Name: Ian Brakspear's review of The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
Item: The Book of Two Ways
Rating: 4
Author: Ian Brakspear

Jodi Picoult

Dawn Edelstein knows everything there is to know about dying. She specialises in helping her clients make peace with the end of their lives. But as she's flying home from her latest case, she is forced to confront her own mortality for the first time. Instead of seeing her brilliant quantum physicist husband and their beloved daughter flash before her eyes in what she assumes are her last moments, only one face is shockingly clear: Wyatt Armstrong. Safely on the ground, Dawn now faces a desperate decision. Should she return to Boston, her family and the life she knows, or journey back to an Egyptian archaeological site she left over a decade earlier, reconnect with Wyatt, and finally finish her abandoned magnum opus, The Book of Two Ways? As the story unfolds, Dawn must confront the questions she's never truly answered: What does a life well-lived look like? When we depart this earth, what do we leave behind of ourselves? And who would you be if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are right now?

The Book of Two Ways

"After my son Kyle Ferriera van Leer declared his major in Egyptology at Yale in 2010, he mentioned the Book of Two Ways in passing. Without knowing a thing about it, I said, "That's a great title for a novel." It was only after he began to explain what it actually was that I realized what I needed to write about - the construct of time, and love, and life, and death"--

A Novel

Riley Walters

I shall kiss (her) in the presence of everyone, 

Sara Raffalski

Shelby lilly

This is my first Jodi Picoult book and after seeing a couple of friends enjoy this one, I decided that I wanted to give this one a go and plot sounded like a great read for the summer months, and this is a book that really makes you think; it makes you stop and consider everything that multitude of possible paths set before us, the regret that can linger in the shadows of our choices, and the reality that each one of us will one day reach the end of our road.

This book centres around Dawn; she is walking a fine tightrope of balancing her life and career as a death doula, raising a daughter who has a body image issues as well as maintaining her relationship with her husband of some 15 years Brain and living a complacent life. However, hidden away is Dawn’s dream of pursuing a career in Egyptology. That she spent semesters of her collegiate life immersed in the tombs, recovering mummified remains, and deciphering hieroglyphics. In that period of her life, Wyatt dominated her heart.

This story flips between time and place, from both past to present until the 2 come to a collision and decisions must be made as to what Dawn wants from her life. Picoult writes about the simple complexities of just being a human and about the choices that we all make, the people that matter in our life. This is richly descriptive and heavily detailed, multilayered storytelling, thoughtful, insightful and well written on life's deepest questions but will not be for everyone. An emotionally satisfying and touching novel that I recommend highly to others.

Ian Brakspear

This is my first Jodi Picoult book and after seeing a couple of friends enjoy this one, I decided that I wanted to give this one a go and plot sounded like a great read for the summer months, and this is a book that really makes you think; it makes you stop and consider everything that multitude of possible paths set before us, the regret that can linger in the shadows of our choices, and the reality that each one of us will one day reach the end of our road.

 

This book centres around Dawn; she is walking a fine tightrope of balancing her life and career as a death doula, raising a daughter who has a body image issues as well as maintaining her relationship with her husband of some 15 years Brain and living a complacent life. However, hidden away is Dawn’s dream of pursuing a career in Egyptology. That she spent semesters of her collegiate life immersed in the tombs, recovering mummified remains, and deciphering hieroglyphics. In that period of her life, Wyatt dominated her heart.

 

This story flips between time and place, from both past to present until the 2 come to a collision and decisions must be made as to what Dawn wants from her life. Picoult writes about the simple complexities of just being a human and about the choices that we all make, the people that matter in our life. This is richly descriptive and heavily detailed, multilayered storytelling, thoughtful, insightful and well written on life's deepest questions but will not be for everyone. An emotionally satisfying and touching novel that I recommend highly to others.

