Second Glance: A Novel

Additional Second Glance: A Novel Information

"Sometimes I wonder....Can a ghost find you, if she wants to?"

An intricate tale of love, haunting memories, and renewal, Second Glance begins in current-day Vermont, where an old man puts a piece of land up for sale and unintentionally raises protest from the local Abenaki Indian tribe, who insist it's a burial ground. When odd, supernatural events plague the town of Comtosook, a ghost hunter is hired by the developer to help convince the residents that there's nothing spiritual about the property.

Enter Ross Wakeman, a suicidal drifter who has put himself in mortal danger time and again. He's driven his car off a bridge into a lake. He's been mugged in New York City and struck by lightning in a calm country field. Yet despite his best efforts, life clings to him and pulls him ever deeper into the empty existence he cannot bear since his fiancée's death in a car crash eight years ago. Ross now lives only for the moment he might once again encounter the woman he loves. But in Comtosook, the only discovery Ross can lay claim to is that of Lia Beaumont, a skittish, mysterious woman who, like Ross, is on a search for something beyond the boundary separating life and death. Thus begins Jodi Picoult's enthralling and ultimately astonishing story of love, fate, and a crime of passion.

Hailed by critics as a "master" storyteller (Washington Post), Picoult once again "pushes herself, and consequently the reader, to think about the unthinkable" (Denver Post). Second Glance, her eeriest and most engrossing work yet, delves into a virtually unknown chapter of American history -- Vermont's eugenics project of the 1920s and 30s -- to provide a compelling study of the things that come back to haunt us -- literally and figuratively. Do we love across time, or in spite of it?

What Customers Say About Second Glance: A Novel:

Pretty much, unless you're an independently wealthy single orphan hermit (even those are probably all at least online these days). Aren't relationships the center of every life. Well I wouldn't call this maudlin, absurdly improbable, sophomoric effluvium literature (lines like "letting the smoke curl down his throat like a question mark" sells millions)., and I don't believe that any self-respecting, intelligent female would call herself a chick. The term itself is so offensive - didn't we wear out that pejorative in the seventies. And is it supposed to mean that only females are interested in stories about human relationships.

Three times I tried to read ituntil I finally put it down as not my kind of book. I am a fan of Jodi Picoult books so when I started reading this I justexpected it would be so good, it's true she maintains her high qualityof writing but the theme of this story, plus the amount ofcharacters she introduces in a short period of time, madefor uncomfortable reading.

After you get into the story then you can remember. This is one of the best books I have ever read. She doesn't get into a rut of writing the same kind of story with just different characters. I would recommend this book.

There are some interesting Indian characters and references to a a true story that occured in Vermont in 1932 with the character believing in sterlization of deviant behaviors which the Indian were considered the most deviant.There is romance involved in the book although not detailed sexual descriptions, which is what turns me off in a lot of romance stories. The twist and turns are totally unpredicatable. There is Shelby and her son who has XP which means he has sensitive skin and only can go out at night. He even falls in love with the woman ghost.

There is some philosophical observations by the author which really make you think. There is Ross who is a ghost hunter although he hasn't ever seen one until this story. All of Picoult books are very good. This story has several interesting characters.

In fact, at the beginning I had to write their names down and write a comment who they were there. Each one takes a subject and really makes you think. You may not agree with them but they are interesting.This story has several characters in it.

Case in point. and asked me if I'd recommend her, told me that they hated fiction, but she's the bridge that connects their non-fiction predilection to a foray in fiction. For those who say that her unexpected twists have become predictable, I'd have to say pick up Second Glance or Keeping Faith, or Change of Heart. Strange events begin occurring and Ross investigates. My least favorite thing about reading her in public is the people who like to point out that she's become predictable in her unpredictability. People have stopped me on the metro when I'm reading one of her books (side note: Please wait until someone's closed their book to interrupt them. The supernatural aspect was such an unexpected development in the plot but became such an integral part of pulling everything together. Since then, he's become a ghost hunter.

Her books are known for courtroom spins to be sure but not all of them have it. Say what you want about Jodi Picoult's writing, but nobody can deny the woman knows how to write, and pulls out every stop she can to do her research and drive her point home. Although Cissy doesn't feel absolute love for her husband, she does care about him and knows that he does love her, and that is reason enough for her to try to meet the standards which he expects.There are so many things going on in this novel that it's hard to pick a favorite plot. Picoult has drawn parallels between today's stem cell research and compared it to the Eugenics projects of the 1930s. After finding out his boss is a fraud, Ross quits and heads to his sister's house in a town where a burial ground has been sold to a developer who plans a strip mall.

To no avail, but he won't stop searching for her. I'm wrong, I've picked a favorite. While you're surely expecting a twist, you never know where the twists will be thrown in. Interwoven in this is a ghost story. My favorite book of hers: Second Glance.Ross Wakeman has merely existed for a couple of years now. She's also told the love stories between a mother and a son, and a man who lost the love of his life and blames himself. You never know when they're at an integral part of the storyline).

On the grounds, he meets a woman, Lia, who makes him feel for the first time in a long time.Intersecting Ross' story, is the tale of Cissy Pike, a pregnant woman in the 1930s who's never felt as though she measures up to the ideals of her father and her husband Spencer, two eugenics professors who believe something very reminiscent of Hitler's one true race. When he lost his fiancée in a horrific car accident, going to help the other driver as Aimee appeared unhurt, he realized how wrong he was when he went to tend to her, only to find her already gone. Really. Not by choice, as he's tried to end his existence for the same duration.

Picoult would write more books like this one. I really wish Ms. Impossible to tear yourself away from this book. It sucks you in emotionally, and the author's historical research really paid off.