Jodi Picoult

Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her widowed father Andrew, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiancé, and her own Search and Rescue bloodhound - which she uses to find missing persons. But as she plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can't recall. Then a policeman shows up at her door, arresting her father for the kidnap of a little girl. And Delia's past and present fracture into little pieces. VANISHING ACTS is a book about the very nature and power of memory. It explores what happens when the past we have been running from catches up to us, and questions who we trust to tell us the story of our lives before we are capable of remembering it ourselves.

Vanishing Acts

Working with the Search and Rescue bloodhound team to find missing people, single mother Delia Hopkins anticipates her upcoming nuptials, until a series of unsettling flashbacks threatens to devastate her life and the lives of those she most loves. By the author of My Sister's Keeper and Second Glance. Reprint. 300,000 first printing.

A Novel

Lacy W

Title: Vanishing Acts
Author: Jodi Picoult
Genre: Contemporary Adult Fiction
Format: paperback
Series: N/A
Star Rating: 5 stars

tw: in this book, there is talk of child molestation. It is not very descriptive but it is talked about. This is the only trigger warning I have for this book.

 this is an updated review. i am going back and editing these reviews as part of my throwback thursday posts on my blog. 

Well, what can I say about this book? At first, I was going to give it 4 stars because it was good but it wasn't blowing me out of the water. Then a major plot twist happened and I suddenly couldn't put the book down. I just had to find out what happened. So I read about 150 pages in the span of a couple of hours.

POVs are Jodi Picoult's bread and butter. She gives each main character a chapter so that character can discuss their feelings about the events happening, the feelings of another person, etc. I love that and that is why I keep going back to her books again and again. In this particular book, Delia, Eric, Andrew, Fitz, and Elise (later in the book) each have chapters. Each person gets a specific font as well so it is easier to keep them straight.

I found that I liked Delia's and Fitz's chapters the most. They spoke with such feeling and heart. I may or may not have shipped them. I read fast through the others so that way I could get to these two. Especially after the plot twist. I didn't care for Eric at first when I learned about him through Delia but when I got a chance to read his POV, my mind changed. I thought he was a jerk but in all reality, he is a man who is just losing control of everything around him. Andrew's impressed me the least. He was so vague, it was irritating.

As for the story, you know the major plot twist (the first one) in the first 50 pages. That is what put me off from the book and from giving it a full 5 stars at first. I thought that the book was going to go very slow as everybody finds out the secret and lawyers prepare for the trial and everybody discusses their feelings and whatnot. But it wasn't quite as slow as I thought it was going to be. Yes, in some parts it felt like filler. Like what was going on with Andrew in jail. Some parts I just didn't care enough about.

Overall, This was just a really solid enjoyable book. Jodi Picoult has a way of writing about such taboo topics and making them so they aren't so taboo. I highly suggest this book and all her other ones as well. All are so good in their own way. I have yet to find one that I have rated less than 3 stars.

Alyssa 

really good book! glad to see that Andrew wasn't convicted in the end! :) but Victor should have been arrested if Delia remembered her molesting her...it's not that easy though. sad to see Eric fall off the wagon causing Delia to have an affair with Fitz...:(

shalee olsen

Listened to on audio, that's how I choose to do most of Jodi's books. I found this one to drag a bit... The premise was pretty intriguing but I feel like it really drug out details that didn't matter much and then at the end she really rushed through some BIG moments. 

I think a common trend with Picoult is "her endings suck" not my words but that's what I hear frequently. I feel like it was a good ending but just rushed and too much wrapped up too quickly. 

Not her worst, But not my favorite. 

Things I did enjoy. The characters, they were vivid. The setting, I felt like I was there. The plot really intrigued me! and of course the ending twist!! Didn't see that one coming!

Krystal Campbell 

Not one of Jodi's best. 

Overall it was a good story with an interesting plot line but I feel like it was maybe a little too long. There were parts that were maybe not needed, characters even who we didn't need to have entire scenes with. 

I still enjoyed it and can recommend that the audio (which I listened to along with reading the physical copy) was nice enough.

Vanishing Acts

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