Vanishing Acts
by Jodi Picoult
On This Page
Description
Life is going well for Delia Hopkins. She has a daughter and a fiancé, and with her search-and-rescue bloodhound, she helps find missing persons. But as she plans for her wedding, she is haunted by inexplicable flashbacks to a devastating time she cannot recall.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Delia Hopkins was six years old when her father allowed her to be his assistant in the amateur magic act he performed at the local senior center's annual Christmas pageant. "I learned a lot that night," recalls Delia, who is now 32, at the start of Picoult's absorbing new novel (her 12th, after My Sister's Keeper). "That people don't vanish into thin air...." She has come to know this even better as an adult: she makes her living finding missing people with her own search-and-rescue bloodhound. As she prepares for her wedding, however, Delia has a flash of memory that is so vivid yet so wildly out-of-place among the other memories from her idyllic New Hampshire upbringing that she describes it to a childhood friend, who happens to be a show more reporter. Soon, her whole world and the world of the widowed father she adores is turned upside down. Her marriage to her toddler's father, a loving but still struggling recovering alcoholic, is put on hold as she is forced to conduct a search-and-rescue mission on her own past and identity. It will cut to the heart of what she holds to be true and good. show less
I have read many Jodi Picoult books and this was not one of her best. I did enjoy the story about a man who kidnaps his daughter, moves across the country and assumes a new identity. This is not revealed to the daughter until she is an adult with her own child. I found the characters to be interesting since the story was told from multiple points of view and the situation dealt with some moral questions that some people may not agree on. But I did find the book dragged a little - maybe if it had been not as long, it would have been better.
Another one that I couldn't put down. Really makes you think about the reasons that a parent kidnapping their own child for what they think is better may or may not be a good solution.
I enjoy the works of Jodi Picoult. She is an author who writes of moral dilemmas not easy to paint as black or white. In this book, Delia Hopkins is a successful search and rescue specialist. With her dog at her side, she is usually successful in finding and returning those who are lost. She has a small child and is able to put herself in the place of those in need.
After her mother died in a traffic accident, she was raised by her beloved father, He is loving, kind and, by standards, does a remarkable job in raising his only child. A model citizen of a small New Hampshire town, her father was responsible for creating an elderly home where all are treated safely in their later years.
As she makes plans to marry the father of her child, show more her world becomes upside down, and now she feels lost and no search and rescue operation could help find her and put her back the way she was before she learned that her mother was not dead, her birth name is Beth, and her father is wanted for abduction in the state of Arizona.
Meeting her mother who does not fit her imagined person, does not go as well as she hoped. Though, after the meeting, she has no doubt that this is her biological mother, and that her father took her away from a situation wherein her mother was an out-of-control alcoholic who was not a good mother by any standard.
At the trial, Delia is torn. She knows how she would feel if her child was abducted, yet, she loves her father and knows he took her away, fleeing a harsh woman who could not in any circumstances do what was best for the child. It's been 28 years, and now the authorities and Delia's mother want retribution.
3.75 Stars show less
After her mother died in a traffic accident, she was raised by her beloved father, He is loving, kind and, by standards, does a remarkable job in raising his only child. A model citizen of a small New Hampshire town, her father was responsible for creating an elderly home where all are treated safely in their later years.
As she makes plans to marry the father of her child, show more her world becomes upside down, and now she feels lost and no search and rescue operation could help find her and put her back the way she was before she learned that her mother was not dead, her birth name is Beth, and her father is wanted for abduction in the state of Arizona.
Meeting her mother who does not fit her imagined person, does not go as well as she hoped. Though, after the meeting, she has no doubt that this is her biological mother, and that her father took her away from a situation wherein her mother was an out-of-control alcoholic who was not a good mother by any standard.
At the trial, Delia is torn. She knows how she would feel if her child was abducted, yet, she loves her father and knows he took her away, fleeing a harsh woman who could not in any circumstances do what was best for the child. It's been 28 years, and now the authorities and Delia's mother want retribution.
3.75 Stars show less
This book is about a man imprisoned for the kidnap of his daughter and the effect the discovery of his act has on her and her family. The story is captivating and because the characters narrate their own story they can share the raw emotion they are experiencing. My only criticism is that I found the lengthy description of life in jail rather harrowing. The graphic details of violence abuse blackmail and racial hatred may be very realistic but it was a little too much reality for me.
I'd give it 5 stars if I hadn't read a few other Picoult books that were more thrilling. I easily put the book down (often!) until the last 3rd. Stick with it. SHe has this way of making almost every sentence count....everything is metaphorical and important. Love that.
I enjoyed the multiple perspectives of this book. Each chapter is told from a different characters point of view which bothered me at first but gave insight throughout the novel.
