Jodi Picoult Collection

“There are some nights when you just want to know there's someone else besides you in this wide world.”- Jesse Fitzgerald, My Sister's Keeper

Last year my nana and I decided to start our own mini book club. Seeing as she was my favourite author, we decided to embark on a Jodi Picoult adventure. This meant we would read every book she wrote starting with the first, Songs of the Humpback Whale. I am excited to say that we have finally completed our journey. Many of these were re-reads for me but there was a surprising amount of novels that I owned but hadn't gotten around to reading. Due to some of topics of Jodi's book, we actually had some very deep and meaningful conversations that we may not have discussed otherwise. After finishing each book, we would go through the book club questions together (either from the back of the books or online) and discuss what we liked and didn't like about each book. Although, we didn't always agree, it was something I looked forward to each and every book.

I don't want to go into detail on every book because we will be here all night but I do want to talk about some common things that we noticed and I'm going to do my best to keep these spoiler-free!

Multiple Perspectives

One of my favourite things about all of Jodi's books is that they are written in multiple perspectives. My nana found this to be frustrating at first because she kept forgetting to look at the heading at the top of the page to see who was talking but she eventually got the hang of it. Although other authors use this technique, most of the books you pick up are often told through the main character. In her novels, there is main characters. Sometimes it is different members of a family, or two conflicting characters. It's lawyers, police and defendants, adults and teenagers, or even a group of strangers held hostage. This allows you into everyone's head to see what they are thinking. If Sing You Home, was written only through Zoey's perspective I probably would have hated Max but through Max's perspectives I fell in love with him as a character despite his flaws. This technique also takes you to scenes that would otherwise be missed because the "main character" wasn't there and it allows for strong character development in multiple characters.

Although it didn't happen often, in some of the books the scenes would overlap and be told again from a different person within that scene. I would say this was my only complaint about the multiple perspectives. I didn't want to relive the same scene, I wanted to move forward in the story.

The Book of Two Ways is not written through multiple perspectives but is told through multiple timelines.

Heavy Topics

Racism. Abortion. Suicide. Divorce. School Shootings. Sexual Assault. Abusive Relationships. Religion. Assisted Suicide. Medical Rights. Sexual Orientation. Murder. Holocaust.

These are just some the heavy and controversial topics that Jodi Picoult writes about and she does it so well. She spends a lot of time researching her topics before writing her novel and it shows. Instead of writing about an issue, she tackles it head on. She always provides the reader the opportunity to show all sides of an issue instead of just showing her personal stance on the matter. A Spark of Light, takes place in an abortion clinic which is obviously an incredibly controversial subject. The novel has characters that are both pro-life and pro-choice and we know why each character feels the way that they do about their opinion. No one can say that Jodi writes fluff. She is able to take a heavy topic that many may find controversial, taboo, uncomfortable, or off-limits and turns it into a story that often you don't want to put down.

I strongly recommend reading Small Great Things which tackles racism in a very unique yet powerful way. 2020 was a year that really opened up a lot of people's eyes to what people of colour were and are experiencing. Despite being a white woman, I think that Jodi wrote an incredible novel about racism which will help readers continue down that path of understanding and shows different sides and many issues that need to be addressed.

Although we were enjoying the novels and these topics were handled very well. we found that we had to take a temporary breaks from our journey to read some lighter material before continuing on. Too many in a row became overwhelming.

The Twists

The first Jodi Picoult novel I ever read was Nineteen Minutes. I was in high school and for years, I have told people that it's my favourite novel. Why? Because of the twist. I can't say much about this topic without major spoilers but all of Jodi's books have some sort of twist(s) at the end. Some you can see coming, when you learn her style, but even I was still shocked by most! Her twists have made me cry. They've made me gasp. Some had me flipping backwards to see the signs that I missed. Others, I was still playing it over in my mind days later.

Medical Drama / Court Rooms

When dealing with the books individually they are all amazing. When you start reading them back to back like I did you quickly notice there is a lot of medical decisions and lots of court cases. It got to the point that I was relieved by the stories that didn't involve lawyers or medical decisions. I mentioned before that Jodi tends to do a lot of research for her novels and I think often there is so much research that it prompts and flows into another book. For example, Second Glance is heavily influenced by eugenics. Her next book, My Sister's Keeper, revolves around selecting an embryo with genes to be a donor match. On a positive note, it was nice to see reoccurring characters such as Jordan McAfee (lawyer) Detective Patrick Ducharme and Forensic Scientist Frankie Martine.

Honestly, this only becomes annoying if you are reading them back to back to back like we were. Individually, they are amazing stories.

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Jodi has a new novel, Wish You Were Here, coming out November 25, 2021.

Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s an associate specialist at Sotheby’s now, but her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galapagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time.

But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go. In the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin’s theory of natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.

I am super excited to read this novel. It takes place in March 2020 amid the pandemic!

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Update: I really enjoyed Wish You Were Here. It was an easy read and I was interested in both storylines. I would probably place it between House Rules and Handle With Care.

Update: Mad Honey was published October 4th, 2022. I really enjoyed it and it was very similar to her older books. Multiple perspectives, heavy topics, twists and once again we were back in a court room. I loved having Jordan McAfee back! I would place this book after Wish You Were Here. Lily's perspective is backwards which is the only thing I didn't enjoy.

After finishing each book, I would rank them from best to worse. Below is that order and the order in which they were written and thus read...