Book Review: Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult

Lone Wolf
Author: Jodi Picoult
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Contemporary/ Chick Lit
Released: February 28th 2012
Review Source: Simon & Schuster
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) A life hanging in the balance…a family torn apart. The #1 internationally bestselling author Jodi Picoult tells an unforgettable story about family, love, and letting go. 

Edward Warren, twenty-four, has been living in Thailand for five years, a prodigal son who left his family after an irreparable fight with his father, Luke. But he gets a frantic phone call: His dad lies comatose, gravely injured in the same accident that has also injured his younger sister Cara.

With her father’s chances for recovery dwindling, Cara wants to wait for a miracle. But Edward wants to terminate life support and donate his father’s organs. Is he motivated by altruism, or revenge? And to what lengths will his sister go to stop him from making an irrevocable decision?

Lone Wolf explores the notion of family, and the love, protection and strength it’s meant to offer. But what if the hope that should sustain it, is the very thing that pulls it apart? Another tour de force from Jodi Picoult,Lone Wolf examines the wild and lonely terrain upon which love battles reason.

A dysfunctional family has to come together after years of separation, due to a car accident involving the dad and daughter that has left the father in a coma. The estrange son has to come back and become the decision maker for his Dad outcome, further separating him from his sister. The mom and her new family become the home for the recovering daughter, and is wedged in between the fighting siblings. The sister uses all her wit to try change the decision made by her brother and fight the system to be the decision maker even as a minor, convinced that she know best what their Dad would want.

The story is told using each characters point of view and includes Luke's (dad) adventures with the wolf in a very extensive detail, where you learn what caused the breakage of the family. There are expected outcomes and very unexpected twists and turns thru out the story. The chapters with the wolfs were not very satisfying and contained a lot of unnecessary details, in my opinion this should have been traded for more inside information on the Mom and the new family.

I finished the book, because I couldn't stand the suspense and wanted to know the secrets that kept this family apart, but in the end I never really connected emotionally to the characters.