Following her incisive novel Small Great Things (2016), which delved into the white supremacist movement, Jodi Picoult takes on the explosive topic of abortion rights in A Spark of Light.

Picoult sets her story in Jackson, Mississippi—all the action taking place over one long day at the Center, a women's clinic for those who had "run out of time and had run out of choices." Picoult begins her riveting saga at the end of the story, when George Goddard—a distraught, anti-abortion father whose teenage daughter recently had an abortion at the Center—storms inside, fires several shots and takes an unknown number of hostages. Hostage negotiator Hugh McElroy has been called to the scene to confront George.

With her latest novel, Jodi Picoult takes on another explosive, timely issue: abortion rights in America.

Picoult then moves backward in time, hour by hour, gradually filling in the details of those who came to the Center that day and why they came. She approaches this divisive issue from all sides—not blaming or condoning, but shining a perceptive light into the lives of those now hoping to survive the hostage situation.

Izzy, a nurse, struggles with the dilemma of whether or not to tell her boyfriend about her newly discovered pregnancy. She's risen from a childhood of poverty and doesn't want to rely on him, "the prince from the entitled family." After the shooting, Izzy tends to the leg wound suffered by Dr. Ward, whose own mother died from an illegal abortion. Dr. Ward regularly travels between four states to provide abortions for women living where almost all such clinics have closed.

Joy completed her abortion before the shooting starts—and although she wanted the procedure, she's still in mourning for what she's lost. She lived in foster care for 10 years and didn't want another child to go through the same miserable experience.

Janine is at the Center faking a pregnancy—she's an anti-abortion activist trying to prove the clinic doesn't offer prenatal care. She lives with the guilt of her own abortion after she was raped at a fraternity party. In Picoult's words, Janine has "white-washed the stain with years of pro-life activism."

Also inside the Center that morning are Hugh's teenage daughter, Wren, and his older sister, Bex, who has helped raise Wren since Hugh's wife left them years ago. Wren is there for a prescription for birth control pills, and she asked Bex to accompany her so she wouldn't have to walk alone past the line of protesters.

Interspersed with these stories of how each character came to be at the Center are the ongoing negotiations between Hugh and George, heightening the tension throughout the novel, even though most of the denouement occurs in the opening chapter.

A Spark of Light is another winner for Picoult—a provocative exploration of an issue that is in the spotlight now more ever before.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The author of nine consecutive No. 1 New York Times best sellers, Picoult returns with topical fiction involving a gunman taking hostages at a women's reproductive health services clinic. What's especially tough for Hugh McElroy, the police hostage negotiator, is that daughter Wren is inside. With a focus on characters, from the medical staff to the patients to the gunman himself.

Picoult (Small Great Things; Harvesting the Heart) is known for taking contentious issues and addressing them from a variety of angles while telling compelling, complex stories. Her latest novel hews true to form and centers on the only women's health clinic left in the state of Mississippi to provide abortions after draconian restrictions squeezed others out of existence. After a gunman enters the clinic, shooting at will and taking hostages, police negotiator Hugh McElroy learns that inside are his 15-year-old daughter Wren and sister Bex. The narrative unfolds in an hourly countdown backward, revealing the sequence of events that coalesced in order for each individual to be in this place at this fateful moment. With fully fleshed-out characters and thoroughly realistic storytelling, Picoult pushes readers into the most uncomfortable places, where alternate perspectives are presented without kneejerk reaction and considered without outright rejection. VERDICT Picoult has achieved what politicians across the spectrum have not been able to: humanized a hot-button issue. Excellent for book clubs, this should also be considered for discussions in critical thinking and political debate. [See Prepub Alert, 4/23/18.]—Julie Kane, Washington & Lee Lib., Lexington, VA

Drama abounds in Picoult's latest issue-driven novel (following Small Great Things) in which a hostage crisis in a women's health center/abortion clinic provides a look at a volatile subject. George Goddard, a lone gunman seeking revenge for his daughter's abortion, busts into the clinic in Jackson, Miss., killing and wounding several staff and patients. He holds a handful of them hostage, including Wren and Bex, the 15-year-old daughter and adult sister of Hugh McElroy, the police hostage negotiator assigned to the crisis. Meanwhile, Beth, a teenager in a hospital in Oxford, Miss., whose attempts to have a legal abortion were thwarted, takes medication to abort her 16-week-old fetus and nearly dies from blood loss. She is brought to a hospital and her life is saved, but the state prosecutor's office accuses her of murder upon finding out the reasons for her condition. Picoult's extensive research shines throughout, but the book's reverse chronological structure interferes with the complicated back stories, which include the gunman's reasons for going on a rampage; a doctor's path to performing abortions; why a pro-life believer goes undercover to the clinic to obtain damaging evidence; Beth's thwarted attempts to get a legal abortion; and the relationship between Wren, Bex, and Hugh. Nevertheless, this is a powerful story that brings clarity to the history of abortion and investigates the voices on both sides of the issue. (Oct.)