Unfortunately for me, I watched the movie before I even realised there was a book (as so often happens these days). Therefore, when the ending was vastly different, I was shocked and angry. Quite frankly, it was a stupid, clichéd ending.

Not that I was a huge fan of the book, but I thought it deserved a little less of a cliché.

I won’t ruin it for you, though.

Now that I’m thinking about it again, the majority of the book annoyed me. While I liked the characters of Anna, Kate and their brother, I found myself despising the mother with a great passion.

The whole emotional sentiment of the book depends on empathising with the woman. However, I often found myself wishing she’d get caught in one of her son’s fires and die. She did not have a single redeeming quality. Even in the final third of the book, when the reader was clearly meant to say, “It’s okay, I forgive you,” I still found her a repulsive, manipulative character who didn’t feel a single shred of love for her youngest child.

Despite other well-developed characters and Picoult’s writing style (which isn’t my favourite but that’s just a personal thing), the book couldn’t be saved. And it all comes down to that bleep of a mother.