"The Only Way Someone Can Leave You Is If You Let Them."

books:

	• Vanishing Acts: A Novel Jodi Picoult Washington Square Press, 2005 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 185 reviews view larger image
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Not Picoult's bests

The story of Delia Hopkins got a little long for me, but all in all, was a good read. Picoult's sense of language always impresses me and the story was a good one. However, the whole Native American part was very boring. Each time I found myself at Ruthann's trailer, I seemed to put the book down and not pick it up for a few days. Delia's father, Andrew, was the most interesting charactor in the book and I had the most empathy for him. I think Picoult's novel, Plain Truth, was on this same level, but My Sister's Keeper was awesome!

Tiresome read

I found myself speed reading through many portions of this book, so I could get to the end and see if it was worth reading. Although it was OK, it wasn't as good as Plain Truth, the only other Piccoult book I have read. The "surprises" toward the end were not surprising to me, as they were contrived, much like the whole plot. Like the other reviewers, I failed to see why Delia was such a prize. And I found the chapters' repetitiveness tiresome--the changes in narrator to describe the same events did not add anything and got very boring. I also agree that there were too many subplots going on. Everything but the kitchensink was thrown in, and it was distracting. Not sure why she included all the prison scenes--it was just too much.

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Fantastic Novel!

Delia Hopkins makes a living finding missing people. She lives a happy life with her father, her young daughter and her fiance. Suddenly, Delia is forced to uncover truths about a past that she never knew existed. Jodi Picoult is one of the most talented novelists writing today. She so deeply researches her novels, that every reader walks away from her books having learned something unexpected. She keeps her readers interested and never dissappoints. VANISHING ACTS is a fantastic novel.

"The Only Way Someone Can Leave You Is If You Let Them."

Vanishing Acts is yet another well told tale by Jodi Picoult, who is a master at character development. Once again telling the story through first person accounts of the main characters, she weaves together a family drama centered on a "kidnapping" that had occurred 28 years earlier.

Thirty-one year old Delia Hopkins, aka Bethany Matthews, discovers her loving and devoted father, took her away from her alcoholic mother and her childhood in Scottsdale, AZ, created new identities for himself and his daughter, and raised her on lies in New Hampshire. Delia believed her mother was killed in a car accident. When her father is arrested for the crime and put on trial back in Arizona, everything Delia knows to be true about her life and her world unravels.

This is a quick and easy read. Through Delia, who for a living works with a bloodhound named "Greta" to track and find missing people, we experience the irony of her chosen occupation. Through her fiance, Eric, an alcoholic and the lawyer who defends Delia's father, we get a close up look at how alcoholism can destroy/alter so many families. Through Andrew Hopkins, aka Charlie Matthews, we get an insider's look at life in prison and learn to understand the desperation of a loving father. Other pertinent characters include Fitz, the best friend of both Delia and Eric, Sophie, Delia and Eric's young daughter, and Ruthanne, a Native American woman Delia and Sophie meet in a trailer park, where they temporarily reside in Arizona during the trial.

Fans of Picoult will not be disappointed. I recommend this book for readers who look for good writing and interesting, dramatic story lines.

Michele Cozzens, Author of A Line Between Friends and The Things I Wish I'd Said.

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An exhausting but interesting audiobook listen

This unabridged CD audiobook was an interesting and thought-provoking read overall, but started out slowly and was depressing at times. I nearly set the audiobook down at the end of the third CD, but kept going at the advice of a friend who listened to it before me, and said that she'd felt the same way and that it picked up around disc four.

Well, it did pick up very nicely, and I found a lot of interesting details about the characters and the plot to keep me thinking about the book even when not listening. I loved Andrew's portions of the audiobook, and Eric's. They both had a lot of life to them and they each had the most interesting dilemmas for me to think on.

One part that annoyed me slightly is the introduction of Native mysticism. I always feel a tiny bit wary of books that attach Great Meaning to all things Native American, and the parts dealing with Ruthanne's Hopi cultural beliefs made me feel a bit uneasy. Delia seemed to disbelieve in her own mother's mysticism, but when Ruthanne shared similar beliefs, Delia seemed filled with awe. I just wasn't sure that Delia would have attributed such Great Wisdom and Truth to an Albanian women's cultural beliefs, as an off the cuff example.

Then, I wished the book was shorter. I felt like so many of the miscommunications that drove the book's plot could have been resolved much sooner, and I thought that Picoult should have had about a quarter of the book edited down. She thought up an amazing plot and storyline, really interesting characters, and a thought-provoking and interesting book overall. But the length of the book was mostly caused by misunderstandings and miscommunications that dragged out one after another. She could have condensed a lot of that and made this a much stronger book.

That said, the book did have a lot of strengths and I certainly did get emotionally involved. The narration really helped carry it for me; the narration was done by a number of people, so each character had their own distinctive voice, and I could tell immediately who was speaking if I started the book again mid-chapter. The multiple voices helped bring the audiobook to life. Overall I give this three and a half stars. With better editing it might have merited a four and a half.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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