Rating: 
Summary: Ghost story, mystery, historical novel
Review: SECOND GLANCE starts off rather clunky with Picoult introducing at least a dozen characters, all with their own viewpoints. It's hard to know who's really important.
The lead character, Ross Wakeman, is a kind of ghost buster with suicidal tendencies. He wants to join his fiancée, Aimie, who had been killed in a car accident that he feels guilty about. He's already tried to kill himself a couple of times.
Newton Redhook, a development company, hires Wakeman to prove there are no ghosts on property it has acquired from an old man named Spencer Pike. Stephen Kingisms abound. Rose petals fall from the sky, the ground freezes in the middle of August, the town drunk wakes one morning with his straight hair turned curly,
and while Ross is videotaping the place, he meets a woman who seems as mortal as he is, until she walks through a gravestone. But it's too late; he's already fallen in love with another dead woman.
Gradually, very gradually, Picoult begins to connect the people she introduced at the beginning of the book and that's when it gets good. You see, Spencer Pike, owner of the haunted land, had a wife who was apparenty murdered along with her baby daughter and she's the woman Ross has fallen for.
Picoult very adroitly uses historical background to make SECOND GLANCE more than just a ghost story. You see, back when he was a young man, Spencer Pike was one of the prime movers of the Eugenics movement, a "voluntary" sterilization project which the Nazis used as a model for their own program. Pike and his fellow scientists believed criminal behavior was inherited and could be eliminated by preventing these people from passing on their genes.
Throw in a 102-year-old Abenaki Indian with multiple identifies and you've got an enthralling summer read.
Rating:
Summary: Ghost story, mystery, historical novel
Review: SECOND GLANCE starts off rather clunky with Picoult introducing at least a dozen characters, all with their own viewpoints. It's hard to know who's really important.
The lead character, Ross Wakeman, is a kind of ghost buster with suicidal tendencies. He wants to join his fiancée, Aimie, who had been killed in a car accident that he feels guilty about. He's already tried to kill himself a couple of times.
Newton Redhook, a development company, hires Wakeman to prove there are no ghosts on property it has acquired from an old man named Spencer Pike. Stephen Kingisms abound. Rose petals fall from the sky, the ground freezes in the middle of August, the town drunk wakes one morning with his straight hair turned curly,
and while Ross is videotaping the place, he meets a woman who seems as mortal as he is, until she walks through a gravestone. But it's too late; he's already fallen in love with another dead woman.
Gradually, very gradually, Picoult begins to connect the people she introduced at the beginning of the book and that's when it gets good. You see, Spencer Pike, owner of the haunted land, had a wife who was apparenty murdered along with her baby daughter and she's the woman Ross has fallen for.
Picoult very adroitly uses historical background to make SECOND GLANCE more than just a ghost story. You see, back when he was a young man, Spencer Pike was one of the prime movers of the Eugenics movement, a "voluntary" sterilization project which the Nazis used as a model for their own program. Pike and his fellow scientists believed criminal behavior was inherited and could be eliminated by preventing these people from passing on their genes.
Throw in a 102-year-old Abenaki Indian with multiple identifies and you've got an enthralling summer read.
