Tuesday 11 August 2020

The Donor

The Donor by Helen Fitzgerald
Paperback, 320 pages

Published July 2011 by Faber Faber

Shelves
adult-fiction, crime-thriller-mystery, disliked, drink-and-drugs, let-down, medical-conditions, new-adult, read, read-in-2020, realistic-fiction

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:


The Donor, Helen FitzGerald's fifth novel, is a nail-biting psychological thriller about a single dad's horrorfying dilemma. Will, who has given up everything to raise his twin daughters, has a terrible choice to make when both girls suffer kidney failure age 16.

Should he save one child? If so, which one?


Should he buy a kidney - be an organ tourist?

Should he sacrifice himself?

Or is there a fourth solution - one so terrible it has never even crossed his mind?

Perfect for fans of Julia Crouch, Sophie Hannah and Laura Lippman, The Donor is a gripping thriller about a single dad faced with organ donation as his twin daughters battle to survive. 




You should never judge a book by its cover. Unfortunately, when it comes to actual books, I'm afraid to say that I'm guilty of doing so and this The Donor attracted me on both counts. The title was enough to grab me, but after reading the blurb, I knew I just had to read it straight away. It's been said that this book is perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain and Sophie Hannah, all authors that I've enjoyed in the past. The premise sounded intriguing, it had so much potential, but sadly, this book didn't live up to my expectations at all.

It usually takes me a while to decide whether I like a book or not - I feel I should give them all a fair chance. It's rare that I take such a quick dislike to a book as much I did with this one. Initially, I wasn't a fan of the mix between first and third person narration but I did adjust to it quite quickly, so it didn't pose too much of an issue after I'd read through a quarter of the book. The main reason I didn't like the majority of this book was the pure 'trashiness' of it - I'm certainly not a prude or afraid of expletives but I felt that half of the things in this book were just thrown in for the sake of it.  The whole book was littered with random sex scenes and encounters which seemed to hold no purpose whatsoever, not even adding to character relationships or development. There wasn't a chapter that didn't hold a multitude of swearing either, none of which had any real impact as it was just too frequent. Even excusing those first two issues, I had to draw the line at the derogatory language that was used for absolutely no real reason - at the point where one character offhandedly called autistic people 'windowlickers' for absolutely no reason, I had to stop myself from throwing the book across the room. It honestly felt like there was a teenager writing this book, just throwing in anything that they could to be rebellious - this may have benefitted Georgie's narration but it wasn't appropriate for third person.

With a book like this, it's especially important to connect to the characters and feel for them. We're introduced to Will, the unsuccessful parent of Kay and Georgie with a penchant for weed, alcohol and S&M with a married woman who lives nearby. He's probably the most likeable character of them all, showing equal parts of desperation and love for the twins. The  twins, both in need of a donor, are polar opposites - Kay is the 'pretty', kind twin and Georgie is the twin that appears to shows only contempt and cruelness. Georgie's character seems to have more development than Kay as she is who narrates alternating chapters. Initially, I strongly disliked her but her character does develop slightly throughout the book. The other characters include Preston, a strange but admittedly intriguing character who is tasked with searching for the mother of the twins, Cynthia, a relentless drug addict with absolutely no redeeming qualities, and her equally dislikable partner, Heath.  

Despite my issues with this book, it was a page-turner - it was very easy to read and it didn't have any long or drawn out sections - it didn't become boring, which is an extremely positive point. I got through The Donor very quickly in only a couple of sittings. The book did keep me entertained during the last half in particular. Whilst some of the occurrences in the book seemed slapstick and ridiculous, as simple entertainment, the action and the twists in the book weren't disappointing and kept me reading on, despite my issues with the writing. I believe that the bare bones of a good story are in this book, but unfortunately it's just not quite developed as it should be. Disappointing, but this was likely mostly due to my preconceptions. 


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