A good book about a topic that is always in he news. As usual, Jodi Picoult tells the story from the perspective of the different characters. Well-written and fair in describing both sides.

Jodi Picoult has done it again! She has taken a very emotional topic, given us both sides of the coin without judging and then allowed us to determine our own thoughts in the end.

A great quote from the book: "We are all drowning slowly in the tide of our opinions, oblivious that we are taking on water every time we open our mouths." Issues are not all one sided and we need to allow ourselves to be open to hearing and listening to others.

I read it in one day and will go back to reread because it demands that I digest it slowly and thoughtfully. I am not a fan of the way it was written - reverse chronologically but I really can't fault Ms. Picoult for anything that she does as I such a fan!!

Thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read in advance!

A Spark of Light opens with a hostage situation at a Mississippi women's clinic that also performs abortions named The Center. The story then "rewinds" back through the day, usually jumping back by a few hours, until the very beginning of the day. The book is written from multiple perspectives who are in or near the clinic when the hostage situation develops. These perspectives include the gunman, the gunman's family. a young teen named Wren, Wren's father who happens to be the hostage negotiator, Wren's aunt who brought her to the clinic, a protester, and the nurses.

Jodi Picoult wrote A Spark of Light to make you think. She doesn't try to soften subject matter that is divisive. No matter how you feel about abortion, you will be thinking about this book for a long time after reading it. As Ms. Picoult points out in her author's note, in 2015 the United States had 57 teenage births per 1,000. In Switzerland, there were 8 births per 1,000. The difference is how contraception and reproductive health is taught. I hope A Spark of Light leads to the type of conversations we need to be having as a country.

I didn't necessarily enjoy the style of the story, I think I would have preferred to read the story in the correct order instead of in reverse. I did enjoy the plot and the character development. I have the feeling this book will be read in many book clubs over the next year.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a complimentary advanced copy of A Spark of Light in exchange for my honest review.

Jodi Picoult takes on another hot button issue in A Spark of Light. This time it's abortion. She does it in reverse chronological order which was disconcerting at first, but I came to appreciate her approach in the end. She does an excellent job sharing a myriad of viewpoints.

Her books have become formulaic, but they are always good to spark discussion. She portrayed each side of the debate compassionately.

I've read every single Picoult book- I've been with her since the beginning- and this is my least favorite of the lot. Not for the tough subject matter as she always goes where other authors do not but because of the reverse chronology. The plot, to me, lost its oomph once I realized I already knew more or less what happened. I even figured out, early on, George's back story. I don't know why Picoult chose to do it this way; I don't need things to be forward chronological but don't tell me right up front where it's going to go. The characters, as always, are classic Picoult women, full of contradictions and life. Unfortunately, this time, though, we didn't get enough time with any of them- there were just too many and they hit too many points. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm sure this will be a best seller and that others will like it very much.

Let me start by saying that I think Jodi Picoult is a great author. She is my go to author for an emotional drama book.
That said this was not one of my favorite books. I do not know if it is the subject matter, abortion, or the way in which the story is told in reverse. I finished this book over a month ago and have been trying to figure out what to say in a review. The story will stay with you because it is very memorable. It is a good book but I will say it is not one of her best.

I didn't like the time line of the book going backwards. It really make it not flow well for me. It was a good story though!

Whether you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life in the current battle for women's rights in the United States, you need to read this book. Jodi Picoult presents clear, concise arguments from both sides in this excellent story based on the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi. Her author's Note in A Spark of Light should be required reading for ALL Americans.

The basic reasons any woman considers abortion are many. The majority have to form a decision on whether or not this potential dependent can be adequately cared for, fed, and educated as life now stands for the mother. Something as simple as affordable health care and raising the minimum wage could make a great deal of difference in the final decision a woman must make when faced with an unexpected pregnancy. And the education of adolescents on contraception choices too can make great inroads into the necessity of a woman having to make this choice. Whatever label we wear in this battle over women's rights, we would all love to see the number of abortions cut way down. But the most important thing for us to remember is that there have always been abortions. If we take away the possibility of legal, safe abortions, there will still be abortions performed. And there will be many more maternal deaths, as well.

Ms. Picoult points out that seven out of ten woman who terminate a pregnancy make less that $22,000 per year. And though our 2015 statistics for teen pregnancy was 57 out of 1,000, in Switzerland where contraception is taught alongside abstinence that number was 8 out of 1,000. We must do better to prepare our children to face adulthood, and to make mature, educated decisions about sex and family planning.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Jodi Picoult, and Ballantine Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

I usually enjoy Piccoult's books but this one was a miss for me. The backwards timeline was tedious and I don't think the characters were well developed. I thought a story about an active shooter in an abortion clinic would keep me on the edge of my seat but somehow it was boring.

