discoveringpeace's reviews
633 reviews

I was initially drawn into Ruth's character, excited to plunge into this book. The cliches quickly took over and made it difficult to complete the book. Of course Turk becomes the savior. Of course Kennedy has an awakening. Of course Brit is half black. The author's note felt belittling and smacked of the subtle racism she explains thru Kennedy in the closing arguments.

Too often, it felt like Picoult's excuse to speak the racism she feels under the guise of "raising awareness." It felt little more than a sweet peachy band-aid to make her white reader's feel shocked and better about themselves. I mean, at least they aren't Turk! But wait! He turns out to be the hero. Gross.

Exquisite and excruciating. I don't know if I'll ever recover from Mrs Jenkins story.

This is a tough book for me to process. I'll have to come back to review it.

I wasn't sure if this was about war or parenting. I was right.

Beautiful, heartbreaking story.

Holy cow. The entire time I slogged painfully through this book, I imagined myself as a therapist, listening to the most self-absorbed, overanalyzing, dreary, grating rich kid one can possibly imagine. No depth or personality whatsoever. After each session, I felt a visceral need to slam my head repeatedly against a wall just to remind myself that I'm still alive. Oy! I never did figure out where the family romance came in. There was nothing romantic or even particularly loving about any of it. Just another dysfunctional family with a son who takes everything personally when so little had anything at all to do with him.