Can you guess who it is?
I stumbled across Jodi Picoult during my sophomore year of college, back when I had money and could afford frivolous things like perusing the book aisle of Target for a leisurely read. I picked up "My Sister's Keeper" scanned the back and thought it sounded interesting. I purchased it and started reading it that night, which stretched into that morning. I had to wake up at 9 for my 10:00 tennis class and I would stay up until 5:30 in the morning reading this book. I was so enthralled. And I'm weird and I hate leaving off in the middle of a chapter so I would force myself to make it to the end, only to reach another mini cliffhanger and it was another chapter to go until my eyes were actually closing and I would make myself stop.
I love to read but I mainly read before bed, it takes a lot for me to read in the middle of the day when there are YouTube videos to watch and celebrity gossip to catch up on. Well I would bring this book with me to read in between classes, the minute I got home from class, any chance I got. Picoult is simply so amazing at weaving together a tale with love and suspense and twists, that you just have to know what happens. Even if that means forsaking a few hours of sleep.
Well, after I finished I had to read more! I remember buying three of her books at once at Barnes & Noble and the cashier asking if I liked Picoult and then corrected herself by saying "Well obviously you do if you're buying $45 of her books at once". I love her, I love her, I love her.
Picoult has the amazing ability to tell her stories from multiple perspectives character's perspectives. Different genders, backgrounds, and ages are the tip of the iceberg. I applaud this. When I first came up with the idea for my book, I toyed with the idea of switching back and forth between the main girl and main guy's perspectives but ultimately opted against it. I'm not a boy. I don't know how they think. At all. So there was no way I could have written from one's perspective. Picoult does it with ease. She has major characters that are males, some coping with their wife's death, others are struggling to understand why their son attempted suicide, others dealing with a daughter dying from cancer. She usually has at least four perspectives going at once in each book and the way she can create all of these unique, individual voices is nothing short of amazing.
Her books usually focus on a family and the different views of certain members, along with some outsiders so you aren't solely entrenched in the biased view of a family. In her later books, a trial is usually involved. Now, I find this fascinating. She must have to do immense research to use all of the lingo, the processes, and even graphs for evidence accurately and appropriately. And this woman is to the point that she is putting out a book a year. How does she do all of that research and writing?! That's insane! Whether it is research on indian burial grounds, rare medical conditions, or the procedures involved with school shootings, she always provides her reader with lots of information.
She also usually tackles a tricky, heated issue like abortion, stem cell research, or rape. Hence why a trial and lawyers are usually involved in her books. And that's usually my favorite part. Maybe it's because if I was smarter and more determined (and not terrified of public speaking) I would have gone to law school. So maybe I'm just appreciative of being able to experience it through the safety of a book.
And the thing about Picoult, from a girly perspective, is she uses words and phrases that just make you want to sob as you read them. I already explained how much I love My Sister's Keeper. I have read it two or three times (meaning I KNOW what is going to happen) and I sob, and I mean sob, every single time. It's like she always tries to give you a good tug on your heart strings and while sometimes it can seem forced, sometimes it's dead on and you can't help but shed a tear.
Now some of my small complaints about the Jodster. But I'm not trying to knock Picoult. See all of those little circles on the book in the picture? Those tell the awards that book has won, you know next to the "NYT Bestseller Author" tag but as much as I love her, I do have some slight issues with her writing style. She has a lot of flourishes, swirls, and dips in her writing. Sometimes I don't like it cause it's almost like she's trying too hard. But at the same time I've openly admitted I have a very simple writing style so maybe I'm just jealous. And that could be a reason why I like her so much is that we are completely different and I could never do what she does.
She also can overdo it on the similes and metaphors. I flipped open MSK for an example: "Grief is... a band-aid being ripped away, taking the top layer off a family". Sure that's good standing alone but when you've trudge through like fifty of them, you might resist the urge to roll your eyes. She also uses the strange combinations to describe people. Something along the lines of "He smelled like peppermint and ice". Really? You can decipher those two things in a person scent? Cause I always just think "Oh that's Old Spice" or "Aw that newborn baby smell", but obviously my brain doesn't work like hers.
Also, Picoult is great at delivering a great twist, usually in the last chapter, sometimes in the last sentence of the book. Some of them you never even see them coming and you finish thinking "Wow, that was awesome!" The only unfortunate thing is if you've read every book like I have, you start to catch on to what she's doing. In her second to most recent book "Change of Heart" I figured out one of the big twists in the first ten pages. I'm not trying to say I'm awesome and clever; it's just I know her writing style and she wrote something that just seemed so odd to me that I thought, "I bet [this] is going on" and I was right. But luckily she delivers a couple punches and twists in every book so you most likely won't be disappointed even if you catch something early on.
My top five I personally recommend trying are:
1. My Sister's Keeper
2. Perfect Match
3. The Pact
4. Plain Truth
5. Salem Falls.
But MSK and Perfect Match are her runaway winners in my opinion. Don't let Cameron Diaz's movie sway you; I heard it was terrible and they changed the ending. That book is freaking awesome. Read it!
I also think her 'middle' books are better cause I haven't cared for her two most recent ones (Change of Heart and Handle with Care) and in the first few ones, she is still trying to find her niche. Even if I don't love the book, I still at least enjoy it and am entertained. And at the end of the day she's a best selling author and I have a 150 page work in progress, so she gets the last laugh (and the huge paycheck).
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