many current issues of what is going on in our world today.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an impartial review.

"A Spark of Light" by Jodi Picoult, Ballantine Books, 384 pages, Oct. 2, 2018.

In Jackson, Mississippi, there is a women's reproductive health clinic, called simply The Center.

George Goddard enters one day and begins shooting. He holds other people hostage.

Police hostage negotiator Hugh McElroy arrives. He gets a text from his daughter, Wren, 15, that she is hiding inside along with Hugh's sister, Bex.

Goddard agrees to release the injured, but is still holding hostages. Dr. Louie Ward, an ob/gyn, is among the injured. He performs abortions.

Another story runs parallel to the hostage story. A teenager is hospitalized with severe bleeding. She ordered abortion drugs from overseas. She is to be prosecuted for murder.

The characters are good, but the novel has issues. The main problem with the plot is that no matter how he tries to justify it, when McElroy finds out that his daughter and sister are hostages, he should step down. The other problem is with the book's structure. It starts at 5 p.m. and goes backwards through the day.

There is a good twist that I didn't see coming. Jodi Picoult writes novels of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. My favorites of her books are "The Pact," "My Sister's Keeper" and "Nineteen Minutes." This is her 26th book.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the Advanced Readers Copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jodi Picoult has written another powerful, emotional and thought-provoking book. This is indeed a subject that is so very controversial: abortion. It is one that sparks much outrage in people no matter what position they take. Here in this book we get both viewpoints of the characters and you can feel the anger of those opposed and the anguish and guilt of those having had an abortion or thinking of having one. The story is told in reverse order and as confusing as that sounds, it was brilliantly done. With this book and Jodi Picoult's last one, I thought they would be ones I would not be able to get through because of the subject matter. But I read them and was not disappointed. I'm always left in awe after reading her books.

No matter what position you take on the subject of abortion, A Spark of Light is a must-read and one that I very highly recommend.

I am a Jodi Picoult fan, she is one whose books I will pick up regardless of what they are about. When I was approved for this one on Netgalley, I was excited to read it. This book is centered around a very controversial topic: abortion. The story takes place during a shooting/hostage situation at an abortion clinic in Mississippi. It is told in alternating viewpoints from the different characters, each affected differently by the situation; and, we discover how they are all connected in various ways. I felt like the characters were very strong in this book, even though there are several that you will get to know while reading. I was never confused or lost while switching between characters, which is important when reading from multiple viewpoints. This would be a great book club read because it lends itself to a lot of discussion.

“A Spark of Light” by Jodi Picoult is a powerful novel about people. Put aside the law, the religion, the emotion, the practicality, the righteous indignation, and you are left with people, people in crises, people suffering, people dying – people. For fifteen-year old Wren McElroy, it was not a good day to die.

The book drops readers into the middle of the conflict at 5 PM at “The Center, a building on the corner of Juniper and Montford behind a wrought-iron gate, like an old bulldog used to guarding its territory… At one point, it had been called the Center for Women and Reproductive Health. But there were those who believed if you do not name a thing, it ceases to exist, and so its title was amputated, like a war injury. But still, it survived. First, it became the Center for Women. And then, just the Center. The last abortion clinic in Mississippi.”

The narrative progresses backward in time, beginning at 5 PM on that terrible day with descriptions that are poignant, compelling, and ever present. Picoult creates a sense of, place and time like no other. Descriptions are so real that one can see the blood, feel fear in the air, hear the click of the gun.
“Janine felt like she was watching a movie, one she was obligated to sit through even though she had never wanted to see it.”

Individual characters are introduced. How did they get here, to this moment in time, this trauma, this decision, life or death? What brought them? How will this change the future? How will each change the other? What happens now that everything is changed? How will each cope?
“Tomorrow. I mean, how do we go back to normal?” Joy shook her head. “Nothing’s normal.”

