Handle with Care

Willow O'Keefe was born with osteogenesis imperfecta — bones so brittle they break from a hug, a stumble, a sneeze. Her parents love her fiercely and without reservation, which is what makes their decision to pursue a wrongful birth lawsuit so devastating. To win, Charlotte must argue in court that her daughter should never have been born — all while Willow is old enough to understand exactly what that means. Picoult puts an impossible question at the heart of this novel: how far would you go to protect someone you love, and what do you destroy in the process?

Picoult's signature multi-narrator structure does particularly sharp work here, rotating through the perspectives of parents, siblings, a best friend, and a lawyer — each carrying a version of the same events that quietly contradicts the others. The effect is cumulative and unsettling in the best way, forcing readers to hold competing loyalties without a clean resolution. What lingers isn't the plot but the texture of ordinary family life under extraordinary pressure: the exhaustion, the gallows humor, the moments of grace. It's a book that asks hard questions and trusts readers to sit with the discomfort.