Review: A Spark of Light

A Spark Of Light by Jodi Picoult
Page length: 368 pages
Genre: Political Fiction/Women's Fiction
Publication Date: 30 October 2018
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars:  5 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)

 
ABOUT A SPARK OF LIGHT
 
The Center for women's reproductive health offers a last chance at hope - but nobody ends up there by choice.
 
Its very existence is controversial, and to the demonstrators who barricade the building every day, the service it offers is no different from legalised murder.
 
Now life and death decisions are being made horrifyingly real: a lone protester with a gun has taken the staff, patients and visitors hostage.
 
Starting at the tensest moment in the negotiations for their release, A Spark of Light unravels backwards, revealing hour by urgent hour what brought each of these people - the gunman, the negotiator, the doctors, nurses and women who have come to them for treatment - to this point.
 
And certainties unwind as truths and secrets are peeled away, revealing the complexity of balancing the right to life with the right to choose.

My Review:

Wow! What a book.
 
Forgive my ignorance for not knowing the global landscape on abortion laws – this Wikipedia page helped show different laws and attitudes around the world.
 
What timing for this exceptional book. At a time where women's reproductive rights are going through a huge change (Ireland's referendum to repeal the 8th) and the US seeming het up about overturning Roe vs Wade (read here for what a overturning could automatically set off in respective US states).

Ms Picoult's highly-skilled storytelling is a wonder to behold. The story starts in a women's health centre, and a gunman has taken staff and patients hostage. The hostage negotiator discovers his own sister and daughter are amongst those held.
 
As the hostages struggle to stay alive, we hear the interwoven backgrounds and fateful journeys of how every character including the gunman made it to be present at the health centre that ill-fated day. The time lines and the characters stories are changed regularly, which could be confusing but offers detailed glimpse at each of their own respective histories.
 
The book was very engaging and I found myself trying to sneak another page wherever I could between my nightly bedtime reading. (In the queue at the bank, whilst being put on hold, waiting for the kettle to boil).
 
There is an excerpt from A Spark of Light on Jodi Picoult's website – get stuck in!
https://www.jodipicoult.com/a-spark-of-light.html
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review.