Vanishing Acts by: Jodi Picoult

Book: Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

Genre                                                                                          YA, Crime and Realistic Fiction

                                                                                                          Mug Shot                                                                                     The cover of Vanishing Acts implies the love between a mother and a daughter, and how this bond is extremely hard to break. However, the cover is slightly misleading. While the bond between mother and daughter and the power of love are components, the true plot of the book is not revealed through the cover. The bright colors of ocean blue, banana yellow, and violet are attractive to the eye and grab the reader’s attention. The part of the little girl’s face that we can see gives us insight into what the main character, Delia, may have looked like at that age or how her daughter, Sophie, might look throughout the book.

Does it go to Court?                                              

The main plot of this book takes place in New Hampshire and Arizona around the year 2005. Delia Hopkins is a happy thirty-one year-old woman who has a good life in the state of New Hampshire. She has a wonderful five year-old daughter named Sophie, a fiancée named Eric, and a great father named Andrew who she has a tight bond with. But, one night the police show up with a warrant for her father’s arrest, and she finds out the truth. Her father, who was previously named Charles Matthews, had abducted her from her mother in Arizona when she was just four years old.  Her previous name was Bethany Matthews. He told her that her mother was dead, and moved them all over until they finally settled down in rural New Hampshire. There, she had a happy childhood with her two best friends, Fitz and her future fiancee, Eric .                                            When she finds this out and sees her father being dragged out the door into a police car, she is confused. That all clears up when she later finds out that her mother was an alcoholic and her step-father abused her. She wonders if this is why she was attracted to Eric because he is a recovering alcoholic. She understands, after thousands of questions that her father had actually saved her from a bad childhood. Because the crime took place in Arizona, her father’s trial is held there. Delia, Eric, Sophie, and Fitz all travel there to witness his trial where they meet a ton of interesting people, including Delia’s mother, Elise, and step-father, Victor. Throughout the book, perspectives change from Delia to Eric to Andrew to Fitz to Elise as they all tell their stories, including what Andrew’s life is like in prison, and Eric’s experience as his lawyer.                                                                                    It also displays the strong bond between parents and their kids, and how love and hate are more powerful than anything. These are common themes in this book. Others include how people will do almost anything to survive, and how large of an influence people’s religious and moral beliefs have on their every action.

Who Would Commit This?                                                                                                                                This book is very interesting and was hard to put down. Anyone would enjoy this book, but especially people who watch crime television shows or movies, or read other crime novels. The characters in this book are also easy to relate to, as their thoughts and feelings are common among everyone. This book is suspenseful and interesting throughout. This is the kind of book that I didn’t flip to the last page to see what the end result is. I was too interested in the story and wanted to follow the characters on their journey instead of find out how it ended. This book will grab the reader’s attention, and he or she will most definitely love it.

Word Count: 611 words