Lone Wolf, Packaging May Vary

Ever since I discovered Jodi Picoult by picking up "My Sister's Keeper" years ago, I find myself looking forward to March of every year, because Picoult releases a new novel like clockwork. I always preorder the book from amazon.com, often when it first shows up on the website, because I do not want to miss it. The thing I love the most about Picoult's writing is that she has multiple narrators, so that we can see the story from more than one character's point of view."Lone Wolf" was told in the voices of Luke Warren, his children Cara and Edward, his ex-wife and children's mother, Georgie, and later on, Jodi throws in the voice of two other characters - Joe, Georgie's present husband, and Helen, the court-appointed guardian for Luke (who cannot speak for himself due to a traumatic brain injury sustained in a car accident and the fact that he is in a coma - he narrates his part of the story in italics and I think, from somewhere in the great beyond, telling us his memories of living in the Canadian wilderness trying to infiltrate a wolf pack. Luke's narrating is in part comparing life in a wolf pack to family relationships back in civilization.Luke and his 17 year old daughter Cara were in a horrific car accident at the beginning of the story. Somehow, with a shattered shoulder, Cara manages to get them both out before the car explodes. At the hospital, Luke is put on life support without any hope of regaining consciousness. Georgie calls Edward (who is gay but that isn't a big thing in the book - he's not dating anyone during the events in the book - it is just a part of who he is like his eye color or another physical characteristic. It is something for whichI applaud Jodi Picoult. Not only does she have a gay son herself, but she understands and accepts it as who he is. She creates characters accordingly) who had been overseas for the last seven years due to a falling out with his father. Edward comes home as quickly as he can. Luke's driver license shows that he is an organ donor, so after speaking with the doctors and nurses, Edward wants to turn off the ventilator and donate Luke's organs. Cara, on the other hand, wants to hold out for a miracle, hoping against hope that her father will wake up and make a full recovery, despite what the doctors are saying.I think Cara is the least likable of all of Jodi Picoult's characters, in this book and others combined. She will say anything to get her way, regardless of whether or not it is true. I do sympathize with her a little in that she is a young girl who is desperate for her father to recover, but that went out the window with a very loud crash the more I read of the book. She's very immature, regardless of the responsibilities she shouldered while living with her father. I liked Edward much better - he's the one trying to do what is right for everybody in his family. Cara, it seems, is only trying to do what is right for Cara. She does not seem to care that the odds of her father being even half of the man he was before the accident IF he woke up are slim to none. If I had to say why she wants her father alive, I'd say it is because she does not want to go back to living with her mother.There are some twists to the story to keep it interesting, which works well against the story itself. I loved this book because it got me to thinking about wolves, and not in the terms I usually think of them (which is, of course, the werewolf kind). It was a bit refreshing to learn about the life of a wolf, and what the roles are in a pack, and how they function as a whole. The story as a whole gave me a lot to think about, and it left me wanting to know more about wolves. On the last page of the book, Picoult recommends another book by a real life (and "thankfully" healthy) Luke Warren, "The Man Who Lives with Wolves" by Shaun Ellis. I cannot wait to check it out.

