Handle With Care [ペーパーバック]

I've read ALL of Jodi Picoult's books. Some of my favorites are Perfect Match, My Sister's Keeper, and The Pact. Compared to those books, her latest release, Handle with Care, is contrived, sloppy, boring, and disappointing. Oh, and too many points of view included. I almost laughed at the ending because I honestly didn't think the book could have ended with more of a cop-out.

It doesn't seem like the publishers bothered copyediting or proofreading this book. Kitty Litter should not be capitalized. I don't care how "mature" a 6 year old is, she would create a Gmail account. And, Jodi, please spare me the gratuitous references to Facebook. These are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head -- there were many more.

Perhaps releasing one book a year is too much for Jodi Picoult, because the product is suffering. Her stories used to be contemporary, heart-wrenching and full of plot twists.

Handle with Care is simply a regurgitation of lawyers, sisters with issues, second marriages, etc. With some bulimia and cutting thrown in and not really addressed. Not to mention the recipes. What was the point of those? Charlotte's career as a pastry chef seems conveniently trendy and never becomes anything more than that, except for the lame recipes scattered throughout the book. It's like Jodi's editors and marketing team sat around a table and came up with every single thing they could incorporate into this book and then threw each thing in, none of which were successful.

I'm glad I got this from the library instead of purchasing it. What a disappointment. Don't bother.

I really love Jodi Picoult's books. I find she tackles very tough subjects in a captivating and stimulating manner. She takes chances on subjects that other authors just gloss over too afraid to really speculate about the feelings of the participants. If you were the mother of a child that was bullied or was the bully, "Nineteen Minutes" was your worst nightmare. So believable.

I found "Handle With Care" engrossing. I have a child with limited handicaps and I felt for Willow with every breath. But for me this was one more trial, one more heart-wrenching child, one more set of confused and inarticulate parents, one more lawyer with "issues" and one more manipulated ending too many. I can't tell you how very disappointed I was with this book. Lots of meringue but the filling was not fresh.

but all the care in the world cannot save the people we love necessarily.

I had this book delivered to my kindle the day it was released and read it straight through.

I'll tell you right up front I am a Jodi Picoult fan. Easy, entertaining reads- great for bathtubs and airports and right before bed. Some of her books have been less entertaining than others but I always find I enjoy the way she paints such a realistic portrait of her characters. I really do feel for them.

This story, as you'll read in other reviews and the synopsis, is about a family dealing with their youngest daughter's affliction with osteogenesis imperfecta which causes brittle and easily broken bones. Willow, so named by her mother who wanted to give her a legacy of something that would bend and not break despite her husband's protestation that willows weep- here Picoult gives such a combination of foreshadowing because Willow turns out to be an amazing, strong little character with such a love and longing for all the amazing things in the world.

The story goes far beyond a girl or her family coping with a debilitating disease. Not unlike in "My Sister's Keeper", Picoult shines light on the relationship of two siblings... one 'normal' and the other 'broken' and the center of attention, 'handled with care'. The braid that exists between sisters of jealousy and love and connection. She also hits home with poignant moments that so many of us can relate to, for example when Amelia(the elder daughter) says, " "Yes," I said, the lie coming easily, reminding me that, even as much as I hated her right now, I was my mother's daughter."

Like many of Picoult's books, this one is written from multiple points of view and the chapters are titled with the name of whose story is being told and the date which provides a nice sense of continuity and timing.

This book, without giving away the specific plot details, is all about the lies we find ourselves telling, the people we find ourselves changing into in order to protect those we love, what and who we are willing to sacrafice and the pain and necessity of it all... but also to protect our belief... that we have done all we can do, that we have been the best we can for those that we love and in the end, really cannot help or save. And that is more about saving ourselves than anyone else.

An easy read, very touching and gripping. Reading Picoult's writing is a little like listening to someone play the piano with the modulations in tone, slower, faster, rising, falling and finally coming together in the end. "Handle with Care" ends with a wonderful and terrible irony, a lesson for everyone who reads this tale I think.

Definately worth the read but be prepared for a rollercoaster of emotions if you allow yourself to go there. I did, and it was well worth the ride.