A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order to save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester, disguised as a patient, who now stands in the crosshairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

REVIEW:

I was prepared to love this book before I opened it -- I'm an avid reader of Jodi Picoult and am never disappointed. The fact that this particular novel tackles a highly relevant issue about which I am passionate and well-informed added to my excitement. I will admit that I didn't love her use of backwards storytelling as a narrative device -- the book opens with the crucial denouement, then works backwards from the perspective of various characters to describe the events of the day. I wasn't confused, as some other readers have been, but I felt that this narrative device led to some unnecessary repetition that slowed down the movement of the story. 

That said, I highly recommend A Spark of Light. Picoult endeavors to capture both the pro-choice and anti-choice (I cannot call them pro-life) characters' points-of-view (though I think an anti-choice reader might find the portrayal of those characters to be underwhelming). Emotions run high throughout the story, accurately portraying the highly-charged nature of the abortion debate in both high-level public discourse and individual, daily interactions. The clinic's physician, modeled on Willie Parker, is the kind of doctor more women need in their corners, especially today. As always, I'm grateful for the amount of research and hands-on experience Picoult undertakes before writing and her efforts to be as truthful in her fiction as possible. Great read, 4.5 stars.