The story is of Delia, a mother who is engaged to her childhood friend. She grew up with her father and the two boys next door were, and to this day are her best friends. Her father kidnapped her when she was 4 years old and she learned her whole life is basically a lie.
The story unfolds with details from her childhood she had forgotten and lessons learned of her current life and relationships.
The fine line between right and wrong, good and evil is explored through several ways in this novel.
The ongoing complexities of relationships between Delia and her show more friends, her father and soon, her mother who she thought was dead add to the story.
The plot has several subplots including Ruthann's story, who could have been further developed, Andrew's time in jail, which was detailed and vivid, the love triangle between Fitz, Delia and Eric and of course the main plot - Delia's kidnapping 28 years prior.
I just finished this book and I enjoyed it, however, it was hard for me to keep reading and it was def. not the page-turner I'd expected from Picoult. show less
The story is of Delia, a mother who is engaged to her childhood friend. She grew up with her father and the two boys next door were, and to this day are her best friends. Her father kidnapped her when she was 4 years old and she learned her whole life is basically a lie.
The story unfolds with details from her childhood she had forgotten and lessons learned of her current life and relationships.
The fine line between right and wrong, good and evil is explored through several ways in this novel.
The ongoing complexities of relationships between Delia and her show more friends, her father and soon, her mother who she thought was dead add to the story.
The plot has several subplots including Ruthann's story, who could have been further developed, Andrew's time in jail, which was detailed and vivid, the love triangle between Fitz, Delia and Eric and of course the main plot - Delia's kidnapping 28 years prior.
I just finished this book and I enjoyed it, however, it was hard for me to keep reading and it was def. not the page-turner I'd expected from Picoult. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Books featuring alcoholics
103 works; 18 members
Love Triangles in Literature
108 works; 15 members
Books Read in 2016
4,666 works; 199 members
Books Read in 2013
1,630 works; 51 members
Books Tagged Abuse
152 works; 4 members
Books Read in 2021
5,361 works; 113 members
Author Information
116+ Works 146,306 Members
Jodi Picoult was born in Nesconset, New York on May 19, 1966. She received a degree in creative writing from Princeton University in 1987 and a master's degree in education from Harvard University. She published two short stories in Seventeen magazine while still in college. Immediately after graduation, she landed a variety of jobs, ranging from show more editing textbooks to teaching eighth-grade English. Her first book, Songs of the Humpback Whale, was published in 1992. Her other works include Picture Perfect, Mercy, The Pact, Salem Falls, The Tenth Circle, Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart, Handle with Care, House Rules, Sing You Home, Lone Wolf, Leaving Time, and Small Great Things. My Sister's Keeper was made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz. She received the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003. She also wrote five issues of the Wonder Woman comic book series for DC Comics. She writes young adult novels with her daughter Samantha van Leer including Between the Lines and Off the Page. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Distinctions
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Vanishing Acts
- Original title
- Vanishing Acts
- Original publication date
- 2005
- People/Characters
- Cordelia "Delia" Lynn Hopkins / Bethany Matthews; Fitzwilliam "Fitz" MacMurray; Eric Talcott; Andrew Hopkins / Charles Matthews; Clutch; Concise (show all 11); Sticks; Ruthann Masawistiwa; Sophie Isabel Talcott; Elise Matthews Vasquez; Victor Vasquez
- Important places
- Wexton, New Hampshire, USA; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Arizona, USA
- Epigraph
- What other words, we may almost ask, are memorable and worthy to be repeated than those which love has inspired? It is wonderful that they were ever uttered. They are few and rare indeed, but, like a strain of music, they are... (show all) incessantly repeated and modulated by memory. All other words crumble off with the stucco which overlies the heart. We should not dare to repeat these now aloud. We are not competent to hear them at all times. - Henry David Thoreau, 'A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,' 1849
- Dedication
- This one is for Katie Desmond,
who fed me Oreos for breakfast on my wedding day,
appreciates the fashion sense of blue suede shoes,
and knows just how many people died that first night out on the... (show all)> QEII.
Every once in a while, a person's lucky enough to
make an unforgettable friend: you're it, for me. - First words
- I was six years old the first time I disappeared.
- Quotations
- Memories aren’t stored in the heart or in the head or even the soul, if you ask me, but in the spaces between any two given people.
Sometimes, when you don't ask questions, it's not because you are afraid that someone will lie to your face. It's because you're afraid they'll tell you the truth. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Even when you can't see where they're headed.
- Blurbers
- George, Elizabeth; Mitchard, Jacquelyn
- Original language
- English US
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 6,401
- Popularity
- 1,914
- Reviews
- 121
- Rating
- (3.56)
- Languages
- 12 — Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 62
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 12