Dear Jodi,I love your work. I anxiously await the new novel every year without fail. I get insanely curious about six months into the wait and start trying to search you on Amazon for a new release date. I recommend you to every reader I know. I share your book cover pins on Pintrest. I am a fan. No author has ever brought me to tears as you did in Nineteen Minutes, My Sister's Keeper, and The Tenth Circle. I could relate to a character or find something in their situation that gave me empathy. A dedicated used book buyer, I buy all of your novels brand new in hardcover if I have to. I don't hesitate. I love your writing.It pains me to give Lone Wolf three stars. More than you will ever know. It pained me to tell another avid reader who said she had passed buying this so far because it looked "dull" that her first reaction was correct. I at times would have quit reading if anyone else had written this book. Instead, out of loyalty, I gave you until the last page to change my mind. Here is my reader's perspective as I read this.One of the first things I noticed was the amazing information about wolves. Then it began to get the feel of a "Discovery channel documentary". I got bored. I bought fiction, not non fiction so you can see my problem, right? Other authors like Luanne Rice and Mary Alice Monroe have done wonderful jobs at integrating non fictional facts especially about animals into their story without it consuming the entire novel.A few wolf chapters later I thought, "this man is insane. Why do I care about him?" I began to ask myself the questions I ask when I'm writing a story, the things they tell you in writing classes readers will wonder about as they read a novel. And my mind also begin to wonder if you had gone into some detail of his mental illness it might have been more interesting than all of the wolf plots. But the questions I began asking were: Why did I care about this man's life? Or death? What did he mean to his family (the main characters)? It seemed he meant nothing to them, even the daughter, which I will explain in a little bit. Why was he so insane in the first place? Who does things this man does? Is this some wolf episode of hoarders? Since I didn't know who he was by creating this wolf persona to hide behind, I didn't care about his issues which made it hard to care how the story evolved.No one liked him, why would the reader? The ex wife had obvious reasons not to like him before the spoiler twists, as he preferred wild animals to her company, smelled like a wild animal, tended to act like one, and showed no commitment to their family. The oldest son didn't like him because of the twist, but also because he was never a parent to his children. He was a parent to a bunch of wild animals. His daughter seemed to like him but she never really connected that to the reader. I read her as acting so spoiled she liked the parent who let her get away with the most. She also forced her connection with him more by connecting with his passion. I felt like her devotion had more to do with their shared passion for wolves than for her father himself.Things were very odd or never fully added up for me, as a reader in this novel. How can the wife say he would come home wild, sleeping on the floor, ignoring her and later describe he was just a normal man at home? He was or he wasn't but you can't change your mind in the middle of the story. I wanted this to explore my emotions on this controversial topic the way your novels have in the past. I wanted to feel every piece of emotion I felt when Terri Schiavo was the hot news topic. I was alive when that happened and I remember it as clearly as I remember other events in history. I was connected to her case. I devoured information. I was emotionally invested in what the courts would decide on her family, spouse, and her behalf. I was never there with this. Even though it was fiction, you have in the past, been able to connect the reader in the same way the real life event would. My expectations were much higher than what was delivered.SPOILERThere is a lot more I could say about this but I don't want to write a novel here. There is one other issue I wanted to address however, so let me ask why the rush? Why such a short time span? Why the push to not let the characters resolve this themselves? See, if my father opened his eyes within a few days of being in this state I would wait a little longer before I pushed the decisions that were pushed here. Why not give it a few more weeks? What did that hurt the family? When the daughter offered to come to terms with her brother if he would just give their father one more month, the book could have ended there, or paused for a month and then resumed with the next chapter "A Month Later". Was what she was asking for that hard for her brother to give her? Couldn't a legal document have been drawn up right then saying if nothing else happened in that month, they would agree to do what Edward wanted?With great sadness, I must regret to inform you this is the first novel by you I won't tell everyone I know to read. I'm so sorry. It could have been so different for both of us. I will give you a second chance. Please don't break my "reading" heart again? Thank you!

