Handle with Care

A Novel

By: Jodi Picoult

Narrated by: Cassandra Morris, Charlotte Perry, Alma Cuervo, Celeste Ciulla, Jessica Almasy, Jim Colby

When Willow is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, her parents are devastated—she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. In this provocative story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, “Picoult writes with unassuming brilliance” (Stephen King).

Every expectant parent will tell you that they don’t want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they’d been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of “luckier” parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it’s all worth it because Willow is, funny as it seems, perfect. She’s smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.

Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte had known earlier of Willow’s illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life?

Emotionally riveting and profoundly moving, Handle with Care is an unforgettable novel about the fragility of life and the lengths we will go to protect it.

Great start, but weak ending

A weak ending and far too much detail about baking ruined what had been a riveting story about a gutsy mother. Who would in real life give up after they had won? Not believable.

Such a sad story!!

This could only have had a lose lose outcome. Very sad story … it’s interesting to learn and st the same time understand how the personalities unfolded in trying to maintain sanity and handle their lives in a difficult situation and still love each other

Great story line

I really enjoyed the story line and the quick pace of the book. I was thrown off by the unrealistic legal proceedings.

Good but..,

Too many long digressions giving detailed recipes. The end wasn’t believable. The book needed some cuts. I still found it interesting: such a difficult moral dilemma!

Not bad

This was my first one by Jodi Picoult. If it was not for the ending, I would have rated it a solid 4. The ending lost one full star for me.