Book Review: Jodi Picoult's "Second Glance"

Before I get started I just wanted to mention that, I bought the hardback of the book and I honestly don't like the cover at all. I'm not really sure who the girl on the front is supposed to be (Lucy?) but even so, I think it was a poor choice. I took the paper cover off whilst I was reading so it wouldn't spoil and I was pretty surprised since the plain blue seemed a lot nicer to look at in my opinion.

ON TO THE REVIEW!

The book is just over 450 pages long and it took me just less than a week to finish this book. I would have finished earlier if it wasn't for the fact that the first half of the book had me awake at night in fear. I don't often tend to read thrillers much less books about ghosts so to begin with, this wasn't a good book for me. I was tempted to drop it simply out of fear, but I really wanted to know if Ross would ever meet Aimee so I stuck around. So if you like being scared for entertainment purposes, this might just be your cup of tea.

The books is made up of 3 parts and I really enjoyed reading part two which was strictly about Lia. Whilst reading it I kept thinking "it all makes sense now!" "I remember that through Ross' perspective!" "Oooh they're explaining one of the clues!" I think it was well written on Picoult's part and she did a good job maintaining the suspense by using this technique.

I also loved that all of the characters were so easy to empathise with. None of them were perfect and all had flaws. Most importantly, there were no real "bad guys". Okay, so you could probably argue against that but I think Picoult justified everyones actions in a way that allowed us to understand their motives. As far as I can see, (name removed to avoid spoilers)'s actions aren't selfish - inhumane maybe - but not selfish as he tries to look for the "greater good". I mean we all have our flaws, some people lack confidence and others find it difficult to draw the line between good and bad.

If I had to pick favourite characters, I'd pick Lia and Ross for sure. Personality wise, they're a pair of downers. But I can't help but love the way Picoult describes their pain and anguish. Neither character is able to deal with death and loss in a healthy way and the result is an ache that I found oddly familiar.

As much as I enjoyed reading this book, there were some things that I disliked. I liked being able to empathise with the characters, but I found it easy to empathise too much. It reminds me of something one of my lecturers said about people committing suicide because of their intense empathy whilst reading The Sorrows of Young Werther. Not that Second Glance made me want to commit suicide at all, I just found myself feeling extremely sad and depressed in real life whilst I was reading this book.

Which brings me on to another thing I disliked: I felt like the book dragged a lot of things on unecessarily. Ross' depression in particular began to annoy me by the last part of the book. I felt like jumping in and slapping him out of it towards the end. As horrible as this might sound, there's only so much of a downer that I can take before getting fed up. I feel like all the excess time she spent on his depression could have been put to better use. More time spent on the ending or the whole novel would have been useful. The conclusion was written rather and sloppily and felt rushed. I feel like most of the things that took place just happened for the sake of tieing up all the loose strings.

I could suggest alternative endings... but it's been a long day.

If asked, I'd recommend this book to someone looking for an emotional book to read or someone who likes reading thrillers and isn't afraid of ghosts! I don't recommend it for anyone who is overly emotional and overly empathetic *cough* like me *cough* :)

Originally written and posted on 10/09/2011 @ Novel Nerds