Songs of the Humpback Whale

I had been waiting for this to come out on an audio book. I have read/listened to all of Jodi Picoults books. This is her first one. I have to say it isn't her best but for a first it is very good. An interesting portrayal of when you become your mom or dad and you didn't want to. A journey many of us wish we could take and don't.

I've liked her books before this one. I've stopped listening about half way through the first half. Maybe I can get back to it but not sure.

I stopped listening after about an hour, because I couldn't stay with the story. Usually I love Picoult, but this book just made me confused and irritated. It isn't unusual for Picoult to use more than one narrator in her stories, often divided into one narrator per chapter. But in Songs of the Humpback Whale the story line is the problem. The narration jumps back and forth in timeline, which would be okay if there were a time reference somewhere.

The disposition as it is now just causes frustration. Too bad, was looking forward to another great Picoult.

I'm having a very hard time getting through this performance... not sure I'm going to finish. I'll just read the book instead. I've loved almost all of Jodi Picoult's books, and I think I recognize some of the male narrators from others of Picoult's audiobooks. They are not the problem.

The problem is the voice of Rebecca, who is 15, but the narrator is trying WAY too hard to sound young. She comes across sounding whiny, nasal, and annoying. Her reading of Rebecca's portion of the story is unnaturally slow, and she makes Rebecca sound either much younger than 15, or just stupid. It's painful to listen to. But unfortunately, I think the voice of Jane is who you hear when you try to listen to the sample on Audible.

I will read anything by Jodi Picoult.

This was the worst book I have ever listened to and of course, the worst book I have listened to of Jodi Piccoult. Her facts were all wrong, especially on geography and her story line was completely unrealistic. I can't believe she went on to write other books that are acceptable. I can't stress strongly enough how much I disliked this book.