Readers know it will not well for anyone. Readers feel the pain in the pit of their stomachs tension, the grief in knowing there will not be a good outcome, and futility of wishing things could be different.
“Sometimes doing the right thing,” George said quietly, “means doing something bad.”

For these characters, things have been taken that cannot ever be replaced; irreparable things have been set into motion.
“Izzy wondered if now— finally— the fault line of her life would no longer be the first day she earned a paycheck. It would now be today’s shooting; she would divide everything into before and after.”

Picoult has written a compelling book plunges readers into the midst of a crisis, a very personal crisis for the Picoult’s diverse cast of characters, and a very relevant crisis for society as a whole. There are no easy answers. Readers will remember this book for a long time.
“Joy stared at this other woman, who believed the polar opposite of what she believed, yet with the same strength of conviction. She wondered if the only way any of us can find what we stand for is by first locating what we stand against.”

I received a copy of “A Spark of Light” from Jodi Picoult, Random House Publishing, Ballantine Books, NetGalley, and Goodreads.

“What about the mother’s right?”

The pro-life, pro-choice debate is older than me, and has been widely tackled it seems, by every living person who has an opinion, most especially politicians. It’s a topic every woman has confronted, or will, at some point in their lives. If you can’t handle the conversation, this book is not for you. Moving along…. A gunman, George Goodard, has taken hostages at a woman’s clinic where abortions are performed. He is hellbent on exacting revenge for what was taken from his daughter, despite the fact she herself doesn’t quite realize the scope of what she’s done yet. That’s his feeling anyway, and this is about his feelings! Behind the doors of the clinic are characters present for a myriad of reasons. George is too deep in it already, too late to turn back now, he must make an example! Do you blame the medical staff, punish the women who chose to terminate, what about the others (young and old) there for birth control or routine reasons? Do your beliefs have a right to bleed into the decisions of others? What if a mother’s life is at risk, is it okay then to terminate? What if it’s a young girl, say your daughter, a victim of rape? Should she be forced to carry said child? Take it further, what if it’s a case of incest? We don’t like to ponder these things, but imagine you are that 12 year old girl, and you don’t have the luxury of hypotheticals, are you moved to accept an abortion is justifiable now? There is a flip side too, after all we’ve each been born, no one aborted us, and because we weren’t terminated we can chew on this loaded topic. Adamant that we have a voice, we can shout our points of view while defending the right to silence future voices. Each side can be debated endlessly, though I think about the dangers of laws putting restrictions our bodies. Education is key, there are medical reasons for abortion, which generally seems to be more accepted or ‘justifiable’. Desperate women (mind you this includes very young girls) will go to any lengths to end pregnancy and if there isn’t a doctor willing to safely care for them, we know what can happen. Mention this and you’ll often hear, ‘well then they deserve it, just proof isn’t it, that they are reaping what the sow’. Nothing I am saying here is new nor hasn’t been said before and heatedly, I mention it because of the character in this novel, Doctor Louie. Dr. Louie, though a practicing Catholic, went into this controversial work because sending women elsewhere for help with such issues, he learned early on that ‘14 percent of doctors performed abortions themselves’ leading to women searching for other means, often unsafe abortions. As a doctor that, in and of itself, is a moral conundrum. Where do you place your religious beliefs when you know not acting can cost someone their lives? Must we lose both mother and child to incompetence, refuse help from a moral high ground that goes against his oath as a doctor?

Does he deserve a bullet from George’s gun? Does anyone? Is there not hypocrisy in being willing to kill when you are defending your position that others don’t kill unborn children? It’s a loop, we were all born, we were all once unborn. What about the pregnant women that have not yet had abortions, or may not be there for one? What if there are health risks to the mother, does she get a reprieve? Or must both she and the unborn child die to earn respect? It’s easy to think in black and white when you don’t have to know the full story, when you don’t humanize those you disagree with and that seems to be the theme. Jodi Picoult certainly shares the legal dilemmas here, and obviously feels passionately about the right for a woman to have choices. There isn’t an answer that fits each person perfectly. Take poverty, what if you can’t afford a child should you still have the baby? This is often met with the old ‘there’s always adoption’, which is true but that isn’t an easy decision either. You will often hear the retort ‘well, if you can’t afford it, why are you getting pregnant?” People always have the answer for the way others should live. Tackle this subject in any room and there will be heated debates in no time.

