Play Book Tag discussion

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult - 2* - My Review

A thirteen-year-old girl searches for her mother with help from a detective and a psychic. I tried this book a while ago and set it aside, since the premise seems absolutely unbelievable. A psychic? Really? So, I finally decided to finish it for a group read. The girl's mother was conducting a research project in Botswana, studying grief in elephants. I think the author wanted to share the plight of these animals, and perhaps should have written non-fiction about them. There is a lot of good material about elephants, but it is handled through “information dumping,” which feels forced. It is told in multiple points of view with flashbacks. There is a lot of sadness here. It is not particularly well-constructed and lacks flow. Of course, there needs to be a big twist at the end (I’m not a fan of these). So, overall, it was okay for me.

If you want to read about grief in elephants, I recommend The Elephant Whisperer and An Elephant in My Kitchen.

Joy D wrote: "Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult - 2* - My Review

A thirteen-year-old girl searches for her mother with help from a detective and a psychic. I tried this book a while ago..."

Oh, this is so NOT your kind of book. I found it very fun to read and I loved the elephants, but it's so wild and messy. Some of her other books are overly careful and structured. It's like the pendulum swung the other way.

Interesting. I will try another of her books. I never judge an author by just one. You're right, though, it's definitely not my kind of book. I would not have finished it except I noticed Picoult was one of our WPF authors and I had gotten quite a way through it before setting it aside.