Jodi Picoult is a great writer, a thorough researcher and a fantastic storyteller – there certainly is no denying those facts. But with Change of Heart, she’s once again fallen a bit short of her potential.
As with many of her other recent novels, Change of Heart feels too formulaic to be enjoyable for avid Picoult readers, as the novel contains all of the pieces of a Picoult novel: a young child in trouble, a parent struggling to overcome that trouble, a child with a disease, a controversial topic and the required court case.
Jodi Picoult and Steven King: The Green Mile
But Change of Heart feels familiar in another way, too. About 75 pages into the book, I wondered when and how Picoult was going to differentiate the story from Steven King’s The Green Mile. The similarities between the two books are noticeable: in both, the main character, a death row inmate, is able to enact miracles, reviving dead animals and curing others of fatal disease, among other things.
Heart Transplant on Death Row
Set in New Hampshire, Shay Bourne is sitting on death row for the murder of a police officer and his stepdaughter, Elizabeth. Fast-forward 11 years, and Elizabeth’s sister, Claire, needs a new heart. Shay decides that, in order to be absolved of his sins, he needs to donate his heart to Claire.
But Claire’s mother isn’t sure she wants Shay’s heart beating inside her surviving child. On page 184, Picoult writes “Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant granting your enemy’s dying wish? With those words, June Nealon’s struggle becomes of one of the central questions of the novel.
Themes of Jodi Picoult’s Book: Capital Punishment, Religion, Forgiveness
Other central themes include the morality of the death penalty and what the messiah would look like should he return to walk the earth. Shay’s lawyer, Maggie, spends the novel fighting to repeal the death penalty, while his spiritual advisor, Michael, a Catholic priest, tries to determine if Shay is Jesus reincarnated.
On it’s own, Change of Heart is interesting enough, but if you are avid Picoult reader, prepare to be disappointed. It’s formulaic, predictable and repetitive. It reads much like her previous novel, Faith, and actually reuses some of the same characters with very little explanation.
Is Jodi Picoult a Hack?
Picoult is a fine writer, but with many more books like this one, she will begin to be regarded as a hack. With Change of Heart, Picoult has created uninspired characters, a familiar plotline and predictable twists. According to Janet Maslin, book reviewer for The New York Times, this was perhaps Picoult’s most uninspired work yet.
“…Not even the most cultish Picoult fans are likely to think Ms. Picoult broke a sweat while preparing “Change of Heart.” Despite her grim diligence and earnestly religion-based story line, she seems to have written her latest tear-jerker on authorial autopilot,” Maslin wrote in 2008.
Maslin couldn’t be more correct. If you want to read a book you’ve read before, at least twice, pick up Change of Heart.
Change of Heart was published in 2008 by Atria. It is 447 pages long. ISBN: 0743496744
Read about other Jodi Picoult books:
Book Review: Second Glance – Novel by Author Jodi Picoult, Published in 2003
Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult Signals Decline
