Oh my. I don’t think I knew what I was getting myself into fully when I started reading this book. Hilarious doesn’t even begin to describe this book. It’s funny. It’s well-written. It’s sacrilegious. It’s blasphemous. It darn well nearly made me pee my pants I was laughing so hard. I absolutely loved it!

The whole concept is so outlandishly delicious that I really wanted to pour chocolate over it and dig it. And dig in I most certainly did. I will caution that if you take yourself or religion too seriously, you might be a little offended by this book (I mean Adam – yes THAT Adam – is beating people up and cursing), but well… again, I loved it. But if you can sit back and enjoy the story for what it is, you will absolutely roll with laughter.

The dialogue (and there is quite a bit) is very well done. It’s snappy, it’s snark-filled, and it’s snort-worthy. Eve (yes THAT Eve) will say something completely inappropriate and Cain (yes THAT Cain) will reply in kind and I just want to giggle and share it with all my friends. It’s THAT kind of funny.

The editing is okay. There’s a few parts where there are problems (Emily talking to Emily, for example) or a spelling error here or there, but nothing serious. The ending was satisfying, but the first “choice” made me wonder why the author bothered with that character at all. It seemed just kind of “tossed in” for no real reason. I don’t think either really takes away from the book, but it is something to consider.

This book is recommended for those that, as I said, don’t take themselves or their religion too seriously. It is HIGHLY recommended for Christopher Moore fans as it fits well into that genre and writing style. I really did enjoy this one and hope you will too!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2010: 90

First, I must admit that I’m a fan of Picoult. I enjoy her writing and her stories. They can be a little formulaic, but I always feel like I learn something and I’m almost always surprised by the ending. It’s her thing. It’s what she does and she does it well.

Until now.

It pains to me to say this, but WHAT THE HECK? I’m not even going to get into the ending, or lack thereof. But she gave away her ace in the hole, the surprise, the “wow” moment through most of the book. The reader already knows what’s happened, it’s painfully obvious and the characters even tell us what happened.

So…. what’s left? We’re reading about a kid with Asperger’s, who seems to have every single symptom under the sun. It’s overdone. I feel like she did her research – most definitely, but it didn’t seem realistic.

Here’s the thing. She kind of broke out of her formula and I’m all for that. I like the idea of her doing something different, but instead of going in a different directly she just gave us the surprise early and we’re left with this “eh”. It felt like she reached her word count and looked at where she was and said “okay, good enough.”

Well, no. it’s not “good enough”. In an interview she was asked about the ending and she replied “Because at heart, this is Jacob’s book. And remember, to Jacob, there was never any real mystery here, was there?” but she’s missing that this book wasn’t JUST told from Jacob’s point of view. She’s missing that I don’t care, as the reader, what Jacob’s mystery was or was not. Heck, I even knew the mystery 1/4 of the way in. I want to know what happened next. It wasn’t even a cliffhanger. It was just a period. I kept going back and forward trying to figure out if I missed a page or if pages fell away or what happened.

Sadly, I’m disappointed in this one. The writing was good, she did a fairly good job of keeping the voices distinct, but the ending and the early reveal just killed this one for me.

If you are a die-hard Picoult fan or have a child with Asperger’s in your life (and I’d love to know if her portrayal is accurate), read this one. Otherwise, sadly, I must say to skip it.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2010: 52