Picoult uses Hugh (the hostage negotiator) and his daughter Wren as well as his sister Bex (hostages) to make the story deeply personal. A stellar single father, the three of them separately think about their bond and how lucky they are. Wren never regretting that it’s her father who stepped up to parent, while her mother makes ‘appearances’ and Hugh, whose daughter is his ‘universe ‘ unable to contemplate life without her, nor what lies in the delicate balance. He cannot fail. Is she there for an abortion? If so, can he relate to George’s fury? It doesn’t matter, the stakes are far higher than he could ever have imagined. Bex is terrified, feels it is punishment for ‘going behind Hugh’s back’ to help Wren, it cannot end like this, even if by some twist she feels she deserves it. Hugh would never recover if he lost his daughter, and what of Wren and all the first moments she’ll never have?

Janine believes in the ‘sanctity of life’, does that maybe give her leeway, make George see her as on his ‘side.’ Olive is a retired professor, hoping just to survive this ordeal while chewing on ideas, hoping they can come together with a plan and tries to keep her wits. Izzy is a nurse, who knows what is means to grow up with nothing, who can ‘smell freedom’ but choses to do what is right for the others. A tough upbringing has made her resourceful, hopefully it’s enough to survive this, to help the others. Wouldn’t it just figure if she never gets the chance to be all in with her beloved Parker, to stop feeling inferior to his upbringing, wouldn’t it just figure if it all ended here, like this?

The characters weren’t that difficult to keep separate, each has their stories, emotional states coming into the clinic. All react differently because of who they are. Some are pro-life, some pro-choice. One exchange between Dr. Louie and Izzy says a lot about this issue. She says Louie may be the biggest feminist she has ever met, he claims to love all women, Izzy questioning him with her eyes on Janine sprawled on the floor he tells her ” And you should too” because ” like it or not you’re in this fight together.” It’s a big response, in this fight for their lives as hostages, as much as a fight as women, for ownership of our bodies, how the laws can change our freedom to decide for ourselves what’s right. But first, we have to find out if they will survive George.

Imagine book club night after reading this novel. It’s good, I have other books by Picoult I prefer but A Spark of Life is going to be widely read and discussed. It will be a different experience for every reader, and while it may be a woman’s issue, there is no reason why men shouldn’t take part.

Publication date: October 2, 2018 Out Tomorrow

Random House

Ballantine

Jodi Picoult is truly the best of the best to me. Her stories are always something that leaves me wanting more. Her stories always touch my heart in such a personal way that floors me. A Spark of Light was no different. WOW this book….. Jodi brings the book nerd out of me….. I had it on my kindle for a little….part of me was saving it because I knew it would be a 5 plus star book and the other part of me just didn’t want to be done it, so I waited until I couldn’t wait any longer…..prob like two weeks lol. But wow this book, I didn’t read the description, I never do with writers I adore I love going into their books with nothing but high expiations. So if you like going into a story knowing anything then I will stop…Just know this A Spark of Light is a powerful read that will have your heart racing one minute and stopping the next! This is a MUST READ! I am excited that is out so that way I can talk to all my reader friends about this book!!!!

It starts off as a typical day at the Center, a women's reproductive health care clinic in Mississippi. For Hugh McElroy, it's his 40th birthday, and a day that he hopes will pass by quietly and quickly. But everything changes in a moment when an armed shooter enters the Center--shooting employees and patients on sight. Hugh, a negotiator for the police, is immediately called to the scene. Once there, he comes to the horrifying realization that his sister, Bex, and his only daughter, fifteen-year-old, Wren, are inside. Hugh tries to keep this information to himself, determined to save the people he loves the most. Meanwhile, many inside the clinic are struggling to stay alive, while the shooter is trying to come to terms with the reasons that brought him to the clinic in the first place.

