Shygirl: Reading After Midnight

Small Great Things was a powerful, gripping story of racial injustice told from three very different points of view: the nurse accused, the public defender, and the white supremacist father. And let me just that it was an eye-opening experience that will stick with me for a long time.

‘People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.’ –Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

Wow. This was my first time reading Picoult’s work and what a way to begin, with a book based around such a controversial subject as racism. I know it will be uncomfortable for some readers as they delve into Ruth, Kennedy, and Turk’s story. Especially with how emotionally-charged people currently are about this issue. But I think Picoult did a fantastic job painting a picture of each character’s life, their views, their background, and even the different options they had (or didn’t have) based on race. It felt real and very raw, to the point that I had to cringe a few times with some of the personal experiences the characters had.

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