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From Publishers Weekly
Delia Hopkins was six years old when her father allowed her to be his assistant in the amateur magic act he performed at the local senior center's annual Christmas pageant. "I learned a lot that night," recalls Delia, who is now 32, at the start of Picoult's absorbing new novel (her 12th, after My Sister's Keeper). "That people don't vanish into thin air...." She has come to know this even better as an adult: she makes her living finding missing people with her own search-and-rescue bloodhound. As she prepares for her wedding, however, Delia has a flash of memory that is so vivid yet so wildly out-of-place among the other memories from her idyllic New Hampshire upbringing that she describes it to a childhood friend, who happens to be a reporter. Soon, her whole world and the world of the widowed father she adores is turned upside down. Her marriage to her toddler's father, a loving but still struggling recovering alcoholic, is put on hold as she is forced to conduct a search-and-rescue mission on her own past and identity. It will cut to the heart of what she holds to be true and good. As in previous novels, Picoult creates compelling, three-dimensional characters who tell a story in alternating voices about what it might mean to be a good parent and a good person, to be true to ourselves and those we love. Picoult weaves together plot and characterization in a landscape that is fleshed out in rich, journalistic detail, so that readers will come away with intriguing questions rather than pat answers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From AudioFile
Jodi Picoult's formula puts ordinary people in extraordinary dilemmas, the story told by the alternating voices of the people involved. Having different actors voice the major characters is ideal, and all here are excellent, from the supple but mature voice of paterfamilias Andrew Hopkins, who turns out to have kidnapped his daughter decades earlier, to the daughter, now known as Delia, who is a young mother herself. Picoult dovetails the narratives neatly and rations the plot turns expertly, building to a fine courtroom finale. One regrets that the cast list is given only on audio. Would it be impossible to give the actors credit in print, when it is due, as it is here? B.G. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
I was six years old the first time I disappeared. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I was six years old the first time I disappeared. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Vanishing Acts,
By
This review is from: Vanishing Acts (Paperback)
This was a very disappointing book. It contained a lot of unnecessary filler. It took a while to read this book it just didn't hold my interest. Would not recommend.
4.0 out of 5 stars
My first Jodi Picoult,
By Jojos "Jojos" (Quebec, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Vanishing Acts (Hardcover)
Well... I saw "Plain Truth" on tv and I loved it. So I decided to give her a try. I got Vanishing Acts. Well, it's a good story and I liked reading it. The way it's written is unique. It was different from the other books I have read. I bought "Nineteen Minutes". I'll give you a review later. I give her 4 stars for the story and the originality in the way it's written. :)
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Mix of 3 & 4 Star Ratings,
By
This review is from: Vanishing Acts (Paperback)
I wasn't sure whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars. If Picoult had left out the chapters narrated by Fitz I would give it 4 stars, but as written, I felt it deserved 3 stars. The chapters alternate between those narrated by Delia, her father Andrew, her boyfriend Eric, and her friend Fitz. Overall, the novel could have been shorter - simply leaving out the Fitz chapters would have accomplished that. His character comes across as a pathetic victim of his love for Delia and really doesn't add to the story.
The chapters by Andrew however deserve 5 stars! He recounts his experiences in prison and those chapters are "page turners". Picoult's writing in these accounts weave drama, tragedy, and tension to portray how Andrew walks a fine line between compromising his values and maintaining his integrity in order to stay alive in prison while awaiting his trial. Picoult takes hard core criminals and presents their characters and lives in a way that the reader feels empathy and cares for them despite their hard core criminal careers and the things they resort to to survive in prison. She does such a great job that - without giving away a very emotional part of the story - I cried over a particularly sad incident. The accounts of Andrew in prison are what really makes this book great. In The Tenth Circle I loved the way Picoult used similies and made comments tieing the story to "life lessons". In this book, however, she goes overboard to the point that many of these comments become syrupy and seemed forced; they don't have the same effect that they had in The Tenth Circle. All in all though, I would still recommend this book. The Andrew chapters make the book worth the read.
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