Leaving Time (2014)

LOVED this book - I couldn't put it down! Jodi Picoult has a talent for making her characters come to life in a way that makes you bleed with them. I love the way she blends in a bit of science so that when you finish the story, you've learned something that you can carry with you for the rest of your life. You reluctantly leave the book, but when you finally set it down you leave it feeling enriched. AMAZED by the ending! You've got to read this book! ( )

Jodi Picoult fans know going in that she’s going to throw the reader a curve ball that seemingly comes from nowhere and knocks all preconceptions and assumptions into the middle of next week. ‘Leaving Time’ is no exception. This novel’s twist will leave you breathless. Guaranteed.

It starts with three people who have lost something – a young teen who lost her mother, a psychic who lost her gift, and an ex-cop who has lost his faith. Together, they try to follow a crumbling trail that leads back a decade, to a night of violent death and heartbreaking abandonment.

Picoult uses the background of elephant research to give the book an interesting slant and to provide both questions and answers about their behavior, particularly in how elephant societies are structured and how they deal with death and grief. It works nicely with the main themes of memory, loss, and trauma, and even though the reader will think they understand what Picoult is doing with her foreshadowing, they’ll be wrong. Looking backward, there are clues and indications of what she’s building, but they are inserted so smoothly and fit what appears to be the action of the plot so organically that they simply fly in under the radar.

Read this book. Enjoy it. Be surprised as hell at the ending. And have a Kleenex handy for the last couple of chapters. ( )

I loved it until the end, where it got really weird. ( )

Odd...

Interesting but odd. Characters were well developed and the plot had you hooked but the end...just not for me. Enjoyed her other books so much more. ( )

I read a lot of reviews on this book and was almost thinking I shouldn't waste my time. But this book hooked me from page one! I literally could not put it down and I finished it in one day. I enjoyed learning about the elephants and how their emotions are so much like ours. But the story's ending?? Wow....sure didn't see that coming! ( )