Interesting topic

As a whole, I found the topics explored by the book interesting, and raised a lot of good questions. Also, the narrators made the story come alive and were pleasant to listen to. It was refreshing to be served an LGBT novel that wasn't all about sex or stereotypes, but I found it a little too flat, and the immense focus on the Bible, God and religion, even though I get why she's doing it, was a little off-putting for me personally. Still, it was an interesting story with a theme that's worthy of attention.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

The singing ruins it!

If you can get past the terrible singing, which starts as soon as the book begins, then the book is okay. EVERY TIME the singing began I had to fast forward 3 minutes to avoid the terrible sound.

8 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

What about Lucy

I've liked other books from this author. wasn't crazy about this one though. I though it started strong but dragged along and had a bit of an abrupt and weak ending. And Lucy, the character we encounter over and over, remains a mystery.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Engaging and entertaining

For the most part, I enjoy reading this author's work. She has a depth in her novels in relation to social norms and policies that touches on controversial topics. This author is direct, firm and diplomatic within the creation of her characters and creates a solid plot to keep the readers interest.

I enjoyed the complexity of the relationships for the most part. At times, the drama components of her characters life situations kicks up a bit more than I feel is necessary but it is entertaining.

Narration method is adequate. I usually enjoy one narrator and this one has multiple narrators. It was not problematic, just added the drama piece.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

The Tears

This book had me bawling, multiple times. Suffering with infertility and loss, bringing such real emotions to the surface. The story is tragic, and beautiful. Worth the read!!

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

good book, terrible singing

Jodi is one of my favorite authors and I lived the story line but getting through the songs was just painful. she's definitely not a songwriter. but, I still would recommend this book. just fast forward the songs.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Great story, but the singing.....?

Intriguing story and characters. Excellent narrators. However, the songs and singing were distracting, poorly preformed and more intrusive than enhancing.

Definitely not up to par with other Picoult novels

The plot lines were too predictable, and yet at times unbelievable.
I too had a difficult time with the songs, as well as many others who have reviewed.

The worst of the major issues for me, however, were all surrounding the timelines of the main characters, once a new timeline began after the divorce. The progression of therapeutic and intimate relationships, the sequential situations the characters are experiencing; the sheer amount and depth of emotional feelings surrounding the events take years, not months, to develop. When things were discussed in the book, I would have the sense of a depth of discussion that should have happened 3 years after the relationship began, not 3 months. It would have been more believable if Jodi had simply passed time in the everyday moving months and years, instead of only weeks and then 5 months from beginning to end, with the majority of the events happening in the second stage of the novel.
I won't go into details, but it was the biggest flaw for me and although I wanted to hear the full story, and finished the audible book, I couldn't get past the timeline.

The part of Zoe had very little emotional depth in her acting the part, in fact most characters had the exact same neutral inflection most of the time, or worse, a positive lilt with all verbalizations. Does not ring true, especially when angry or upset and using the same tonality. I did not like her spoken part.
Max's character also had some of the same. For me what was missing was the depth of emotion that was written but not conveyed through the spoken words of the characters. Anger, incredulity, fear, happiness, sadness, all were voiced the same. Doesn't happen in real life.
It left me wishing I had read the book myself, instead of listening to it.

Quite a few problems....

Overall, I liked the story and the subject matter, but there were several things that kept me from fully enjoying this book. The main issue was the original songs inserted throughout the story; I found them distracting and irritating, rather than enhancing the feel of the story. The songs were clunky and uninspired folks songs that just didn't bring anything to the production of this audiobook, and after trying to listen to a couple of them, I ended up fastforwarding through all of them, which was definitely disruptive.

There were many overly contrived moments throughout the book, especially concerning the Zoe character, and each scene describing her music therapy sessions in detail had me impatient for that part to end. The narrator who voiced Zoe had a perfectly nice singing voice, but again, having to listen to singing (especially given some of the insipid public domain "classics", children's songs, etc that she sang during her sessions) was irritating and distracting from the flow of the narrative.

Also, spoiler alert, but that scene where she barges in to a karaoke night at a bar and turns the whole thing into a one-woman show where she sings and plays guitar all night? No one would be cheering that and inspiring her to keep up her music career in the real world, they'd be wanting to get back to their turn at karaoke. It was just one of many self-absorbed actions on Zoe's part, which made her a little less likable. Overall I rooted for her in her fight against the conservative agenda, but there were times when I just wasn't crazy about her as our protagonist and leading lady.

I like a lot of Jodi Picoult's books, but they can be hit or miss. This one might be better read off the page than listened to in audiobook format.

not like any other

couldn't finish... story not too bag but the songs disrupted and made a bit good book even worse