Second Glance (original 2003; edition 2004)

This book was mildly entertaining -- but not one of her better ones in my opinion. Maybe her description of the way the rock quarry operated (ridiculous!) turned me off. ( )

From the SGG-thread :-)

meh ( )

I was extremely disappointed with this book. It was just so... all over the place. I've read some Picoult books before, so I'm used to dealing with all the different characters, but this was just plain ridiculous. I couldn't keep track of who was who or what they were doing. There was way too much going on. It also took me until about 3/4 of the way into to the book to realize that the ghost was actually real. I thought there was going to be some logical explanation for it all, but no, it was an actual paranormal book- I just wasn't expecting that and it really threw me off... and put me off. Definitely wouldn't recommend this one.
( )

I was skeptical when I began this book but turns out I loved it. It's a very interesting story about a young man whose fiance was killed in an auto accident and he is unable to get past it. It's about his sister who is raising a son who suffers from XP, a genetic disease that forces the victim to stay out of sunlight so their days are at night and their nights become their days. It's about an area of Vermont where the government decided to, and actually passed a law to sterilize, voluntarily of course (not), the indigent, the feeble minded, the destitute, the illiterate, and persons belonging to a particular Indian tribe. (This last part is true and the law, though it has been reworded, is still on the books in Vermont. All other states that passed similar laws in the 20s & 30s have wiped them from their books.) It is about the ghost of a lady who died in the 30s but continues to return as she has a story to tell. She finally finds someone who is sensitive enough to the unnatural who sees and hears her.
There are a lot of characters in this book and in the beginning it was a bit difficult to keep up with them all but it came. My only negative about the storyline is that the ending was sewn up quickly and that all came together just a bit too nicely for my taste. But it was overall a very good read and I gave it 4 stars. ( )