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This is the last Jodi Picoult book I will read Mar 19, 2009 (51 of 58 found this helpful)
I've read ALL of Jodi Picoult's books. Some of my favorites are Perfect Match, My Sister's Keeper, and The Pact. Compared to those books, her latest release, Handle with Care, is contrived, sloppy, boring, and disappointing. Oh, and too many points of view included. I almost laughed at the ending because I honestly didn't think the book could have ended with more of a cop-out.
It doesn't seem like the publishers bothered copyediting or proofreading this book. Kitty Litter should not be capitalized. I don't care how "mature" a 6 year old is, she would create a Gmail account. And, Jodi, please spare me the gratuitous references to Facebook. These are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head -- there were many more.
Perhaps releasing one book a year is too much for Jodi Picoult, because the product is suffering. Her stories used to be contemporary, heart-wrenching and full of plot twists.
Handle with Care is simply a regurgitation of lawyers, sisters with issues, second marriages, etc. With some bulimia and cutting thrown in and not really addressed. Not to mention the recipes. What was the point of those? Charlotte's career as a pastry chef seems conveniently trendy and never becomes anything more than that, except for the lame recipes scattered throughout the book. It's like Jodi's editors and marketing team sat around a table and came up with every single thing they could incorporate into this book and then threw each thing in, none of which were successful.
I'm glad I got this from the library instead of purchasing it. What a disappointment. Don't bother.
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Give me a break...a very bad Picoult read. Mar 21, 2009 (44 of 55 found this helpful)
I have enjoyed Jodi Picoult's books since the very early days in the 90s, and I have to say that although they were getting better and better, she definitely plateaued around Nineteen Minutes and has now begun the downward spiral. I should add that I am also a high school English teacher, so I deal with a fair amount of books in my spare time. This book was written so similarly to My Sister's Keeper that I had a pretty good feeling on what the ending was going to be near the beginning of the book, and I was right.
Warning: mild spoiler to follow.
Like her book last year, Change of Heart, this book just seems to follow a formula she's gotten too comfortable with in her last few novels: a child with a medical issue, parents with personal issues, and an angsty lawyer with a long backstory.
Probably the worst part of this book and Picoult's recent novels is her tendency to dive into these awful comparisons. She describes characters with breath that smells of coffee and regret, and cookies that are baked with a special ingredient: the ingredient of remorse. The characters are constantly looking at or holding on to something physical, then realizing what they are really looking at/holding is a feeling: sympathy, love, grief, etc. Give me a break. I could handle these once every few chapters, but there is literally one of these every few pages. Is someone ghostwriting this stuff in?
As a mother, I found the character of Charlotte to be completely unbelievable. Throughout the novel, she recognizes the fact that filing a wrongful birth lawsuit may destroy her daughter's image of her and of herself, but all she cares about is money, even when they never previously struggled with money.
Additionally, for kicks, there is a teenage sister who is thrown in, and of course she has her teenage problems. But she has not just a few problems, but all problems: bulimia, self-mutilation, depression, blue hair. And she develops them all at once. And no one cares, and they're never really resolved.
The whole book was just very disappointing. I think Picoult needs to up her game if she plans to keep her readers. Ditch the angsty lawyer and the horrible comparisons on the feelings. And if you're a reader, take it out of the library and be thankful you can be done with it for good in three weeks. I barely made it through.
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Doesn't make sense May 14, 2009 (8 of 8 found this helpful)
My main problem with this book was with the wrongful birth topic. Charlotte DID find out her daughter had OI while pregnant. She COULD have had an abortion then. The story would have made more sense if there was not another ultra sound after the one at 18 weeks and they wouldn't have known until birth that the baby had OI. Marin's argument and the jury's decision seemed as if Piper caused the baby's disability. It seems unlikely to me that any jury would award damages to this couple in this situation. The whole premise seems unrealistic.
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Not my Favorite Picoult Book Jun 2, 2009 (20 of 25 found this helpful)
Many reviewers have compared this latest novel to Picoult's earlier novel, My Sister's Keeper. Though I can see the resemblances in the novels, My Sister's Keeper is a far superior piece of work, in my opinion.
I have read all of Picoult's novels and have a few that I like more than others. This one is definately not one of my favorites. My opnion has less to do with writing style, as I do enjoy the way Jodi offers the story from the perspectives of several of her characters. I also don't have an issue as many others seemed to have with the fact that there are a lot of sub plots in this book. This, in my opinion, makes it that much more interesting.
My problem with this book is probably more of a biased opinion. I had a very had time "connecting" with the primary character in the book, Charlotte (the mom). As the mother of two children with special needs (one of which has a terminal condition), I found it very hard to be sympathetic with her battle to sue her doctor, and more importantly, best friend for "wrongful birth". She is suing not, necessarily because she feels she would have aborted her chronically ill child but because she feels the money would offer a better life for this child and would aid in paying off medical bills. I should also mention that I live in New Hampshire and am extremely familiar with the type of medical assistance available to families with disabled children and I found a lot of inconsistancies in the book as far as that goes. In my personal opinion, I just cannot fathom alienating my husband and best friend just to make a buck (or several million). In an effort to save her family, Charlotte all but destroys it and I simply don't get that.
I won't spoil the ending but suffice it to say it left me very dissapointed and feeling as though I just wasted my time reading this novel.
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3 plus stars -Did the writing format bother anyone else? Mar 24, 2009 (6 of 6 found this helpful)
This entire novel is written in a "letter/journal" type, from each character in the story - be it the mother, father, sister, doctor, even the attorney, to the victim of the disorder, who in this case is a child named Willow, born with brittle-bone disease. Many victims of the disease "O.I." do no not survive the birthing and most have a very short lifespan. She is only about 6 years old through most of the novel.
In this case, each chapter begins with a "journal-type" entry, from one of the characters in the story, addressing Willow, as if talking to her. It is hard to imagine that even if what each one is writing to her is their true feelings and emotions, that they would want this child to know all that, maybe assuming she would live to adulthood and want to know all the anguish they went through because of her? It wasn't clear why they were addressing her. I found it far-fetched that a Dad who loved his child so much would write like this to her, using the f-word even, to make a point, or mentioning intimate details of his life and emotions with her mother. I encourage any comments on this.
I found that part of it disturbing, and I am a BIG Picoult fan... I rate this only a 3 plus for that fact and for the ending which I won't disclose. One thing I did like about this was the inserts of recipes where she put them, which related to what was happening in that particular part of the story. It was an unusual tactic, but the topic of the whole novel is so grim that the recipes were a welcomed diversion.
I have liked her previous, most recent works better. She is so talented, her characters are always so real and engaging, and the research is so in depth. She has some great work out there, her novels are controversial and gripping, great for book clubs and discussion.
As other reviewers have mentioned, the ending of this one makes one wonder ... "all that for that?" Even so, one cannot come away from a Picoult novel feeling unaffected - the characters stay with you.