Jodi Picoult’s powerful novel portrays an emotionally charged marriage that changes course in one explosive moment. Sometimes finding your own voice is a matter of listening to the heart… Jodi Picoult’s powerful novel portrays an emotionally charged marriage that changes course in one explosive moment…For years, Jane Jones has lived in the shadow of her husband, renowned San Diego … husband, renowned San Diego oceanographer Oliver Jones. But during an escalating argument, Jane turns on him with an alarming volatility. In anger and fear, Jane leaves with their teenage daughter, Rebecca, for a cross-country odyssey charted by letters from her brother Joley, guiding them to his Massachusetts apple farm, where surprising self-discoveries await. Now Oliver, an expert at tracking humpback whales across vast oceans, will search for his wife across a continent–and find a new way to see the world, his family, and himself: through her eyes.
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I loved the book. Jodi know how write a compels g story with wonderful characters and dialogue.
Quite a nice story with believable characters. A tad bit “predictable”, but enjoyable all the same!
I love reading Jodi Picoult. Some of her books are better than others, but she always writes well and gives us a gripping story. I love learning about the interesting subjects. This book is les intense than some of her later ones, but she never disappoints.
about relationships of between people of different ages, ideals, backgrounds, and very different personalities. Very good info on Humpback whales.
Anything Jodi Picoult writes is good!
Not her best. Hard to follow as it went back and forth by chapter which made it difficult.
I think I’ve read too many Jodi Picoult books…..I’m finding them a trudge to the ending, and this one fit that description. They’re usually the same general formula.
I didn’t care for the way it was written. Jodi Picoult us one of my favorite authors however this was just too back and forth and couldn’t hold my attention. I couldn’t finish it
Jodi Picoult weaves interesting and unpredictable tales that keep you thinking. This is challenging to read because you have multiple characters telling the story. Some do it in chronological order, some looking backwards. But it’s worth the effort.
I realize that this is an early Piccoult, but I won’t read any more of hers; the writing was not up to my standards.
It was OK. 5 narrators were confusing. Did not agree with the ending.
The flashbacks are dizzying.
This is engaging but has a few too many shifts in the timeline and points of view for me to follow easily. Normally this author makes me consider many sides of a controversial topic, and I enjoy that. This was not what I was expecting from her. So the 3 stars is because it was a bit of a disappointment due to a the high bar she has set.
I have been reading Jodi Picoult for decades and have loved every book I have read. A big endorsement from a 77 year old woman who primary source of pleasure reading is Science fiction and Fantancy. She has a wonderful way of taking difficult subjects and circumstances and showing how there is no such things as a simple solution or a solid right or wrong.
I can’t even express how much I didn’t like this book. I usually like Jodi Picoult but it truly upset me that the mother and daughter character basically stole $600.00 from one guy and $400.00 from another. The crowning glory and what made me stop reading was when they his a used maxi-pad in a dressing room. Disgusting.
The ending was too up in the air – or was it?
it was excellentSongs of the Humpback Whale
Jodi Picoult is one of the best. Her research is excellent and her characters are believable. I always come away from her books knowing something about something I was totally unfamiliar with. I also very much like how often she gives the other side of the story and you end up understanding the “bad guy” if not liking them
I wanted to like this book more than a three (I’m being generous, because it was probably more of a 2.5-2.75). I was actually perfectly ok with a story being told from the perspective of five people, even if there was overlap of events, because people experience a single event in completely different ways, from their own unique life experiences. But there were…some undeniable glaring issues with this book. The first, and most annoying, was that one of the characters told the story in reverse, which made things confusing and disconcerting, warped around the edges. There were also some editing mishaps that drove me a bit crazy by the time the fifth (and not final) one jumped off the page at me. Being an author’s first book, you could see that Picoult tried too hard. There were just far too many horrifying issues swirling around these five separate individuals — I won’t detail, for the sake of avoiding spoilers — but they just couldn’t all be addressed, mush less fully fleshed out. Heck, I couldn’t even feel much about them, other than overwhelmed because there were so many. Every time I thought the circumstances were messed up, another catastrophic issue was heaped on the bonfire. And finally, though I felt varying degrees of pity, albeit tinged with annoyance, for the characters at points throughout the book, the only one I actually *liked* was Sam. With some tweaks (and EDITING, OMG), this could have been a really good read. I’ve read another (more recent) book by Picoult, after she wasn’t so wet behind the ears, and I enjoy her writing. I could sense its bare bones present, even in this mess, and the writing itself was never the problem for me. This won’t discourage me from picking up others…but thank God she learned and grew past this one.
Ah Jodi. I am giving her a break because this was her first book. It was written in 1992. At least I can only hope because it was all over the place. Characters developed too quickly, the ideas in the book seemed completely unrealistic. She told the story in a style she still uses today – many voices – and normally I love that about her. But this one – nope. I rolled my eyes about 500 times during the reading of the book. The ending was blah. I won’t hold it against her, though. She has written some amazing books. This just wasn’t one of them.