Vanishing Acts
I’ve been a Jodi Picoult fan since the days of women.com. Kyra wandered onto a board one day and talked and talked and talked about The Pact. She talked so much about it that I went out and bought it in hardback and read it immediately. I’ve been hooked ever since on Picoult. (And I still own that hardback of The Pact and think of Ky every time I see it on the shelf.)
Vanishing Acts is not my favorite of Picoult’s library of family/relationship fiction. It’s pretty low on the list now that I think about it. I tend to enjoy Picoult telling the story from various points of view but this time none of the characters seem to see a single flaw in Delia (the woman who discovers her father kidnapped her from her mother when she was a child). Nobody is perfect, except Delia.
I saw some reviews that suggested the scenes from jail were too long and too violent and a distraction from the rest of the story. I didn’t feel that way at all. If those were glossed over and all was fine and dandy in prison, I’d have found that pretty unbelievable, ya know?
I wonder, did Picoult really need to add the scene where she “loses” her own child? Or toss in the “disclosure” from Andrew on the witness stand? Just a little too much, I think.
If you are a Picoult fan, you won’t really be sorry to read this. But, if you haven’t read any of her novels then I recommend you try My Sister’s Keeper or The Pact first.