Vanishing Acts: A Novel

I read this alongside my family for a book club at the request of my sister and whereas I did go in knowing it would not be my thing as I read more literary-fiction and magical realism, I enjoyed some of the way Picoult writes - and was invested in Delia's premise/initial characterization. I think overall it's a shame that it tries to achieve more than it can in a political realm - having fairly negative and limited views on the prison industrial complex, indigenous history, the misogyny of the protagonist characters in the novel mostly unchallenged, and a lot of agency taken away/simplified from its main. I'm mostly just writing this review so that the site's algorithm maybe lets up on trying to recommend me her other works and I can get the Cortazar I want back in my life.

This is my first experience with this author, whom I've heard so many wonderful things about. My expectations were high, and this book didn't disappoint. It was wonderfully written, with excellent characterizations and brilliant attention to detail. I especially loved the Native American cultural immersion! The scenes in the jail were a bit too brutal, important to the plot but difficult for me to bear. I would have like to see the relationships resolve a bit more tightly or definitively, but all-in-all, one of the better books I've read this year.

This was a great read! One of her best! The theme of vanishing, reappearing and reinventing oneself was fantastic. The novel begins with the image of Delia disappearing in her father's magic act. This act intersects with her disappearance from her hometown and her "abduction" by her father. Almost every character has their own form of "vanishing" only to appear stronger or changed,enlightened or stagnant--the story is rich because it is the way in which they reappear and the path that they choose or that they take that makes the novel poignant and resonating with meaning. The bond and intersection of the three friends, Delia, Fritz and Eric as well as the flashbacks to her childhood with her mother are chalked full of metaphors and images that jump out of the pages. I loved this book! The way Jodi Picoult devotes each chapter to each character's point of view and puts the words in each character's own voice adds to the novel's impact and brings the story to a level to which the reader can relate.

I both loved and hated this book. I loved it because Jodi Picoult's writing style is so relaxed it's as if you are hearing the story as told by a friend. I could vividly picture how each character looked, I felt their pain. The characters thought the way I thought. the story was riviting and human and everything you want in a story. I hated this book because it was so good, so riviting, and so vivid that I couldn't put it down. Really good stories are hard to come by. Most are just rewrites of the same old thing. Not Vanishing Acts, there are no heros and no villians - just people with issues. I had hoped this book would take at least a couple of weeks to read. I finished it in 2 days. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a really good story with human flawed characters that you can relate to.

Ms. Picoult has done it again. I have been a big fan of hers from her first book, and very rarely am I disappointed. I thought this book was wonderful, it pulled me in from the beginning and didn't let go. My husband wanted to take it away from me when something happened and I sat on the sofa and just cried and cried. Ms. Picoult never fails to pull emotions from me, and she does it again with this book. I also like that not everything was tied up nice and neat, there was room at the end for the reader to wonder where the characters will go. I liked that, it made it realistic. Anyway, again Ms. Picoult, thanks for a great story.