Lone Wolf (Review) Spoilers

I decided to write this review as a letter to one of my favorite writers, Jodi Picoult - it DOES contain spoilers.  It was also posted at Amazon.

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.

SPOILER ***************************************************************

There 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!