Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult Summary & Study Guide

by BookRags

This study guide consists of approx. 61 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more – everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Songs of the Humpback Whale. This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult.

Genres: Fiction

Nook

First published December 29, 2010

Reviews

[Jane McGIll]

i didn't like this book. I thought it was very boring, they kept jumping back and forth between the 5 main characters, telling the same story. I thought it was unrealistic also, the mom/daughter relationship. We read for our book club book of the month and no one enjoyed it. They were all fans of the author, but thought it wasn't up to par for her.

[Debbi Smith]

Difficult to follow as it toggles from present to past events. But well worth reading, but you have to stay with it and know where you in time with each character. ****

[Lindsey Knipp]

This book is difficult to review. Reason being, it starts off terrible, gets better, starts to become interesting, and gets annoying again at the very end.

First off: Having Rebecca recount the story backwards is very confusing, especially at first. I didn't really realize what was happening until the very end of the book. I thought the back flashes were random, which was frustrating.

And the characters... oh my gosh, I have never read a book where all of the characters were so selfish. Every single one of them. (Except maybe Rebecca). Coupled with the fact that they are all very underdeveloped makes you feel very unconnected to them. Oliver was the worst by far.

However, Picoult is a fine writer and I enjoy reading her books. The story was not boring (once you got past the terrible beginning) and I would recommend to a friend as long as they knew in advance that Rebecca's account are written backwards, chronologically, while the others are written the traditional way.

[Brklynchris]

I did not like this book very much. I felt like it jumps from one person telling the story to another person telling the story and so on and so forth . the time line was all over the place. The ending was definitely not what was expected and the storyline was pretty boring

[Jenn]

I thought the way the book flowed did not work for me. It went back in time but the immediatley came back out and started from where the first chapter did.

[Kim]

Not her best....to much repetition of the story. Still one of my all time favorite authors.

[Barbara Whittaker]

Overly-scrambled chapters make it a frustrating read

[Lorna Droogers]

Not one of my favourite

[Dell Schooler]

Complex stories. Changing points of view somewhat offsetting.