Book Blurb:
On September 11, 2001, when Molly Fitzgerald was only two months old, her mother went to an appointment at the World Trade Center and never came home. Her father and the stepmother who raised her couldn’t have loved her more, but she still grew up with a healthy dread of disasters.
Now an adult, she runs the Rhode Island Department for Emergency Preparedness, mapping out ways to save lives during storms, epidemics, and airplane crashes. She and her husband, Jesse—a police polygraph expert with his own history of crisis—have found a love that is a solace in a dangerous world. But then the unexpected upends their new marriage, leading them both to question everything they thought they knew.
Moving between past and present, Hollow Bones is an epic story of the lies we tell ourselves as we write the narratives of our lives, the plans we design to protect ourselves at the worst moments, and the ties that bind mothers and daughters.
My Review: 4.75 stars
Hollow Bones by Jodi Picoult was an incredibly compelling novel that is eerily timed into today’s headlines. I’ve been a huge fan of Picoult since her first book and there was only a short span in which I felt her books were becoming formulaic. Thankfully, that was a short stint, and she once again began writing about topics that make us think, learn and research more fully.
When I began reading the book and Lindsay Clancy was mentioned, I had no idea that she was a real person. With Clancy’s trial going on these past few weeks and the book hitting the stands today, the timing was impeccable! You can’t pay for marketing this good.
I loved the structure of the storytelling and welcomed seeing Jesse, the brother from My Sister’s Keeper as one of the main characters in the novel. That young little arsonist became a respected member of the police force. Loved the play of characters between books.
Learning about Post Partum Pyshchosis was so sad but equally interesting as I’d never heard of it. It made me horribly mad that women were often blown off as though Post Partum is just a normal part of life. Molly, Jesse’s wife, was a very well written character as her loss was hugely significant to the storyline of 9/11. This book offered so much…mother and daughter relationships, complicated family dynamics, age gap relationships, and post-partum psychosis were large plot lines of the book.
As always, Picoult added some fabulous plot twists that were surprising and seemed completely realistic to the story. This book, coupled with anyone who’s keeping up with the Clancy trial, will make for an incredible book club discussion. Highly recommend!
Quotes I liked:
A lie is a sinkhole. The more you try to dig yourself out of it, the deeper you’re stuck.”
“The absence of a person can be larger than the presence of others in your life.”
“It’s funny isn’t it? All the lives we don’t live.”