Rating:
Summary: This is Jodi Picoult's best book to date
Review: SECOND GLANCE, Jodi Picoult's newest novel, is an extraordinary "genre-hybrid." The confluence of its parts --- ghost story, love story, historical novel, paranormal/supernatural tale --- converges to offer readers a book that roars with superlative dialogue, radiates with interesting characters (alive and dead) and floats in the ether above the mediocre. The elements of redemption, the qualities of love and the definition of family raise questions about integrity, respect, prejudice, memory, medical ethics and "things that go bump in the night."The book opens with these words: "Ross Wakeman succeeded the first time he killed himself, but not the second or the third." No matter how hard he tries, Ross Wakeman fails to accomplish what he most wants to do with his life --- end it! After the death of his fiancée, eight years in the past, he is still deeply mourning her, which has left him mired in a state of stasis. This inability to move inspires him to become a ghost hunter, a "job" through which he hopes to reconnect with his lost love. Unfortunately, his career is short-lived and he returns to Comtosook, Vermont, where his sister and her son live their strange life. Ross is depressed, frustrated and nursing feelings of failure. The town of Comtosook is in an uproar since old man Spencer Pike sold a parcel of land to a development company that plans to build a strip mall. Trouble begins as soon as the news reaches the Abenaki Indians, who believe the property is a sacred burial ground. They are committed to save the land of their ancestors and picket the site. "You dig up [our ancestors'] resting place, it stands to reason that whatever you build on here isn't going to be at peace." In order to prove the ground is not sacred in any way, Rod van Vleet, the company representative, hires Ross to find any ghosts lurking there and evict them. Ross reluctantly agrees to get involved and enlists the help of his nephew, Ethan, who suffers from XP (xeroderma pigmentosum: a fatal disease that prohibits exposure to sunlight) and is thus delighted to accompany his uncle on a nighttime stakeout. During their vigil, Wakeman sees a movement in the woods and, when he follows it, he finds Lia, a very young, very gentle, very frightened, very sad woman whose ethereal aura captures his heart. He simply falls in love. They meet secretly because she is terrified of her husband --- or so she says. From this point on, we enter a "twilight zone" that is at times soulful, disorienting and funny. Lia's appearance inspires the local sheriff to open an unsolved murder case that dates back to 1932. After her presence has been noted, a host of weird events begins to overtake the town. Rose petals fall like snowflakes, people have trouble discerning the truth from their dreams, the disputed land freezes in August and everyday something new emerges to confound, disturb and bring chaos to the seemingly bucolic town. In a powerful parallel storyline, we learn about a horrific episode in Vermont's history, events that Picoult explains in her Author's Note: " ' the Vermont Eugenics Project in the 1920s and 1930s ' is a chapter of history that has only recently been rediscovered and still causes great pain and shame to Vermonters of many different cultural backgrounds." She goes on to explain that her main characters are fictional but the off-stage father of the program, Henry E. Perkins, was a real person. "' He was a professor of zoology at the University of Vermont who originated the Eugenics Survey ' in conjunction with his course on heredity. He believed that through research, public education and support for legislation, the growing population of [the state's] most problematic citizens might be reduced. His leadership was instrumental in bringing about the passage of Vermont's Sterilization Law in 1931'." At the time, thirty-three other states had similar laws on their books. But not until after World War II, when Nazi scientists testified at the war crimes trials that the "American eugenics programs were the prototypes of their "racial hygiene plans", did any state even modify these statutes. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, "at [the] Generra Institute in Maryland, Dr. Meredith Oliver," is [ironically] busy at work "doing pre-implantation genetic diagnosis'." She specializes in separating genes that carry inherited diseases from healthy genes in order for couples to end the genetic defects in their family. Her daughter, Lucy, is an asthmatic eight-year-old who sees ghosts and hears them whisper. She is haunted by visitations that terrify her and Meredith. While she loves her daughter, Meredith is a busy woman who has little patience for what she thinks are simply attention-getting outbursts. The child is cared for by her great grandmother, Ruby, who has secrets of her own. All of the characters and plot twists in SECOND GLANCE, while seeming to be "out of this world", are surprisingly credible enough to make the complexities of this novel work. This is Jodi Picoult's best book to date. And, for those of you who shiver at the thought of "things that go bump in the night", have no fear --- this ghost story will keep you entertained and at times howling with laughter. Enjoy! --- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
Rating: 
Summary: Whoa! Where has THIS book been?
Review: This is a great book. The story grabbed me from the beginning, and I really enjoyed the way the author fleshes out each character. I do not agree with some of the comments that the structure of the story is too confusing or that the author jumps around too much. Just the opposite, I found that the way the story jumps from character to character was one of the things that kept me on my toes, and helped to tie the characters together throughout the book. This is the first book by Jodi Picoult I have read, but I will definitely be getting more.
