Jodi Piccoult books

[lumberingaroundthehouse]

I keep being fooled!

The premise or synopsis sounds good but then when I start reading I’m immediately lost in a never-ending carousel of characters. I am taken back and forth with them to things that may be significant but I can never remember who did what or what happened to them.

Some of the memories are obviously described to be poignant in some way. Like this - Once ... a guy threw a party ... you were gone and someone noticed you lying at the bottom of the pool ... I dove in and dragged you out ... But you were furious at me. You told me you’d been looking for mermaids and I interrupted you. Wot?

And the endless handwringing about mothers and bad mothers who work. Arrgghh.

Yet amazon reviews are brilliant. What am I missing?

@PuddleglumtheMarshWiggle

I get so annoyed with her. I find the premise of her stories so interesting, but the plot lets it down. It's like she's always trying to find the easy way out of any difficult situation. Plain truth - the book club questions at the end of the book asked how surprised were you by the ending. I didn't realise it was supposed to be a surprise. She had written so many clues in mile-high letters! My sister's keeper - interesting plot about medical ethics. I found the situation fascinating. The ending was such a let-down. Just what is the easiest way to end this instead of what could have been a gritty, difficult dilemma. House rules - again interesting plotline but SPOILER ALERT - why did no one just ask "why did you move the body" Surely a trained lawyer, or even the mother, would have asked this before going to court.

I refused to read any others based purely on the evening of My Sisters Keeper. It pissed me off so much. The premise was excellent, and rather than commit to a potentially controversial ending, she went for something that I'm sure she regarded as the shocking twist, but was actually a very lazy way to end it. The PP who called it authorial cowardice has hit the nail on the head.

I love her books

In a similar vein, I also now avoid Lionel Shriver books. I read We Need To Talk About Kevin at the top of its height and thought it did well with the shock and misery factor. So then I read Double Fault. And realised that her formula is to ensure that no character ends up happy. I'm not one for happy ever after, but she seems to go out of her way to create misery for the characters, and then leave it there.

evening of My Sisters Keeper.

ENDING! Fecking phone.

I have read a few of them and enjoyed a couple of them, I found that the initial topic was well researched but found the books very samey. It was like she was using the same formula and just altered the figures slightly.

I love her books. 19 minutes is the first one I read, not long after I finished my a levels, I could relate to being in school etc

Oh I thought My sister’s keeper was cowardly in the book too. The “this is what Kate wants” bit. Completely undermined the central dilemma of what if the sibling genuinely just wants to put themselves first and not donate?

I recently read another one, about a little girl who sees Jesus. It was ok but again chickened out of a yes or no answer on whether she’s actually having religious visions.

I love most of her books, but not the Humpback Whale one, the elephant one or the seeing Jesus one!

My favourites are Plain Truth, Small Great Things and The Pact.

Her books are formulaic but I still enjoy reading them, I like that she addresses "issues" even if it's often not in a way that requires much thinking on the reader's part!

Also love Lionel Shriver's books!

Was the seeing Jesus one, the one with the kid who heals people?
I read that too, but can't remember the ending at all.
I've seen the film of The Pact and thought it was ok.

I've read loads of her books, but they are too samey for me now. A few other things I don't like;

Twist - I love a twist in a book, but not for the sake of if. I didn't like the twist in Small Great things. The twist could have been a book in itself.
I didn't like the ending of The Pact, just wouldn't happen in the real world.

The background - I don't like the extra padding about whales, elephants etc. I'd rather just get on with the story.

I could see the point of the elephants, but it was just too much.
I won't be bothering with any more of her books, I've not enjoyed the few I've read enough.

I loved her early ones but found the last few very boring - her writing is very formulaic and after a while they all blend into one

I met her a few years ago when she was touring and advertising her latest book - she's a good speaker and very pleasant to talk to!

Agree with others, they are far too samey now, thought The Pact was one of her best.

I quite liked 19 Minutes. I know what you mean, she is irritating in style, but bits of that book I thought were v good. I massively sympathised with the protagonist, and questioned myself allot as to why as obviously his actions are appalling.

The whole appeal of jodi's books for me was that they were so easy to read. My favourite was Second Glance and that was slightly batshit, as it started off as a ghost hunter story, then veared off in into ancient burial grounds, historical treatments of native Americans and eugenics. It was kind of lovely, but it felt like I was reading a story with about 18 calibrating authors.

Stopped reading her books for the same reason. I love Jojo Moyes, books to get lost in and I end up going to bed early to read more.
Also Can get enough of Liane Moriarty. Brillaint books .

I think her shtick (marketing hook) is the same "ripped from the headlines" attention-grabbing guilty-pleasures formula that keeps me watching Law And Order: Special Victims Unit even though it's in its 21st season and has gone very far downhill (and I also know it's somewhat exploitative/takes extreme liberties with real life stories). I haven't read anything from Picoult in years, though, and it's hard to remember the ones I did read even if I enjoyed them at the time.

I can see someone picking up one of Picoult's books on a subject that piques the interest of that specific reader and thinking it's great - because you're not going to see some very topical story accessibly and neatly fictionalised anywhere else, at least not so soon. But after a few of her books - yes, they seem repetitive and formulaic to me.

On the one hand, I don't think it's fair to critique a book/author for not telling the story I would have told with the same material - but on the other hand, Picoult's body of work kind of consistently uses the unexplored trauma of less powerful people (teenage girls, very often) to propel a story about the character development of more powerful people (middle class adults). The Tenth Circle (2006) - about a father who can't deal with his fourteen year old daughter's rape - is probably the most extreme example of this, but The Pact (2008) is up there too. It can be an interesting take (if done well) in one specific book - but as a pattern, it feels a little creepy/exploitative - or at best, like she's just focused on what will sell the most books to people with disposable income.

Yes Liane , Moriarty,s books are very good @Rollerboots ,the first one I read I picked up quite by chance ,it was The Husband's secret it had me hooked .