This book is amazing. It addresses such a divisive topic, and presents the range of opinions without saying any are wrong or bad.

I absolutely loved how the story was told in a reverse timeline. It is a unique way to show how and why all of these characters came to the clinic. It created an emotional journey that had me gasp at a few reveals.

Jodi Picoult does an amazing job at weaving together a story and characters’s lives. It was fun to pick up on little overlaps where characters were connected outside of the shooting at the clinic.

I felt so connected to these characters and i was left wanting more. I wanted to know what happened to many characters and see where their lives took them.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Ballantine Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to Jodi Picoult, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This is the second book that I have read by Jodi Picoult. This book is about a very controversial topic - abortion. The story is told in reverse order and is a little confusing until you catch onto that. It was a very easy read about a tough topic. I liked all of the character development and the different stories. At times, the subject matter was a little too graphic for my tastes.

I recommend this book but it was not an easy summer read.

Anyone familiar with Jodi Picoult’s prolific body of work knows that she loves to write about hot button social issues. Her novels find the human element behind stories that could be ripped from today’s headlines - school shootings, the death penalty, rape, racism - these are all topics Picoult has explored in her books. And most recently, she tackles the ever hotly-debated issue of abortion.

In A Spark of Light, Picoult’s 25th novel, she tells what happens one fateful day when a group of people find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. When George Goddard shows up at The Center, Mississippi’s last-standing abortion clinic, seeking revenge for his daughter’s abortion, an unlikely group of people caught in his crosshairs suddenly find themselves pulling together to survive.

This harrowing tale of life, death, and choice is unconventional in that it is told backwards. The end of this story is Picoult’s beginning, and she wastes no time jumping into the action. Told through multiple perspectives, and scrolling back through the hours, Picoult explores the events and actions that occurred that day, culminating in the incident that sparked deadly rage and violence in one man. While compelling (you’ll want to keep turning the pages to discover what events landed this cast of characters in The Center that day), it is not without problems. I personally found reading a story in reverse order to be difficult, and had trouble remembering what events came before (or rather, in this case, “after.”) Furthermore, Picoult throws us into the backstories of the multitude of characters without much context. It took me several chapters of trying to keep straight who is who before I finally became familiar enough with the names and backstories to keep them straight. The reverse order of the novel also made it difficult to care for the characters because that emotional connection that you get from following a character on their journey to a certain point in time wasn’t there.

A Spark of Light will be of interest to fans of Picoult’s body of work, anyone who has a particular interest in the abortion debate, and those who enjoy reading gripping novels about social issues. Readers should be warned that there is a lot of technical detail, some graphic, within the pages of this novel, and Picoult spends much of the story covering all sides of the pro-choice/pro-life argument, as well as examining the various situations that those seeking abortions find themselves in. For readers who are used to Picoult tugging at your heart strings, you may not find much of that here. It is apparent that the purpose of this novel is more to educate than entertain, which is why I am giving it a 3 star rating. The book was just a little too preachy for me to say that I enjoyed reading it. Don’t get me wrong - it is a worthy read for fans of the genre - but it read almost more like a case study than a story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for a digital ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Picoult never shies away from sensitive topics. One things we all love about her!
In this book, it is a typical day at an abortion clinic before the man with a gun and a chip on his shoulder walk in. The story is told by multiple, and I do mean multiple, viewpoints. It can get a little hard to keep from mixing Joy up with Janine, and I kept forgetting whether Izzy was just a nurse or the nurse that worked at the clinic. I couldn't keep straight which character had the hard childhood. But I can also see the benefit to getting to read through everyone's perspectives on the topic of abortion.
I didn't love the backwards telling of the story. It starts off at the end of the story, and then tells the story backwards until you end up at the ending again. Clever, but confusing at times...or maybe that's just me.
It's nice to read about a sensitive topic like this without it feeling pushy or convincing one way or another. It doesn't try to force you into an opinion. Picoult just lets readers know the facts and perspectives and then lets them come to their own conclusions. But be ready, some lines will make you do some serious thinking--
"...a zygote, an embryo, a fetus, a baby--they were all human. But at what point did that human deserve legal protection?"
"Whether or not you believed a fetus was a human being, there was no question in anyone's mind that a grown woman was one. Even if you placed moral value on that fetus, you couldn't give it rights unless they were stripped away from the woman carrying it."
Timely book on a red hot political topic. Good read.

I was so anxious to read this story by Jodi Picoult and am so thankful to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for my review. Thank you!