Jodi Picoult's last few novels have been controversial as expected, but not in the way I think she intended. Many readers seem to think she's going downhill a little but I absolutely disagree. Here's why:Lone Wolf to me was like being on a massive diet and then being presented with a box full of cream cakes: I had to devour it and every bite was delicious. So what's it about? This time around Picoult has presented us with the standard process by which she creates her books - she's asked us a morally significant question and, depending on the reader, you might like or dislike the ending. Lone Wolf is about Luke Warren. Luke,a father of two, is obsessed with learning about wolves (to the point that even he lived in the wild with them at one point, surviving on raw meat....ew). But after a tragic car crash involving him and his daughter Cara he is left in a vegetative state. This means a significant brain injury has left him dependant on machines to survive with no capabilities in terms of accessing the part of his brain that determines consciousness. Cara is desperate to keep him alive in the hopes that, like so many other miracles, he might progressively get better. But there's a problem....Edward, Luke's son, left six years ago without so much as a goodbye. Now he's back after hearing about the accident. The problem? He's Luke's next of kin...so he gets to decide whether to turn life support off or not. And he wants to. But is it for revenge or for mercy? Cara doesn't care and she's willing to do anything to stop him!I loved this book, as I have most of Picoult's books, but I did find myself a little disappointed at one stage. Picoult usually gives us a question "You want to save your father's life. Your brother wants to let him die. What would you do?" and usually I can't decide which side I'm on. With a standard Picoult book I'll change my mind a billion times and even by the end I'm not certain of what I think is right. BUT. This time was different. Why? This time I knew exactly what I wanted to happen without a doubt. There's still the dilemma between: If your dad is not compatible with life is it fairer to let him go? Is that what he'd want? And I toyed with that idea throughout but I was still more decisive than usual. Fans won't be disappointed however with the twists towards the end; something I think makes Picoult's writing style much more interesting. I was shocked as normal, I'm sure my mouth was hanging open for a good five minutes! But I did see some of the smaller twists coming (I can't explain which without ruining the story) and this doesn't usually happen.A fantastic story of family, hope and survival at all costs. It made me look at my own family and think, "I'm never letting you go; I'll fight for you if no-one else can". If you don't read this you really are missing out. It may not be her best but it's still amazing, it still moved me and ultimately it hasn't put me off of Picoult one bit.

I am an avid fan of Ms Picoult, but I will be the first to admit that there are at least two of her books I just did not like, and a few I probably would only review as okay.I started this book thinking I was not going to like it. At the beginning, I was left thinking "Um, ok, but what is the point of this book, really?" but by about the first quarter, I was beginning to really enjoy the read.I won't repeat the plot summary, since it is up there for everyone one to read. Suffice to say there were two main stories in this book - the ethical fight around cutting off Luke Warren's life support and his insight into the wolf world and how it can relate back to the human world.The story is well written, and the characters are well developed. Some are likeable, some are merely tolerable. The plot itself is not excessively original (Luke Warren is modelled on a real life wolf enthusiast and this is not the first novel to deal with the life support question) but the way the two stories are brought together is. In true Picoult style, this has a court case built in but I must praise the fact that, unlike some of her past novels, it does not become the main focus of the book. It is more like the novel culminates in this court case rather than a verdict being the climax of this novel, if that makes sense.As much as I was rooting for a different ending, I must say I liked the reality of it and the way it all came together. I think that this is a well-written novel with a great insight into a world we don't often stop to consider and Picoult has handled the sensitive issue of the moral dilemmas surrounding life support patients impeccably.Well worth a read.

The structure of the plot is similar to many of Jodi Picoult's novels in that the chapters are ' written' from the perspectives of the different characters , The psychology of the wolf pack is an ongoing theme through the story and the apparent simplicity of wolf behaviour is contrasted with the complexities and dishonesty of human behaviour.Jodie's own understanding of human behaviour means that she does not describe 'good guys' and' bad guys' , rather the vulnerabilities and failings which reflect her characters' life experiences. By page 53, for example, she has explained what happened to Luke as a small child to ensure that he preferred the company of wolves rather than taking the risk of trusting another human.Edward's return home to face the accident's consequences goes onto describe how he begins to face up to issues which he had dealt with , as an adolescent, by running away from .Jodie uses the tragedy of the accident to demonstrate how a crisis can enable a person to open other doors and grow; the conflict between Cara and Edward is gradually worked through as each tries to come to terms with losing their father and in doing so, they mature and develop greater understanding of the other's perspective.The impact of the accident on Georgie's marriage to Joe is explored as well as an analysis of why her marriage to Luke failed and the consequences of family breakdown upon the children . The dilemnas which Georgie faces as a woman and as a mother trying to care and protect all members of her two families are covered with subtleness which left me thinking about them long after I had put the book down.For me the epilogue sums up the theme of the novel ' For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the pack' Rudyard Kipling . This is an excellent study of the inter relationships between family members and the strength of the family

