A Spark of Light

Book: Small Great Things
Author: 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 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 cross hairs 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.-Goodreads

Review: Jodi Picoult tackles the controversial topic of abortion in a Spark of Light. A gunman enters a health clinic where abortions are performed and starts shooting. The story is told from multiple points of view (I think it was 8-10 narratives) and it told backwards, covering the day of the shooting. This was well researched and Picoult did a very thorough job explaining all sides, however the layout didn't work for me. I literally wrote down the characters at one point to keep them all straight and the backwards timeline wasn't necessary. It was done for a few big reveals at the end but I suspect most reads were able to guess them early on. 

Grade: 3/5