"Here was the one thing all these women had in common: they hadn't asked for this moment in their lives."

Jodi Picoult is known for her powerful books that make you question the world around you, and her latest is certainly no exception. This novel asks interesting, thought-provoking, and timely questions: not just about abortion but about women's rights in general and the power men have over women, including their bodies. It makes you think, and it's certainly not an easy read. I found it to be an eye-opening experience. You may go in with a set view and particular political stance--and while this novel is in no way attempting to change your view--it allows you to see things from all sorts of points of view. The book is filled with complicated people and their stories; nothing is simple here.

The novel is told backward: starting with a shooter entering the clinic and working back from that moment. I'm not always a fan of this format, and it does take some getting used to (for me anyway). I read this one while I was sick and busy at work, so I always had to pause a little bit to get my bearings with each chapter. But the format causes the story to be extremely tense, forcing you to really want to know what happens. I've read some reviews where they thought the backward style left nothing unexplained/nothing left to know, but I found it to be the opposite. The first chapter leaves you with a near cliffhanger, and you spend the rest of the book frantically flipping the pages, trying to find out what happens.

I found this one to be especially poignant and excellent at portraying its characters. Picoult captures moments in time, as our characters remember back on things. It's a lovely look at fatherhood for two sets of families, and Hugh and his daughter, Wren, are a wonderful pair. Picoult does an excellent job paralleling them with another set of characters, too. Then there's Izzy, a nurse, with whom I dare you not to fall in love, and Dr. Louie, the doctor at the clinic. Both are so tough and easy to root for. I also learned so much while reading about them. It was easy to picture these characters and even easier to fall for them--all signs of a well-written novel.

By the end, Picoult has some twists up her sleeve: some surprising, some not. I thought the ending wrapped up a little quickly, but I still was impressed with one. You don't enjoy it, per se--the subject matter is a little rough for that, but you'll find yourself wowed by the characters and their shared story. 4+ stars.

I think so many of us are Jodi Picoult fans. She can weave a story that makes you look at every side of the issue with a better understanding. This has to be my very favorite Jodi Picoult book.

The story revolves around a shooting/hostage situation in a women’s health clinic. It begins at the end and takes us back through the eventful day. It also gives us a look into the lives of the women and men there and why they came to be there on this fateful day. I loved how we saw that they were intertwined in many ways even before this happens.

This is also a book about decisions. What makes us decide to do what we do and the aftermath of our decisions. No one can really tell you what is right for you and as these characters learn, there is more than one side to every story.

It is about abortion. It is about both sides of the argument. It is about choice, religion, family, society, penance, punishment. It will tear at your heart. I felt as if I was crying through most of it with this heaviness weighing on my heart. It did not change my mind about how I feel about abortion but it did make me think about how others feel too. It will make you think and think and think. It will make you feel and feel and feel.

A line that stuck with me and is so fitting for the climate of the country today:

“Laws are black and white. The lives of women are a thousand shades of gray.”

Think about that.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine book for an advance copy of this wonderful book.

I received an advanced reader of this novel from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Picoult’s latest is definitely one of those buzz books that many people have been looking forward to, including myself. I wanted to be sure to read this one early so I could share my thoughts with you on it!

In this novel, patients and staff are held hostage in an abortion clinic by a distraught gunman. As a hostage negotiator struggles to negotiate with this man, he later discovers that his daughter also happens to be one of the hostages. This situation becomes all-too-personal, but he refuses to allow anyone else to take the case over, especially after building trust and dialogue with the shooter.

As is her signature, the story is told through all the different viewpoints from someone who is protesting the clinic, someone who has just undergone an abortion, a doctor who performs the abortions, and a girl who just picked the wrong day to get birth control. With eight different viewpoints, the topic of pro-life and pro-choice is addressed from all different angles.

