Book Review – Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Book: Small Great Things
Author: Jodi Picoult
Published: 22 November 2016 by Hodder & Stoughton
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 512
Buy: Amazon, Book Depository
Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis:

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.

I will admit, Jodi Picoult is one of my all-time favourite authors. And naturally, when I first heard that she was releasing another book, I instantly pre-ordered it without a second thought. However, due to the stress and sheer intensity of my final year of school, I didn’t get the chance to read it until a few weeks ago.

First of all, Small Great Things is a very important book. Ruth Jefferson, an experienced African American labour and delivery nurse, is shocked when the new parents, who are white supremacists, do not want her to care for their newborn baby. When the baby dies after Ruth hesitates to give CPR whilst alone on the ward, she ultimately ends up on trial for murder.

Picoult’s storytelling never ceases to amaze me. In this novel, she uses three points of narrative in order to brilliantly convey the different ways in which the characters think. The alternating points of view were so easy to follow, and the characters were well thought through.

Small Great Things is a story which explores racism in both its subtle and obvious forms, and in doing this, the reader may be forced to reflect on how they have acted in certain situations in their life. We can all take something from this novel, whether it’s being made more aware of the racism that occurs in everyday life, or learning more about the struggle that African Americans have to go through on a daily basis.The plot in Small Great Things is compelling and very thought-provoking. Because of the difficult subject that Picoult chose to write about (a white author writing points of view from an African American and a white supremacist), I wasn’t sure about whether she would have done it justice. But, her story-lines are always incredibly well researched, and in my opinion, she handled it sensitively but effectively.

Picoult creates and develops characters that just make the story come to life. It is so easy to quickly have an opinion on the characters and to immediately create judgement, whether you want to or not. This book is steady-paced, and each chapter leaves you thinking. The ending did have me tear up a little, and I realised that this book may have an impact on our world, even if just a small fraction.

I will never ever know what it is like to be in Ruth’s (or her son’s) situation, of being an African American person in the 21st century. But Picoult’s fantastic novel can give people a chance of trying to understand what it is really like.

All in all, this book is necessary. It is important. I was hooked from the very first chapter, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

Thank you for reading.

Chloe 🙂