Change of Heart #1 Q1

I have read many of Jodi Picoult's novels and none of them have interested me and kept me reading like Change of Heart did. There were many things that confused me and surprised me while reading the novel. The entire novel is strange in the sense that Shay Bourne's morals do not add up to what he comes off to be. Being a convicted murderer of two people, I thought Shay was going to be the type of character who you did not like, did not want to see them succeed, and rooted against them. However, Shay was not a heartless killer, he wanted to make up for his wrong doing against the Nealon family, to whom he affected deeply. This surprised me because being a prisoner, to me, usually means that they did not really care about what they were doing and especially did not care who you were affecting. But Shay did care. Another aspect of the novel that surprised me was Father Michael's outlook and attitude toward the whole situation. He was the spiritual advisor to Shay but also was on the jury that decided Shay's ultimate fate. My first impression was that Father Michael was going to help Shay the best he could but not much was going to come out of his efforts. But Father Michael went above and beyond my expectations of his relationship and guidance towards Shay. He visited Shay as much as he could, brought Shay's sister to see him, and stood by him through his long journey. I thought it was going to be the bare minimum of a relationship and it really surprised me how Father Michael helped Shay so much and how close they actually became. However, this does not seem right to me because murder is so wrong and I thought Father Michael was not going to want to get so involved and give as much help to a murderer.
 At first I was confused with what Shay wanted to do to help he Nealon family. Donating his heart to Elizabeth just did not make much sense to me. He wanted to gain inner peace by doing something after he died because of his sentence, which is the death penalty. It is a very nice gesture but it really confused me about the true meaning of donating his heart. And after finishing the novel, I am not quite sure if I received a true answer. Most of the actual plot line was not confusing to me. However, some of the inner details that needed to be looked into more and thought about confused me and made me think more.