"Leaving Time" by Jodi Picoult

For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts.

Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest: Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons, only to later doubt her gifts, and Virgil Stanhope, the jaded private detective who’d originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers.

As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish.

Jenna wants to find out what happened to her mother, Alice. Alice was an elephant researcher, first in Africa and later at an elephant sanctuary. Jenna knows there is more to the story of the night her mother disappeared and she is determined to piece the puzzle together. She asks for help from a psychic, Serenity Jones and a former detective, Virgil Stanhope. She believes that together, they can solve the mystery of what happened to Alice. In addition, the novel focuses on the perspective of Alice as she studies how elephants handle grief. We get insight into her studies and also her personal life.

I was really into this book, until the very end. I was captivated by Jenna's story and her desire to find out what happened to her mother. I loved Alice's point of view as she studied the elephants, and found this to be the most interesting parts of the novel. It made the desire to find out what happened to Alice stronger, as I got to know her. I listened to the majority of the book on audio discs in the car, but once I was near the very end (and didn't have anywhere to drive to), I downloaded the book on the Libby app so as to finish it that night. Once my son had gone to sleep, I stayed up way later than I should have, only to be incredibly disappointed in the ending. 

I've come to expect some sort of twist in Jodi Picoult's novels. Typically, the ending isn't what I expect, but I am never left unsatisfied. However, Leaving Time left me frustrated. I won't spoil the ending, but I felt that the was next to no set-up for it. I prefer when I don't guess the end of a novel, but get to have the "of course" moment when I realize that the author left a trail of clues that I just didn't piece together. Usually Picoult does this amazingly well. She gives enough information that I understand the ending without having to go back and re-read, but not so much that I am able to guess the ending halfway through the book. I suppose that this time around, I just couldn't handle the fact the paranormal had a part in this book's twist ending. The book wasn't so awful that I won't give Picoult another chance, but it does make me wary that I may not enjoy some of her other books quite as much.

Happy Reading!

-Melly

"The Storyteller" by Jodi Picoult

It's no secret that I have read a lot of holocaust related books in my life time.  Also no secret it that I am (somewhat) a Jodi Picoult fan (I say somewhat only because I have liked everything I have read but haven't read everything yet).  So for me The Storyteller is a great combination.

Sage keeps mostly to herself but when she is approached by a prominent, elderly gentleman from her community she will get the shock of a lifetime. Josef Weber asks Sage to kill him.  He was an SS Guard during the holocaust and can do no longer live with his guilt.  Sage's grandmother managed to survive the holocaust, but has never told anyone the full story.  Conflicted, Sage wants to hear her grandmother's story.  The book spends a lot of it's time flashing back to the events of World War II.  We find out about Minka's (Sage's grandmother) and Josef's pasts and how their paths crossed each other (sorry, spoiler, but it's not a surprise when it happens).  As to be expected from Picoult, there is a twist at the end though not as intense as the other Picoult books I have read (this is the first one that I actually guessed how the novel would end- and I was right!) but the book doesn't focus on the fact that the ending will have a twist.

I was very impressed with this book.  I expected it to read more like the rest of Picoult's books with more drama and controversy.  While this book did have some, it's wasn't nearly as intense as the rest of her books.  I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the holocaust or to anyone that just needs a goo read. I absolutely loved this book!


Happy Reading!
-Melly  

"The Pact" by Jodi Picoult

This book is pretty much what you would expect from Jodi Picoult.  A touchy subject, characters experiencing the rawest of emotions, and ans ending that wasn't really expected.  In The Pact we meet the parents of Emily and Chris.  The mothers met shortly before giving birth to their children.  They quickly became best friends- as did their children.  Emily and Chris have been inseperable their entire lives.  They grew up spending more time together than apart.  So it's no surprise when they reach their teen years and become a couple.  However it does come as a surprise when each set of parents gets a phone call informing them of the nights events- Emily has been shot and it appears that Chris was behind it.  Chris claimed that the two of them had made a pact to commit a double suicide, but the evidence doesn't do much to support his claim.  The rest of the book focuses on finding out the truth and is intermixed with periods prior to this horrible night, starting with Melanie and Gus' first meeting leading up to the teens' final night together.

This was only the third Picoult novel I have read (I read Between the Lines right after this one) and I have become accustomed to what I assume to be her normal writing style.  I have found that I typically start to get lost in stories with a lot of prominent characters.  It seems that most authors can only juggle so many characters before their story lines start to blur together.  This is not the case with Picoult's writing.  Even though this book doesn't have only one or two dominant characters, it was easy for me to keep up with who was who.  There is just something about the way Picoult writes that keeps me completely engaged and not at all confused.  She creates characters and situations that are believable (though we may not always want to believe that such situations could exist).  I have made it a point to not go on a spree of reading her books.  As much as I love them, they really put a hold on my emotions.  It is sometimes difficult to grasp everything I am reading and I feel that reading several of her books in a row might be overwhelming.  No other author has done that to me, but I appreciate it.  She is one of those authors that I feel everyone should try at least one of her books.  I will definitely make my way through the rest of what she has written.

Happy Reading!
-Melly

"Between the Lines" by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer

Though I haven't read many of her books, I would still call myself a Jodi Picoult fan.  So when I saw Between the Lines accompanied by a Young Adult sticker, I was instantly hooked.  At first I didn't realize that she had co-written this book with her daughter, Samantha Van Leer.  So even though it wasn't what I was expecting- I loved it!

Since I didn't do my research, I was expecting a typical Picoult novel- not at all what I got.  Instead it's clear that they took Van Leer's idea and ran with it.  And what a great idea it was!  Between the Lines  tells the story of Oliver and Delilah.  Delilah lives in our world.  She's obsessed with books and reading and though she isn't the most popular girl in the school, she's a very normal teenager.  Oliver lives in the fictional world.  He is the main character of the story-within-the-story (also called  Between the Lines) and must play out the same story line again and again every time the book is opened.   Naturally, Delilah is the first to discover that the characters of her favorite fairy tale are actually alive and she finds herself trying to grant Oliver's wish of escaping the pages that hold him prisoner.   

I loved the design of this book.  The illustrations are beautiful and I loved that the alternating chapters have different colored fonts.  It was nice to see that as much care went into the actual printing of the book as went into it's writing.  I wouldn't recommend this book if you are reading it for the same reason I did.  Just because Picoult's name is on the cover, don't expect what you would normally get out of one of her novels.  This book doesn't contain an unexpected twist at the end or anything like that.  But it is a wonderfully sweet story that I enjoyed immensely and one that I think YA readers will enjoy too.



Happy Reading!
-Melly