I thought the way that Jodi Picoult took on this controversial topic was brilliant. This story will really make you think about the pro-choice/pro-life option that we have. I will say that I was sort of confused in my reading by going back an hour each chapter because we usually go forward, but I was able to keep up easily.

When Wren and her Aunt Bex go to the Women's Clinic to get some birth control pills for Wren, they never could have imagined how their day would turn out. While they are in the clinic, a father whose daughter had gone to the clinic for an abortion comes in and shoots some of the people in the clinic while taking the others hostage. Wren frantically sends a message to her father, Hugh, who is a hostage negotiator. When Hugh finds out that his sister and daughter are in the clinic, he knows that it is a conflict of interest for him to be on the negotiation, but he keeps it a secret as long as he can in order to be able to try to help and get them out alive.

As the negotiation goes on, some are shot and others are injured. Hugh finally tells that his daughter and sister are in the clinic and is almost pulled off the case until the mad man calls his cell phone and lets him know that he found out that Wren is his daughter. Hugh is determined now to get everyone, especially Wren and Bex, out alive.

I respected Jodi Picoult for the way that she wrote this story and the amount of research that had to be done on the topic for both sides. I enjoyed reading this one and look forward to many more from Jodi in the near future!

Oh my god you guys, I actually read this book months ago and I’m still thinking about it today. As soon as I received a copy I dropped everything and started it and it totally blew me away. It has her trademark hard hitting subject matter and deeply moving storyline and she rips her storylines straight from the headlines like no ones else does. If you read one book I recommended this year I urge you to make it this one, I feel like we can all learn something profound from this book.

The structure of this was amazing, it’s told in reverse order which always sounds super confusing but if it’s done well then it’s a little bit of magic and if anyone has the magic touch it’s Picoult. I don’t know how else to describe her writing other than to say it’s beautiful and even poetic at times and she’s writing about this god awful tragedy and still hope and beauty shines through.

Abortion is arguably one of the hottest of hot button topics of all time and I so admire how Picoult examines the issue from every single angle you can think of, and also from some you would never think of yourself. She forces you to consider your own personal values and morals while doing so sensitively and with so much respect. I don’t usually expect straight up fiction novels to be twisty but she also manages to throw a knock down punch (or two) that made me gasp in disbelief. This book was total perfection in my eyes and I cannot wait to see where she takes me next.

Spark of Light in three words: Profound, Emotional and Incredible.

Whew - Where to even start! Another beautifully written, well researched book, by Jodi Picoult.
I thought Small Great Things was thought provoking? This book was even more so. Definitely touched on just about every emotion and feeling I have. Sadness, curiousity, anger. At times, in this book, you have to stop reading and just take a breath. Well written, as usual, and a great story of fiction, with lots of factual information to back it up. Jodi's commentary at the end, was a great personal touch, even though I can almost guarantee it'll cost her some readers. Just because we can't agree to disagree in this world. I have already recommended this book to all my friends who are avid readers like me, and even those who aren't.

I received this book free of change from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Jodi Picoult is never one to shy away from controversial topics. This book is no exception. It tackles the tough subject of abortion.

The story is told in reverse and works backwards in time. You find out that George has comes into an abortion clinic and started shooting the place and people up. The story follows the stories of several different women who are in the clinic as well as the doctor who chose to work at the clinic and the police officer, who is the hostage negotiator and the father of one of the patients in the clinic.

At first, I had a hard time keeping several of the woman straight but as the story wove on it was easier and you found out that not everyone in the clinic was there for an abortion. Some were there for other female health issues. I wish I could say more abot the book but, spoilers!

In true Jodi Picoult fashion, there is a twist at the end of the book. I never see them coming.

I can't wait to see her in person in Oct and get a hard copy of this book for my collection.

One of the things that I love about Jodi Picoult books is her ability to tell a story that not only tugs at your heart, but also makes you think deeply about issues. This book is no different, however, I felt in the end that it leaned just a little too far supporting one side of the abortion issue than the other. Usually the author is a master of letting the reader come to their own conclusions, instead of taking a more political stance. That and the reverse storyline, made the book just a tad less enjoyable for me than her usual books. With that said, I will definitely be eagerly awaiting her next novel, as her writing style is still beautiful and the stories well told.

I am a huge fan of Jodi Picoult and tried all summer to get this book. I was SO happy when I got it. Thank you! As usual, it was terrific. The topic of the book is abortion. Picoult takes you through every scenario that touches on the subject. I found myself agreeing with every one of them. Picoult "forces" you to consider every aspect of abortion and the centers that perform them. I LOVED this book!