ISBN: 0743496701
List Price: $26.00
Amazon Price: $16.38
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 2
Reviews:
Summary: Hated it
I feel the dust-jacket description is inaccurate, if not misleading. It would lead you to believe that the life of the Stones is going relatively well up until the point that the 14 year old daughter is a victim of "violence". That would not seem to be the case when you consider the father's past and what it means to him in the present. The mother has secrets of her own that suggests family life is not so peachy. And the daughter was engaging in negative behaviors before the supposed act of violence.
The cover would also seem to imply that the father will react dramatically to what happens to the daughter but it didn't read that way at all to me. His past didn't seem to interfere with how he dealt with the situation, even though the story continues to suggest that his past is surging up and taking over. It feels odd to be so disappointed in how well he actually seemed to handle the situation.
The book is filled with a lot of generalizations that showcase some of the uglier behaviors of todays youth, couples, individuals. It jumps about, recounting trivial information that really doesn't lend anything at all to the story. Much of the drama is nothing but filler that goes nowhere. There's a lot of build-up that falls flat. The comic portion doesn't clarify anything, rather it only tells what is being told in words throughout the book. It's a cheap gimick which was actually the only thing that caused me to have interest in the book.
The only reason for giving this book 2 stars, instead of 1, is because I actually read long enough to finish the book.
Summary: Good Read, but Unrealistic
I'm a Jodi Picoult fan too, and I loved Saving Faith. FOr me, however, this book failed because the characters didn't feel real, somehow. Usually, her books win high praise because every reader hears the story and thinks to themselves, "Yes, I could see this happening. I could see something like this happening to me. I could be this person -- and if I were, I wonder how I would react."
However, this book contains characters such as: an out of control fourteen year old girl who has apparently had multiple sexual partners, a clueless stay at home dad who stays home and draws comic books all day and apparently has no clue what his ONE child is up to, a mother who teaches English literature at a Maine college (Bates? Colby? help me out here) and also sleeps with her graduate students (one of whom is a drug dealer). This is an upper middle class suburban family, apparently.
Strange, I don't know any families like this. Maybe I'm just lucky. But I think that's why it had a "soap opera" feel to me -- It felt more like one of those movies you would see on the Estrogen Channel there. The ones you don't expect to provide any real insights into human nature, but just to entertain you for an evening.
The problem is that those of us who know and love Jodi Picoult's work know that she's capable of so much more. Write us another one, Jodi! Make it a good one!
Summary: Give her a couple of points for trying something different...
I tend to enjoy Picoult's novels--they're usually an effortless read, an interesting premise, kind of like a nice light custard. This one is different, much darker and not very original in terms of basic plot. It made for a boring read. However, I did appreciate her building upon the comic book idea, a distinctly masculine element (although the "hidden message" was hokey), and incorporating Dante's circles of hell into the scheme of her story. The latter was food for thought--is there a hierarchy of sin?
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