YA Highway has posed a question, and I–being in a mood to put off the other work I should be doing–have decided I want to answer ^_^. The question: If you could rewrite the ending of any book, how would you rewrite it and why?
One of their examples, and many of the responses, were about Harry Potter. Which is a small shame because that was my easy answer. My co-author came up with an extended epilogue to the books. Picture this…after Harry and Ginny come back from the train station after seeing the little ones off to Hogwarts for the first time, he says he has a secret to tell her. Long story short, he confesses that he’s the eight horcrux, and it’s time for the world to know.
But…that’s not my idea, or my answer. I just know Ay would want me to share.
My answer…(and this took a lot of thought, and my co-workers spent an hour or so trying to locate the source of the smoke). My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. It’s possible I will offend most people who’ve read the book by saying this, so I apologize now. I also want to say up front, that regardless of the below I still thought the book was amazing, gripping, and compelling.
***Spoiler Warning*** (Duh?)
In the original ending, the main character wins her court case, but is in an accident after, placing her in a position to donate the transplant without doing her further harm.
My issue with this? The entire book was about this girl making this tough choice, and about how the sister’s illness impacted everyone in the family. That was the conflict, that was what kept me reading. I kept telling myself that the author, through the main character, was going to have to choose one way or the other in the end. That this young girl would be required to decide something for herself and that it wouldn’t be a decision she could take back.
So when Anna didn’t have to decide afterall–when the both paths prevailed at the same time–I felt cheated. The judge ruled in her favor, and Kate got the kidney, but Anna never had to make that final decision.
Honestly, I don’t know which way I would have preferred it go. There are haert-wrenching options both with Anna deciding to go through with the transplant and with her not, but I wanted to see her be forced to choose. That’s what I felt like I was promised through the whole rest of the book.
Please don’t throw tomatoes at my blog for thinking this…it was still an amazing story.