Murder and Religion

Another one down and boy was this one interesting. I just finished reading our June Book Club book, Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult.

Source

First off - this book is extremely religious. I swear that you can't go one chapter, let alone one page without the mention of religion. In fact one of the narrators is a priest - Father Michael, one of the narrators father is a Rabbi, and another main character in the book is performing "miracles".

Now I won't knock anyone who is religious, more power to you for finding something in life you believe in so much. But I am not at all religious and I was never brought up to be religious. I wasn't hidden away from religion by any means, in fact I know part of my family is religious. But for me reading books that contain a lot of religion is like reading a Calculus book. I don't understand and I don't really care enough to try to understand it. But since this was Book Club I knew I needed to power through.

This book centers on religion as well as a murder, well I guess you could say 3 murders. Inmate Shay was accused of killing a 7 year old and her Policeman Stepfather. His sentence was to die by lethal injection, but while imprisoned something in him tells him he needs to donate his heart to the dead childs sister who will die without a heart and will die soon. The main driving point in the book is a lawyer fighting to have her client killed in a way that his heart will be available as a donation.

The book is interesting, I can't say I hated it because I love murder mystery and I have to say there was one twist that I saw about halfway through the book. I made little connections that in the end meant nothing which was somewhat annoying but I liked that I got to get into a little bit of a legal atmosphere. My secret shame - I DVR Dateline, Dateline Mysteries, Snapped, and I love Law & Order, yes I should have gone into some sort of legal career.

All in all I give this book a C. It was well written despite all it's preachiness and I did like the legal proceedings in it. Unfortunately I am just no the right audience for this book.

Next up Chocolate by JoAnn Harris.