Small Great Things review: A murder trial, a white supremacist and a black nurse

You may have heard the name Jodi Picoult when practically everyone was sobbing at the cinema in 2009 when My Sister's Keeper hit screens after the bestselling novel.

If My Sister's Keeper wasn't uncomfortable and saddening enough, Small Great Things will have you shifting awkwardly in your seats as offensive racial slurs scatter the pages and serial references to race relations, particularly in America, saturate the novel.

This story follows Ruth Jefferson - a black labour and delivery nurse with over 20 years experience. We soon lean that Ruth is doing absolutely everything she can to take care of her teenage son, Edison, as a single mum after her husband was killed while serving in Afghanistan.

Ruth comes across as an exceptionally talented and pleasant nurse. She's calm and kind even while mothers scream and thrash in pain. But there's something that makes her stand out even more than her remarkable abilities in a delivery room - she's the only black nurse on her ward.

I thought this was very surprising, until I realised the novel was set in a very white area Connecticut. Again to my surprise, Ruth operates in her all-white world by simply pretending that race isn't an issue for her. She pretends she has never been affected by racism or prejudice and tries to blend in as much as possible. That is, until, racism comes and slaps Ruth so hard in her face that her whole world comes crumbling down.

That big slap of good-old American racism comes from non-other than white supremacists: Turk and Brittany Bauer.

Brittany and her husband Turk have just welcomed their baby boy into the world when they meet Ruth, who comes to carry out a routine check on their son. Almost instantly, Ruth can feel a chill in the air and an uneasy tension from both parents. Protective she thinks. It's their first baby, of course. But their protective nature comes from a place of irrational racism, as Turk demands that Ruth leaves their baby alone while he brandishes his Confederate flag tattoo.

With shocking obedience, Ruth's senior places a note on the baby's documents: No African American to care for this baby.

Ruth, understandable annoyed, but all the while easily distracted by more pressing matters, is completely unaware of how much worse the future is about to become.

When the baby stops breathing and passes away - Ruth is blamed.

The death of Turk and Brittany's baby unravels every single drop of racism that Ruth has previously ignored right before her eyes. Every micro aggression and passing comment is suddenly highlighted in neon - and she can no longer ignore it.

With unexpected plot twists that quite literally made me gasp and painfully awkward silences during race-related discussions that made me gulp - Small Great Things is a brutally honest look into how white and apathetic people treat racism.

From the justice system to low-income work to education to denial - Jodi covers every topic, even when I thought they weren't more topics to cover. Clearly, she has done her research on absolutely every aspect of this book - truly showing she is, yet again, a superb storyteller.

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult can be purchased on Amazon.