Summer Book Review #1: Lone Wolf

This author!!

She is phenomenal!! (well, at least in my opinion!).....her reputation speaks for its self, for sure though!

I waited for several weeks at the towne library to attain this book.

I finally got the call last week and read this in just under a week.

At first I had trouble "getting into" it.  And then I realized where she was going with this story......her books all tend to have some kind of moral or ethical dilemma and as a Christian, I find her books to be challenging sometimes to my lifestyle, but in a good way. She makes one think! 

Here's the Story Summary (taken from the inside jacket):

A wolf, in the wild, knows when its time is done.  A wolf knows when it is no longer of use to the entire pack and it dies apart from the family. "Humans aren't so lucky."

The main character, Luke Warren, has spent his whole life learning about and researching wolves. He wrote books, left his family to go live with them in the Canadian wilderness and studied them thoroughly.  He understands wolves better than his own human family!  His wife, Georgie, left him for another husband.  She has preschool-aged twins with then new husband. His son, Edward, left home at age 18 to go live in Thailand.  He is now 24 and still has a shattered relationship with Luke.  Luke also has a daughter, Cara, who lives with him although she also has lived with Georgia and her new husband, Joe.

One night, Edward gets a frantic phone call from his mom. He leaves Thailand to rush back home to New Hampshire.  Luke has been seriously injured in a car accident, along with his sister Cara.

Everything begins to change.  Edward has to face his dad whom he walked out on 6 years earlier. And he and Cara have to decide their father's fate together.  He is in a coma.  He is on life support.  What secrets do Edward and Cara have from each other?  Do they have hidden motives to let their dad die.....or to keep him alive?  What would Luke want?  "How can any family member make such a decision in the face of guilt, pain, or both? And most importantly, to what extent have they all forgotten what a wolf never forgets:  that each member of a pack needs the others, and that sometimes survival means sacrifice?"

This book describes the nature of a family.  Love, protection, strength.  And the price we sometimes have to pay for those blessings.  "What happens when the hope that should sustain a family is the very thing tearing it apart?"

My Thoughts

This book was an excellent story about love, betrayal and forgiveness in a family.  I liked that the author took an animal (the wolf) and had it compared to the life of the father.  Just who IS the Lone Wolf and what significance does that phrase play in the storyline??

The moral/ethical dilemma of course is euthanasia.  Is it ok to "pull the plug" even though with medical advancements happening all the time??  How does one know?

In typical Picoult fashion, she leaves me with many things to think about if I am ever faced with a situation that is similar. And the book is a fast read.  I had to keep going to the next chapter to find out what happens. I like that each chapter is a different person's voice. Including Luke's. It was very well done!  

I don't want to give away what happens so I highly recommend you read this book.

I believe this book is appropriate for ages 16 and older.

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.