Lacy W

Title: The Book of Two Ways
Author: Jodi Picoult
Genre: Adult Fiction
Format: hardback library book
Series: N/A
Star Rating: 2 stars

tw: death, airplane crash, cancer, infidelity, animal sickness and death, addiction, premature birth

This book was such a disappointment; a rare miss for Jodi Picoult. Normally, I really enjoy Picoult’s books, even the ones that are a little bit out there. This book had so much potential. It has Egyptian gods. I’ve been excited about Egyptian gods ever since I’ve seen Moon Knight. It had the main character as a death doula, which isn’t a conventional job. It had all the makings of a fantastic book. But man, this book sucked. 

The concept of the book itself needed to be clarified. I had no idea what was truly going on. There were also mentions of the multiverse, which is kind of odd to put into a book about someone who used to be an archeologist. So basically the multiverse theory is about timelines. So I’m bad at math in this universe so in another universe, there is a Lacy that is amazing at math. I have no idea why that needed to be a concept in this book. It would have been fine without focusing solely on Egyptian gods. 

Anyway. The main character, Dawn, was so unlikeable. She really was just so insufferable and had a massive victim complex. Everything bad that was happening to her, she created with her horrible choices. She treated her husband so poorly when all he did was love her. She treated her boyfriend in Egypt like garbage, when all he wanted was the best for her. She couldn’t even talk to her daughter all that well and made insensitive comments to her. Dawn just couldn’t get it together. Not to mention, the book was basically a history book on Egypt’s lesser-known pharaohs or a lecture on physics and the multiverse. If I wanted that, I would have picked up textbooks. 

And the ending. Oh my gosh, that ending was trash. I spent three days reading this book about Dawn agonizing over her choices, just to have it end on a cliffhanger. The whole last 100 pages were so unrealistic. I was just so done. I don’t care for main characters with victim complexes. And Dawn had a huge one. 

Overall, this book was just so awful. It did nothing but make me mad, bored, or confused. I had to deal with the main character who made poor choices and then took it out on everyone around her. She made everyone miserable. Do yourselves a favor and skip this book.

Very informative and captivating prose.  I always learn a lot about something randomly intriguing from Jodi Picoult!  Was dissatisfied by the ending, although the book was long enough and I can understand why it wasn't made longer by coming to a neater conclusion.  Thought using Egyptian mythology to parallel and add emotional depth to modern experiences of dying and preparing for death was very well done, especially considering Picoult usually makes Judeo-Christian references to her stories involving loss.

Lily Elizabeth Labella

Dre T

Half of this book was a textbook on Egyptology. Let’s leave it at that.

I may alter my rating as I process this book more, but for now, we will say 4 stars.

The Book of Two Ways starts with Dawn going through a plane crash. As she finds herself bracing for an emergency land, her mind drifts towards regrets of leaving Egypt and her Egyptology degree and Wyatt, the one she left behind, instead of her husband and their daughter. As a survivor, she is offered a free flight to wherever she needs to go. Will she go home to Boston? Or should she try and reclaim the life and love she left behind in Egypt.

This book is very information heavy. On both sides, you have different theories of a multiverse and how fate and free will can alter the course of your life, following Egyptology and astro physics. To be honest, if I was reading this instead of listening to the audiobook, I think I would have found it a lot harder to get into because of how much information and depth you get with these theories, but they are both essential to the plot (maybe not in as much depth, but the depth needs to be appreciated).

Dawn's character is a very relatable one for me, and probably for anyone with loose ends or regrets from their past. She's more of a guide to looking inside yourself for your own answers to the questions she's posing for herself.

The plot is intriguing and reaches the right conclusions for Dawn's character.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but would definitely recommend the audiobook over a physical read.

Victoria Justice

I may alter my rating as I process this book more, but for now, we will say 4 stars.

The Book of Two Ways starts with Dawn going through a plane crash. As she finds herself bracing for an emergency land, her mind drifts towards regrets of leaving Egypt and her Egyptology degree and Wyatt, the one she left behind, instead of her husband and their daughter. As a survivor, she is offered a free flight to wherever she needs to go. Will she go home to Boston? Or should she try and reclaim the life and love she left behind in Egypt.

