Sing You Home By: Jodi Picoult

Title: Sing You Home
Author: Jodi Picoult
HARDBACK
Amount of Pages: 466
Release Date: March 1, 2011
Publisher: Atria Books
Geared Towards: Adults
From: Publisher (Review Copy)

"That, really, she is the luckiest girl in the world" (P. 466).

Summary: Music therapist Zoe Baxter has always wanted a baby when she and her husband, Max got married. However, both of them have infertility issues so they decide to try IVF. After many failures they finally concieve a child but it ends in a stillborn, like many of their other tries. Unable to bear the heartbreak, Max leaves and begins to battle his own personal demons in alcoholism. Zoe, broken and hurt, begins picking up the pieces of her life when she begins to make friends with a guidence counselor named Vannessa. She soon finds out that her connection with Vannessa is much deeper than friendship, and begins to fall for her.

Meanwhile, Max begins to spiral out of control through his drinking. When he hits rock bottom he joins an evangelical church, who has vowed to fight homosexuality in America. The two divorced spouses soon meet with totally different view points.

Wdebo's Review: This is officially one of my favorite Jodi Picoult novels (Just below Nineteen Minutes of course!) Many of Jodi Picoult's books start out slow and take a while to get into, but with Sing You Home it had me hooked in from the very beginning. The writing was great and the characters were superb. I also loved how it had its own soundtrack, I can say I've never read a book that had music that went along with it and I loved the idea how each song fit in with each portion of the novel.

This novel ties in all of the best elements of Picoult's writing into a wonderfully created story. It brings not only the issue of gay rights to the readers eyes but also the controversial topic of IVFs and is just a expertly crafted human rights novel. I also enjoyed how Picoult was using a lighter voice in Zoe compared to her other books, even though the topics were still controversial and definitely classified as "Hot Topic" there were more joking moments in the novel as well as more scenes where the reader is actually able to laugh (And there were a lot of places where the reader can cry too or aw, depending on the moment). I also loved the ending it was a little cliche for my Jodi Picoult taste but it was so sweet and cute and just perfect little Autumn's Concerto ending.

I also was a fan of the development of all of the characters, each character had his or her own strengths and weaknesses and everyone of them are played on to truly understand what someone would do in a certain situation and it creates a very realistic enviorment for all of the characters. I felt mixed feelings for all of the characters except for two. I really liked Vannessa she was a strong character who knew what she want and didn't dillydally, well except for one moment but it was understandable and I hated hated hated the pastor who was rude and kept feeding the public false information, and in the turn the public just lapped it up. But in a way it was commentary on what is truly happening in our society today, so I guess that's what pissed me off. Oh yeah, and I hated that Wade person. Ugh.

Cafe Cover Chat: I like this cover, it has quite a calming effect on me for some reason, I think it's that country feel. (A-)

All in all, definitely another winner from Jodi Picoult, which all Picoult fans should read and even if you aren't the biggest Jodi Picoult lover, I think you will enjoy this novel for it has a lighter voice even in the midst of its topics.

Grade: A

Wdebo :)