Who is one author everyone seems to love but you can't stand? Why?
For this one, I think I'm going to have to go with Jodi Piccoult. She's a best-selling author, which means a lot of people must love her. Indeed, she's many people's favorite author. Not that I've ever met anyone who loved her, but I'm sure these people exist.
Which is why I picked up one of her best-known books, My Sister's Keeper, a few years ago. It's about a girl who has leukemia, her younger sister who was conceived and born in order to aid her sister's health struggle, and what happens when the younger sister exercise her autonomy and refuses to provide transplants anymore.
I found this book to be incredibly manipulative. Like, nakedly manipulative of my emotions. I saw right through Piccoult's tricks, and I didn't think they were clever. Even as I was crying, I was mad at myself for being taken in by her. And then the ending was just a terrible betrayal. It was a twist for the sake of a twist and attempted to patch it over into a happy ending when this story could never be wrapped up with a happy ending.
I guess it felt cowardly of Piccoult to attempt to relieve the reader's tension rather than let them sit with it in the wake of a story about an incredibly difficult situation. If you're setting up a no-win scenario, it undercuts it to let someone win.
So I haven't read any more of her books, and I likely never will. There are better writers out there who can handle these subjects with more nuance and courage.
(Sidenote: I'm a little made that this is the post going up on my birthday. I want to talk about happy things)
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