Jodi Picoult Review / Second Glance

Second Glance

Jodi Picoult

Washington Square Press

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've blogged a book review. Unfortunately, I've been reading this book forever, not that it is long, it was just a hard read for me. I've been hearing about this author from a close friend of mine for a long time.

When I was at B&N (Not a good place for me, I buy things even when I don't have the money) I saw her name on one of the stands. I looked over all of her books and picked out two. Second Glance is about a ghost investigator, since I do that also, here's my web site, of course I picked this one first.

I have a lot of conflicting thoughts on this book. I'm going to try to give them to you without giving away the story. The book has three parts. Ms. Picoult writes a well-written story, very descriptive, you could almost reach out and touch, taste or feel what she described. She is by far rated a 5+ on her writing and colorful words.

Ross Wakeman is a ghost hunter, and one of the reasons for this is an accident that happened in his past. He lost someone very dear. He goes to stay with his sister and gets enmeshed in a property dispute. A developer has purchased property from an old professor to build a strip mall. However it's reported that an old Ancient Abenaki Indian Burial ground is on this land.

There are several twists and turns to this story, and it keeps you guessing. The first part I was truly engrossed in Ross and his anguish, and his searching for answers. Then we went to part two, this takes you back in time to the what happened and why there is a ghost haunting the property.

From the first it pulled me from the story. Almost each scene started with a snippet from a journal, either from the Eugenics record office or from the state senate of Vermont. It's a study that was taking place at the time. I will not go into it because I do not want to give anything away.

I would be interested one minute then technical snippets would pull me from the story. Because I liked the story line and the characters I forced myself through this part. I was more than ready for part three of the book and back to the present.

However, lab and crime scene reports in technical terms continued to pull me from this fascinating complex story. Only about half of the last part of the book was this way and by the time I was almost to the end I was deeply engrossed again.

It's about love, loss, restoring the truth, relationships. Being in the right place, and mystery. Yes as I said complex. So there's my dilemma!

This is my personal opinion, when I'm reading a book, to much technical jargon reminds me of my text books, and I didn't enjoy reading them that much, no plot. Why when I'm reading to relax would I want to read a text book. Now on the other hand I love to put a puzzle together as I read, so it's not that I mind that fact I have to think. This might have been one of my favorite books if all the technical text book stuff had been nixed. Will I read her again? I have another book, and I'm hoping the next one will knock my socks off. I'll let you know when I review the other if I'll read more.

This situation reminded me of Michael Crichton. I love his books from The Lost World to Sphere, and I love his series Grey's Anatomy but his book Congo, way too technical. But yet I still read all of his work.

Okay time for the rating.

I give this book a 4 It was too well-written for a 3 and too technical for me to be a 5. If this hadn't had all the technical jargon and pulled me from the book so much it would have be a 5 margarita with extra tequila. If you love technical, you'll love this book!