Rating:
Summary: Keeps you on your toes
Review: This is a great book. The story grabbed me from the beginning, and I really enjoyed the way the author fleshes out each character. I do not agree with some of the comments that the structure of the story is too confusing or that the author jumps around too much. Just the opposite, I found that the way the story jumps from character to character was one of the things that kept me on my toes, and helped to tie the characters together throughout the book. This is the first book by Jodi Picoult I have read, but I will definitely be getting more.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT
Review: This is my first time reading Jodi Picoult and I found this book wonderful. It has a bit of everything, romance, ghosts with a good strong story supporting it all. It was eerie, not blood and guts gore. It was very hard to put down and very hard to see end.
Rating:
Summary: This book keeps you guessing!
Review: This is not your typical mystery. With a first sentence like this: "Ross Wakeman succeeded the first time he killed himself, but not the second or the third." One would think this is a depressing book. It's not. It's a very different type of reading ~~ with different characters scattered who knows where but it all comes together nicely. They all have one thing in common and that is the real mystery of the novel. Ross, Shelby, Ethan, Eli, Az, Meredith, Lucy, Ruby, Spencer and Lia all have a story to tell and how it is all connected, Picoult does her painstakingly thorough work as usual to tie them all together. And I am not disappointed with the results! Be patient is what I would say about this book. There are a lot of characters in this book, and sometimes it seems like Picoult gives the reader too much information about them or sometimes it seems repetitive but it's not. She really gives a good insight of each character and you find yourself turning the page hoping for more indepths to the characters. You find yourself sitting up late at night guessing the truth and finding out that it wasn't so predictable after all. The theme of this novel is about love and ghosts. It is also about people solving a 70-year old murder mystery. It is about people losing the ones they love and finding love again in mysterious ways. Lies unravel in the face of the truth. Dreams get shattered and broken in this novel then painstakingly brought back together again. It is a good insight on love and relationships and the paranormal has a big part in how this book flows together. This is one of the best Picoult novels I have yet read (I've read them all). I am looking forward to more of her books since she has not failed to meet my expectations! Grab this one without delay ~~ it's perfect fall reading. Just to be sure to snuggle under your blanket and be prepared to be swept away by Picoult's lyrical writings. 10-13-03
Rating:
Summary: This book keeps you guessing!
Review: This is not your typical mystery. With a first sentence like this: "Ross Wakeman succeeded the first time he killed himself, but not the second or the third." One would think this is a depressing book. It's not. It's a very different type of reading ~~ with different characters scattered who knows where but it all comes together nicely. They all have one thing in common and that is the real mystery of the novel. Ross, Shelby, Ethan, Eli, Az, Meredith, Lucy, Ruby, Spencer and Lia all have a story to tell and how it is all connected, Picoult does her painstakingly thorough work as usual to tie them all together. And I am not disappointed with the results! Be patient is what I would say about this book. There are a lot of characters in this book, and sometimes it seems like Picoult gives the reader too much information about them or sometimes it seems repetitive but it's not. She really gives a good insight of each character and you find yourself turning the page hoping for more indepths to the characters. You find yourself sitting up late at night guessing the truth and finding out that it wasn't so predictable after all. The theme of this novel is about love and ghosts. It is also about people solving a 70-year old murder mystery. It is about people losing the ones they love and finding love again in mysterious ways. Lies unravel in the face of the truth. Dreams get shattered and broken in this novel then painstakingly brought back together again. It is a good insight on love and relationships and the paranormal has a big part in how this book flows together. This is one of the best Picoult novels I have yet read (I've read them all). I am looking forward to more of her books since she has not failed to meet my expectations! Grab this one without delay ~~ it's perfect fall reading. Just to be sure to snuggle under your blanket and be prepared to be swept away by Picoult's lyrical writings. 10-13-03
Rating:
Summary: Everything a person could want in a book!
Review: This is the perfect feel-good summertime read. Romance, history, ghosts, a little education about eugenics in the 30's, small town flavor...Second Glance has it all. I've never read books by Jodi Picoult, but I intend to start reading her books now.
Rating: 
Summary: Second Glance...not quite.
Review: This story was just barely above a snooze-fest for me. 3 stars is being generous. The main character was not very likeable and it was hard to identify with his perspective on life and why he chose the profession of ghost hunting after losing a great love. The story can be confusing at time and may turn readers off in the first part, getting lost in various characters that you don't quite get their purpose in the story. It all comes together in the end, if not a bit contrived.
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