This book is very information heavy. On both sides, you have different theories of a multiverse and how fate and free will can alter the course of your life, following Egyptology and astro physics. To be honest, if I was reading this instead of listening to the audiobook, I think I would have found it a lot harder to get into because of how much information and depth you get with these theories, but they are both essential to the plot (maybe not in as much depth, but the depth needs to be appreciated).

Dawn's character is a very relatable one for me, and probably for anyone with loose ends or regrets from their past. She's more of a guide to looking inside yourself for your own answers to the questions she's posing for herself.

The plot is intriguing and reaches the right conclusions for Dawn's character.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but would definitely recommend the audiobook over a physical read.

It pains me to admit just how shockingly mediocre this book was. I really wanted it to be good. The adventure of confronting the-one-who-got-away, matched in a bountiful setting like Egypt, intertwining Egyptian mythologies - all the ingredients set up to be a joyous hit. But the story fell flat. The journey, character growth, dialog, the ending all fell flat. The ending, without giving the audience an answer on the protagonists winding mental marathon felt not just infuriating, but lazy from the author. Quite a disappointing read from such a coveted author like Jodi Picoult. 

alicia

Elise Harris

Such an amazing concept for a book, but not Jodi's best book to me. Still loved the insight and emotions of the book as always! 

Beth Bartholomew

A fantastic book of discovery and finding yourself with a very clever narrative structure to truly capture the reader. I was hooked to this from page one, loved the direction the story took and also really enjoyed that it talked about Egyptology too which was really interesting. This book talks a lot about death, so it certainly isn't a light read, but it really makes you want to take control of your life and seize the day! 

Savannah Wells

Beautiful. Broke me and stitched me back together all in one. I loved this story so much! 

The amount of research that went into this book, as Jodi usually does, is outstanding.

Jordan Heustis

I loved this book. I’m seeing reviews about this book feeling like a textbook but I loved it. I loved the story. I loved the conflicts with Brian and Wyatt (I was really rooting for both of them). I love Merret and Dawn and Win. And I loved how much I learned through the book. It all just added to the realism for me.

Emily S

-3.5 stars- 

Brief synopsis: A woman survives a plane crash but finds herself thinking about a long lost love and life she left behind many years ago. Can she get a second chance at a different life? Will she want that? 

I will forever and always love Jodi Picoult and everything she writes (I think I’ve now read...28 of her books?). Out of all of them, though, this one didn’t hit me quite as hard. A lot of her books take a controversial/complex topic and then try to explore it from many different angles and humanize it in a way that helps you to see different perspectives. This one did that from the topic of death (and, also, life), but I just felt like it was trying to do a lot and it lost a bit of its flow at times for me. I did like the twists that were in here, and there were many lines that were especially poignant and made me think. 

Overall, not my favorite of hers, but certainly not bad either.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light comes a "powerful" (The Washington Post) novel about the choices that alter the course of our lives. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MARIE CLAIRE Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She's on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: Prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong. Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, their beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, in which she helps ease the transition between life and death for her clients. But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a career Dawn once studied for but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made. After the crash landing, the airline ensures that the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation to wherever they want to go. The obvious destination is to fly home, but she could take another path: return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways--the first known map of the afterlife. As the story unfolds, Dawn's two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried with them. Dawn must confront the questions she's never truly asked: What does a life well lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices . . . or do our choices make us? And who would you be if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are right now?

Kylie Conklin

Decent storyline, but it was at times confusing for me to follow. 

Krystal Pollock

Wow! This book was so text book heavy that I couldnt even enjoy it! I either had to keep stopping to look up everything or I just powered through it confused! If you like Egypt and hieroglyphics and such and like a hard book to follow with lots of facts then you will probably enjoy this. Now as a long time Jodi Picoult fan im quite disappointed but im hopeful her next book will be better. Kudos to her on all her research for this book but she definitely could have layed off of it a bit!

Shelby lilly &
The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

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