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Book Reviews of Leaving Time: A Novel

Leaving Time: A Novel
Leaving Time A Novel
Author: Jodi Picoult
ISBN-13: 9780345544926
ISBN-10: 0345544927
Publication Date: 10/14/2014
Pages: 416
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 80

3.9 stars, based on 80 ratings
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

13 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

pottergal avatar reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 91 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Jodi Picoult knows how to spin a yarn.

Sinking into her stories is like stepping into a hot bath on a cold night, steam rising off the water and delight drifting through every pore as you relax into it.

This skillfully told tale of grief is seen through the eyes of humans, told through the heart of elephants. You will be captivated by this master of the art of writing. I picture Jodi in a trance as she writes her stories because her characters are so rich and complex that it's as if she channeled them. Enjoy, but don't wait for a cold night! Turn up the AC and enjoy this book now, on a hot summer afternoon.
flyinggems avatar reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 451 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Jenna has one wish to find her mom. She remembers bits and pieces about her life growing up but why did her mom leave her behind? She has tried everything she can to find her. She turns to a Psychic and a former Detective to help.

This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. Once I finished, I could not start another book. I had the story keep on replaying in my head.

Books by Jodi Picoult
Songs of the Humpback Whale: A Novel in Five Voices (1992)
Harvesting the Heart (1993)
Picture Perfect (1995)
Mercy (1996)
The Pact (1998)
Keeping Faith (1999)
Plain Truth (2000)
Salem Falls (2001)
Perfect Match (2002)
Second Glance (2003)
My Sister's Keeper (2004)
Vanishing Acts (2005)
The Tenth Circle (2006)
Nineteen Minutes (2007)
Change of Heart (2008)
Handle with Care (2009)
House Rules (2010)
Sing You Home (2011)
Lone Wolf (2012)
Between the Lines (2012) (with Samantha van Leer)
The Storyteller (2013)
Leaving Time (2014)
Off the Page (2015) (with Samantha van Leer)
Living Color (2015)
njmom3 avatar reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 1389 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult takes on the issue of grief the losses that lead to it and how individuals react to it. Alongside the human story, the book draws parallels to the elephants' ability to feel emotion and to remember. The book is a page-tuner like most of Jodi Picoult's books and has a huge twist at the end that I did not see coming.

Read my complete review at: http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2014/10/leaving-time-novel.html

Reviewed based on a copy received through a publishers giveaway
the-reader avatar reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
All I can say about this book is once again Jodi Piccoult does not disappoint and I was totally blown away by the ending, not what I expected at all, couldn't put it down.
reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 66 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Although I like all the books she has written, I think some are better than others. The past few books she's published were ok; in my opinion she's done better. For this story, I'll say 'woo-hoo! She's baaaccckkk!'This one was great!
Readnmachine avatar reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 1474 more book reviews
Jodi Picoult fans know going in that she's going to throw the reader a curve ball that seemingly comes from nowhere and knocks all preconceptions and assumptions into the middle of next week. âLeaving Time' is no exception. This novel's twist will leave you breathless. Guaranteed.

It starts with three people who have lost something â a young teen who lost her mother, a psychic who lost her gift, and an ex-cop who has lost his faith. Together, they try to follow a crumbling trail that leads back a decade, to a night of violent death and heartbreaking abandonment.

Picoult uses the background of elephant research to give the book an interesting slant and to provide both questions and answers about their behavior, particularly in how elephant societies are structured and how they deal with death and grief. It works nicely with the main themes of memory, loss, and trauma, and even though the reader will think they understand what Picoult is doing with her foreshadowing, they'll be wrong. Looking backward, there are clues and indications of what she's building, but they are inserted so smoothly and fit what appears to be the action of the plot so organically that they simply fly in under the radar.

Read this book. Enjoy it. Be surprised as hell at the ending. And have a Kleenex handy for the last couple of chapters.
TarynC avatar reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 213 more book reviews
I enjoyed this book, I have been disappointed with Ms. Picoult over the last few years, but this one actually was a suprise and a departure from her more recent poorly written books
debs avatar reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 650 more book reviews
I loved this book and once I started I could not put it down. The story is told in the same style as Picoult's other books, where she brings the characters to life by each telling their story one chapter at a time. The twist(s) in this book are extraordinary and by the time I finished, I wanted to go back and read the book a second time.
sabayrac avatar reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 34 more book reviews
Can't say this was in any way a favorite of mine. The book tells about elephant behaviors and memory in the wild and sanctuaries and those documented behaviors. The story spins around two Scientists working with elephants, marrying and a child. The story twists around the child, Jenna, searching for her mother and concluding who died and why.
There is a psychic and a detective that aid in this search.........but the ending will surprise..
reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 81 more book reviews
This book was a great summer read. Easy and so good you don't want to put it down. The information about elephants is very interesting. The twist at the end made me drop the book.
reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 182 more book reviews
Holy crap!!!
This is one of those books that you can read twice- and it's two totally different stories. LOVED it! It's totally engaging, with just the right amount of confusion- haha! I love the characters... Love! Got totally emotional. Want this to become a movie--- Read it! It'll smack ya in the face!
reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 2 more book reviews
Her best novel yet! I was hooked after just a few pages.
reviewed Leaving Time: A Novel on + 988 more book reviews
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? Includes the novella Larger Than Life Throughout her blockbuster career, Jodi Picoult has seamlessly blended nuanced characters, riveting plots, and rich prose, brilliantly creating stories that ?not only provoke the mind but touch the flawed souls in all of us? (The Boston Globe). Now, in her highly anticipated new novel, she has delivered her most affecting work yet?a book unlike anything she?s written before.

For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice?s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother?s whereabouts.

Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest: Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons, only to later doubt her gifts, and Virgil Stanhope, the jaded private detective who?d originally investigated Alice?s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they?ll have to face even harder answers.