"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?
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
Library Journal - Diana McRae
This intelligent novel gets off to a jerky start, with too many characters appearing in too rapid a succession. Although readers might be frustrated with the opening, the book as a whole will make them glad they persevered.
Publishers Weekly
Firmly rooting her otherworldly tale in everyday reality, she produces a spellbinding suspense novel offering insight into the human spirit and the depths of true love.
Booklist - Kristine Huntley
Picoult mixes shocking fact and compelling fiction to produce a mesmerizing tale of love and second chances.
Kirkus Reviews
... a gratifying blend of gothic melodrama and social critique ... A balance of suspense and science makes for a memorable ghost tale.
The Washington Post - Susan Dooley
You don't have to believe in ghosts to acknowledge the path it takes as it works its way from parents, to grandparents, to great grandparents, ancestors passing on genes and the protection of their love.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by purpleskin second glance- a must read I read this quite some time ago, but the plot and the story as well as the characters are still ingrained in my mind. I can still remember every little detail- that is how much I love this book.
It has romance for those romantic hearts and... Read More
Rated of 5
by kim jonas not my most favorite I am an avid reader across all genres but this one I had to really force myself to finish. The reason why I picked this book up was because of My Sisters Keeper (somber, yet extraordinarily compelling) by same author.
An epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, The Orphan Master's Son follows a young man's journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world's most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.
War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that AS Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark.
A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, exploring how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.
Brilliantly evoking the long-vanished world of masters and servants, Margaret Powell's classic memoir of her time in service is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high.
Vivid, daring, and unforgettable, The Printmaker's Daughter shines fresh light on art, loyalty, and the tender and indelible bond between a father and daughter.
After hearing the interview on NPR with the author, Ayad Akhtar, I was intrigued.
This is a timely, contemporary novel concerning topics of...
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I read The Healing in two sittings it is a fascinating story of plantation life at the beginning of the Civil War. Granada, a slave newborn child...
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Library Journal - Diana McRae
of 5
by purpleskin
of 5
by kim jonas
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