A bit predictable, but actually a quite good one :) Reminded me too much of "The Green Mile" in the first part, but amaf it really is it's own story.

This book is so good! Read it if you have a chance.

Didn't know what stars to give, almost quit about halfway thru. Got bogged down by the religion, the criminal justice system and the inevitable death we all face no matter what we do in life. Picoult is a good writer, researcher, but her subjects are so dark...

Tragedy can change the whole direction of your life but also the lives of others and sometimes in a way that is unexpected.

I really loved this book. I could not put it down. I found it interesting and entertaining. I would have given it 5 stars except I was a bit disappointed with the ending. I don't want to give anything away so I'll just say that I felt it ended a bit abruptly, and of course bc I enjoyed it so much I wanted more. A very good read!

Interesting book. Picoult always makes me think. :) I really enjoyed this book. It was hard to put down. I don't know what I'd do in that situation, but I felt her characters were realistic and grappled with the same questions I did. :)

Having just finished this book moments ago, I feel a flurry inside. I want to discuss it with someone, read it again, sit quietly by myself, all at the same time. This was one of Picoult's most powerful books for me. I can imagine her dreaming up this book...what if Jesus came to the 21st century and was condemned to die all over again...and the story springing from there, vividly and vibrantly with a life all its own. This book begs you to examine yourself, to question your own path, your own spirituality. Shay is certainly a character I'll be thinking about for quite some time. Though I recognize that there are some minor flaws (a flatly drawn relationship between Dr. Gallagher and Maggie, for example) overall the book is a powerful novel that moves my heart and my mind! This one ranks right up with My Sister's Keeper as an all time favorite - not just of Jodi Picoult books, but of all books I've read!

Meh. At first the premise of the book seemed intriguing...and then like The Green Miles...and then it got kind of slow and too religious. And I was able to call the twist with the step dad from pretty early in the book. Overall I think the concept about giving away a convicted murderer's heart to a family member of the deceased is an interesting concept, but I think it could have been executed better. I liked all the perpectives for the most part though. Except Maggie was too hard on herself.

Jodi Picoult is not a GREAT writer and her books are formulaic, but the ones that I have read are also well-researched and interesting with various points of view, “moral dilemmas”and always a twist/surprise.

Change of Heart concerns a convicted murderer, Shay Bourne, on death row, who wishes to donate his heart to the daughter/sister of his victim. The story is told, in very short chapters, from the viewpoint of June, the wife/mother of the murder victims, Maggie, an ACLU attorney, Michael, a priest who also served on the jury that convicted Shay and Lucius, the inmate neighbor of Shay. The issues handled are the death penalty and religion and others.

"The really interesting thing, to me, is that somehow religion stopped being about trying to find honest solutions...and started being about ritual. Instead of searching for understanding on their own, orthodox religion came along and said, 'Do x,y, and z- and the world will be a better place." (261)

"It was so damn hard to find love in this world, to locate someone who could make you feel that there was a reason you'd been put on this earth. A child, I imagined, was the purest form of that. A child was the love you didn't have to look for, didn't have to prove anything to, didn't have to worry about losing." (279)

"Someone once told me that when you give birth to a daughter, you've just met the person whose hand you'll be holding the day you die." (356)

Same formula as all of her other books: take a controversial issue, add some "unlikely" love story, plus the ubiquitious motherhood theme and you've got yourself a Jodi Picoult novel. I'd like to see her branch out a bit. I think she's a decent writer with a penchant for choosing interesting topics, and I think she does her research, but the formula is so predicatable, it' frustrating.