(28)Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult

Monday, March 5, 2012


Lone Wolf 

Publication Date: February 28, 2012
Pages: 432


Okay. We know the drill.  A family with a horrible tragedy where somebody ends up either dying or in jail. Sometimes both.  By this point we know that is the standard formula for Jodi Picoult novels.   The question is, will THIS story be able to touch our hearts and keep us turning the pages or will THIS story put her in the group of Nicholas Sparks and Danielle Steele?  Been there, done that and don't want to go back.

Lone Wolf is about Cara and her fractured family.  Her brother, Edward, left the family six years ago after he came out to his family.  His leaving caused her family to split apart.  Her mother,Georgie, is  about fed up with her Father's utter devotion to his career as a Wolf biologist and blames Luke for Edward's leaving.  Cara is furious at her mother when she remarries and has two more children, so she moves back in with her Father.   It is late one night when Luke picks Cara up from a party. On their way home a deer causes a serious accident from which neither one of them will ever be the same.  The accident forces Edward to come home and face the family he left behind.  His father is left in a vegetative state from which he will never recover.  Because Cara is still a minor, it is Edward who must decide his Father's future.  Will he abide by Cara's wishes who believes her father will recover or will he abide by his Father's wishes as they were nine years ago and just let him go.  Will the family be able to heal past wounds in order to deal with Luke's condition or will their relationship fracture even further causing irreparable damage?

While I think that Lone Wolf is not Jodi Picoult's worst book (Change of Heart, anyone??) I do not think it is her best work at all.  She is usually good about evoking some emotion from her readers, by that I mean, everyone cries at some point while reading her books.  This time I felt nothing but irritation for Cara and minimal compassion for Edward.  Cara comes across as such a brat I just wanted to slap her.  She appears to be seventeen going on twelve, yet she wants to be treated as an adult. There is nothing adult like about her behavior.  Before or after the accident.   Her parents are no better.  As the story flashes back in time I just wanted to slap them both.  The whole story is nothing but selfish people doing what they want, to hell with the consequences for their actions.

Go ahead and read Lone Wolf, you know you will.  Just get it out of the way so we can hurry up and wait for next years book with the hopes of a better story with better characters.  Ones that don't make me want to inflict physical harm on them.

I welcome thoughts from people who have already Lone Wolf. Agree or disagree? Or a combination of the both?


LindyLouMac said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LindyLouMac said...

I can still not make up my mind about Jodi Picoult and as to if I am finding her novels just too formulaic. This title is not on my bookshelves yet but Change of Heart is. Am I going to enjoy this less than Vanishing Acts which I reviewed last week?

Rewritten without typing errors!

Charlotte's Web of Books said...

Oh, they are all VERY formulaic. It is just some of the stories and some of the characters are more captivating than others.

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