Picoult decides to tell this story in reverse chronological order which sometimes works (like this book, for example), but can also sometimes create a bit of confusion and disconnection to characters for their readers. Since we open with the conclusion, I felt less vested in this story than I had hoped to be.

I have no problem with the topics of pro-life or pro-choice, but in order to create a less biased slant on the topic, I felt a bit preached to, in certain sections, for Picoult to drive home that both sides have reasons for their viewpoints.

As we have come to expect with Picoult, she does weave a trademark twist, but it wasn’t enough to redeem the confusion and disconnection I had with these characters.

Even though this book was a miss, for me, I will still read anything Picoult serves up and hope to connect more with her next novel. Regardless, I appreciate and am always intrigued by her research when writing her novels and she did a lot of research, on both sides of the table, to create this story.

I can see how this one might spark a lively book club discussion though, but with such a hot button topic, you probably want to reserve it for a group that you can engage in that kind of dialogue with and still do life with later.

Since I have read almost all of Jodi Picoult’s books, I was not surprised at the controversial topic in this one nor her liberal stand on it. This book is about a gunman entering an abortion clinic and taking hostages. I was a little put off at first with the backwards order of the details, starting at the end of the day and moving backwards, detailing the lives of each of the main characters up to the beginning of their days and then with an epilogue that drew everything together. However, with this topic and in this book, it really worked well! Hugh was the most likeable character along with his fourteen-year-old daughter Wren. Most characters had secrets that were revealed as the book moved quickly to a conclusion that was somewhat expected but also surprising. If you are a fan of Jodi Picoult, you will not want to miss this one because it is controversial with current topics and also includes a lot of pertinent research. As a member of the pro-life community, I found the statistics slanted towards pro-abortion, but I was not surprised by this and it did not really bother me. Jodi Picoult has written another book that book clubs will want to read and discuss because there are so many loose threads at the end, you will want to talk over with others what they think happened to some of the most important characters. Excellent read! Very controversial and timely topic! A must-read for book clubs this fall!

Jodi Picoult' s newest novel, like many of this prolific author's previous titles, fictionalizes the kind of of moral human dilemmas that characterize modern life and which are often memorialized in headline-worthy stories and movies. This time it's an attack on an abortion clinic, like so many that have resulted in the deaths of doctors and nurses. The human beings are familiar - like all Picoult creations, they are easy to understand, empathize with and care about. Even the perpetrators of the violence - in this case, the father of a girl whose abortion haunts him and whose pain is palpably described - earn the reader's understanding. The situation is a classic hostage negotiation, except that in this one, the negotiator' s daughter is on the other end of the distraught father's gun. There's enough suspense to keep you involved until the denouement, but the book reads more like the script of s made for television movie than a novel because none of the characters is more than a stereotype.

Readers can always count on Jodi Picoult to tackle controversial issues. In A Spark of Light, she addresses the continuing controversy about abortion. As usual, she presents the topic in an interesting way, and with heart, through her characters, some of which fall on both sides of the issue.

The book starts off at 5 PM on a day where an armed gunman has stormed a women's health clinic hoping to cause as much damage and mayhem as possible to avenge what he considers the murder of his grandchild when his daughter previously came to the clinic for help. His actions result in a stand-off with the police, with him having killed people, seriously wounded others, and now holding several hostages. The head negotiator for the police, unbeknownst to his superiors, happens to be the father of one of the hostages. This is very personal for everyone, and the stakes are high.

The story then goes backwards in time, hour by hour until the start of the day at 8 AM. Throughout, we learn about the people who came to be in the clinic that day, and why they are there. There is a variety of ages, and reasons: an older woman is there to have someone she is familiar and comfortable with explain the diagnosis she got from another doctor; a young woman is there to get an abortion; others are there for information and guidance; a pro-life protester is there undercover hoping to gather damaging information about the clinic; a young teen is there (accompanied by her aunt) simply to get a prescription for birth control; the owner of the clinic, the nurse, and the doctor are there to do their jobs.

