The Storyteller by Jodi PicoultMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 4.24
Goodreads Summary:
Sage Singer befriends an old man who's particularly beloved in her community. Josef Weber is everyone's favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. They strike up a friendship at the bakery where Sage works. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses... and then he confesses his darkest secret—he deserves to die, because he was a Nazi SS guard. Complicating the matter? Sage's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.
What do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who's committed a truly heinous act ever atone for it with subsequent good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was wronged? And most of all—if Sage even considers his request—is it murder, or justice?
My rating:
DNF
This book had a promising start. I was interested enough in the characters to be curious about what would happen moving forward but about half way through it took a turn for the worst.
I typically like stories of the Hollocaust. I find that era very interesting and like to hear stories of the hardships experienced by both Germans and Jews and how they coped with all the devastation and loss in their own ways. However, this story dragged on and on and on and really brought my mood down. I found myself constantly wanting to get back to the regular story to see what was going on in present day. Then sometimes it would flash back to present day and I would be so confused about what was happening I found myself checking the genre for "paranormal." Which of course it's not, so the fact that I was questioning that is not a good sign.
This is the first Jodi Picoult novel I have not enjoyed and I am quite surprised because it has such a high average rating. Perhaps it was just not the right time in my life to be reading something like this.. I had to give up on in but maybe later in life I'll pick it back up and see how it goes.
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