Edward comes home (6 years after he left his family with minimal contact) after hearing of his father and sisters car crash. Dad is in a coma, his sister is recovering and they have to make some difficult decisions, the doctors don't have great news and the decision is whether to end Luke's (the father) life or leave him on life support. Edward wants to pull the plug and Cara wants to give her dad a fighting chance, what would you do?Luke was an absent father and after taking time away from his family and life as we know it to live wild with wolves he now dedicates his life to taking care of and teaching wolves in captivity. The story flicks between Luke before the crash and his relationship and learning with the wolves and the family present day after the crash and their take on events. We see a family that has been torn apart trying to come to terms with what has happened, what they will do and how they can face the future when they haven't addressed the past.I really liked this book, it is so very different from anything I have read. For me it split into two, the story of the wolves and how they live and that of a family trying to cope after a tragic event. I think some people may not like the book because of the amount dedicated to the wolves but I loved it and learning about them (I am also going to buy the book written about someone who actually did this) and maybe some of the medical terms but again I liked it. The story stirs up a lot of emotions especially if the reader has been in a position where they have lost someone like this. A great read, something different and as always for me Jodi has written a book that you might find hard to put down, 4/5 for me.

Lone Wolf is Picoult's latest novel released in 2012. It's plot resides in the difficult decision making surrounding end of life measures. The Warren family is split, Luke and Georgie have separated each with their own new lives: Georgie in the form of a new relationship which Joe, a lawyer, and their two children, Luke with his wolf pack family. Their son Edward lives in Thailand, whilst their daughter decided to live with Luke, helping with the wolves. A terrible car accident brings the family back together again in a traumatic bid for life. Cara walks away from the accident with a few minor injuries whilst her Luke suffers serious brain injuries, being declared brain dead shortly after the accident. This story is narrated through the view point of everyone involved: Cara, fighting for her Father's right to fight for survival believing this would be his wishes in line with his animal instincts; Edward, believing his father's should life support should be turned off leaving him to pass away; Georgie, desperately trying to support both her children in their differing opinions, whilst holding the family together; and Joe, becoming involved in Edward's plight to turn the life support off. Despite how it seems, Edward's motives are not as we believe, neither is Joe's support an act of removing his wife's ex-husband. There are hidden agendas, misunderstandings and beliefs that result in the characters discovering a reality they hadn't been privy too.As far as Jodi Picoult books go, I was a little disappointed with this one. It did have the usual heart-tearing, agonising, moral decision she's renowned for - how do you decide when to turn off life support and is it ever ok? Although I was caught up in it to an extent, I wasn't completely drawn in. I think for me it lacked a depth in complexity and severity of the scenario, something Picoult is usually very good at. I kept wanting the story line to get deeper, the plot certainly had potential.Everything in this book seemed to be presented at surface level. There was no development, no dramatic twists or unseen elements of the plot and no real insight into the characters, despite there being plenty of scope for a lot more detail. This resulted in the plot being somewhat predictable.This book was simple to read, which again, for me, detracted from the depth of the story. Having said that, it meant reading it was easier (occasionally it's nice to not have to think too much!) and I still enjoyed it. Particularly I liked the insight into the wolf packs, their perceptions and instincts with the comparison to human life. It got me wondering, could man actually infiltrate a wolf pack and live successfully among them?? The references to Indian myths and legends were interesting too.All in all, I would recommend this book if you're looking for an easy-read that isn't too emotionally and morally heavy. Keep in mind it isn't one of Picoult's best.