The entrance to this clinic is routinely surrounded by a corridor of protesters who yell, chant and try to shame the people entering the clinic.

I typically rate JP's work higher than 3 stars; I've read all of her books and always look forward to her newest offering. The reasons this doesn't rate higher than average for me, despite the obvious research the author put into this book are as follows:

1) I didn't like that the protesters were widely painted with a ultra-conservative religious brush. While I'm sure that many of those who are pro-life would fall in this category, by no means do I assume that all of them do, or that all conservative religious people would take that stance across the board, without consideration of circumstances.

2) I didn't enjoy that the book went backwards rather than forwards in time. It felt like having someone tell me what all my holiday gifts are before I had the chance to open them! Don't tell me the ending first - build the suspense!

3) The "twist" wasn't something unforeseen.

It's not that I didn't enjoy spending time with the talents of Ms. Picoult again. I simply don't think this is one of her better efforts.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for allowing me to read an e-ARC of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Jodi Picoult has been one of my favorite authors for years (a top five favorite author, specifically) and this book may be her best yet.

Obviously abortion is one of those things where everyone has incredibly strong feelings. It's hard to find common ground and there's no real way to compromise. I didn't change my mind (I'm still very much pro-choice) but it's impossible to read this and not find empathy and understanding for the other side. Every character here is fleshed out and even if you don't agree with them (and I'm hoping no one would agree with the gunman), you see where they're coming from and you weep for them. 

This book also underscores why I read so much---I read to understand things I don't. I don't mean physics or how cars run or whatever; I mean why people are the way they are. And A Spark of Light (and especially the author's note) makes this so possible. Again, I don't think it will change anyone's mind, but it will certainly make it harder to demonize the other side.

This is Jodi Picoult's strength as an author: she makes the other side human, even when they don't seem to be. (There's a part in this where the clinic's doctor---who performs abortions---buys breakfast for a protester. They have a brief conversation and the protester says something like, "You make it really hard to hate you" and the doctor replies "That's the point.")

Echo chambers are really nice and it's good to have a space where you don't have to continually fight to be heard and respected...but it's also important to have conversations with the other side. You are less likely to hate people when you know who they are.

Highly recommended.

After reading this, I had to wait a few days to settle my book hangover before I could write my review. This story was a huge wake-up call for those who live somewhat sheltered lives. After reading this, I was educated way more than I bargained for; it was awesome.

It was a normal fall day at The Center--a women's health services clinic-- business as usual to whomever walked through their doors. When later that morning, a desperate for revenge gunman stormed in and started shooting taking those inside hostage.

When the police negotiator rushed to the scene, Hugh, he started communicating with the shooter, George, trying to calm him down and find out his motive. Hugh was getting frantic texts from his daughter, Wren, begging for help from a madman. Wren went to The Center with her Aunt Bex to get birth control because she was too embarrassed to ask her single Dad, her best friend, to help her. When Hugh realizes that his daughter and his sister are in the same room with a lunatic, all his calm goes out the window.

Wren is inside with her Aunt, who was the 2nd woman he shot, she threw herself in front of Wren. But there are others inside as well, a nurse -Izzy, the doctor -Louie, a pro-life under cover as a patient -Janine, and an actual patient who just had a procedure -Joy. Along with George, who is trying to be heard.

Across town, is the reason this is all happening, George's daughter, Beth, had an illegal abortion at home and almost bled to death. Her dad rushed her to the hospital and she was arrested there. All because she wasn't 18 and of age to go to The Center, and a judge went on vacation, she needed him to sign off on her underage form to get the procedure, so her case was pushed back 2 weeks which was past the cut off date to allow it to be done. Beth lied and said she went to The Center. Unbeknownst to him, she is being charged with murdering a fetus.

The story is told from the time the hostages are released backwards to how the day started; in different voices.

This book was very compelling to read. I would highly recommend reading it!