I have read everything Jodi Picoult has written and love what she writes. This book, as always, was researched incredibly well but I felt didn’t have the wow factor for me due to so MUCH research…

I will continue to read everything she writes though!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Book of Two Ways is a thought-provoking novel that explores the complexities of life, love, and the choices we make. As someone who has read most of Picoult's back catalogue and loved her work, I was excited to dive into this book.

The story follows the journey of Dawn, a death doula, who finds herself on a flight back to Egypt, the country where she spent her formative years, after surviving a plane crash. As she tries to navigate the aftermath of the crash and the choices she has made in her life, Dawn is faced with the difficult question of whether she made the right decisions.

Picoult's writing style is, as always, beautiful and engaging, and the book is well-researched, with fascinating insights into the history and culture of Egypt. The novel also explores the idea of the book of two ways, an ancient Egyptian funerary text that reflects the duality of human nature and the choices we make in life.

However, while the book is a compelling read, it can also be somewhat slow-paced at times, and some readers may find the back-and-forth structure between Dawn's present and past lives confusing. Additionally, the story's ending may feel rushed and unsatisfying to some readers.

Overall, The Book of Two Ways is a well-written and thought-provoking novel that explores the complexities of life and the choices we make. It is a wonderful read for fans of Picoult and those interested in the intersection of ancient Egyptian history and modern life.

After many a mixed review, I was a little unsure what to expect with The Book of Two Ways. I knew there would be some heavy egyptology references (which went way over my head) but I'm glad I persevered as the overall story was inspiring, moving, and thought-provoking.

As a death doula, Dawn helps people leave the world behind as they make their final transition. Ironically, she herself has already left a life behind, a life filled with research and discovery in Egypt, a life she was very much meant to live. Until one day, a phone call catapults her back to Boston to care for her family, putting her career on permanent hold. Despite marrying a kind and thoughtful man, raising a daughter, and finding success in a new calling, Dawn can't erase from her memory the things she left behind - namely, Wyatt. When a new client wonders where she would be if she wasn't here, Dawn is transported to Egypt and knows she has unfinished business that she can't ignore any longer.

One thing you can always guarantee with a Jodi Picoult novel is that it will be thoroughly researched for accuracy and authenticity. With Egyptology as a major theme, the novel goes into profound detail, adding historical and spiritual context to complement the story. While this was interesting to an extent, I found it way too in-depth and hard to absorb. Though it helped shape the story, I personally think it would have been just as good without extra levels of detail. It was dry and hard to get through, almost making me want to give up - I can see why others did as it does feel neverending in parts. Saying that, I know there will be readers out there fascinated with Egyptian history and will appreciate the lengths Picoult has gone to shine a light on this less talked-about topic.

The Egyptology deep-dive aside, the author once again creates flawed and relatable characters, weaving in twists and turns along the way to keep the reader guessing until the end. Another aspect of this book I appreciated was how much it made me think about life - its fragility, its inevitable end, and its fluidity. This book is a firm reminder that we are in charge of our destinies and have the power to change - we don't need to wait until its too late to fight for what (and who) we love.

Overall, not my favourite of Jodi's novels but one I'm still glad I read and persevered with.

An interesting premise with well developed characters. Obviously well researched but perhaps too much of it in the pages unnecessarily. Entertaining enough but didn't have that wow factor for me.

Overall a good story but it was over long and over detailed in the Egypt timeline. Not her best book, but not bad either.

There are times as an avid reader that I come across a book that I literally have to make myself stop reading, in order to make the novel last longer. The Book of Two Ways is just such a book. It was everything you could ask of a novel all wrapped up together :romance, intrigue, heartbreak, solace, thrilling, amusing and overwhelmingly informative. A few years ago I was lucky enough to go on a Nile cruise and we had our own guide, just for myself and my husband, he was so incredibly knowledgeable that he brought all the amazing sites to life in such a way that it was like we were there ,in Ancient Egypt, watching life as it unfolded. This novel brought that joy to life once again and I loved the incredible attention to historical detail and accuracy, even the bits that were created by the author.
Dawn is a death doula and spends her days supporting people who are dying, many with terminal cancer. Her role is to do and support the client and their family with all the minutia around ending a life, everything except medical care. Dawn is married to Brian and has a daughter Meret . However that is Dawn’s present, in her past she was obsessed with Egyptology and was studying at Yale and going to Egypt alongside her Professor as an archiologist supporting the uncovering of burial chambers in a Necropolis in Middle Egypt. However, life circumstances meant that Dawn had to give up work on her thesis and return to Boston, leaving her life behind her, as well as her first love, Wyatt.
From start to finish I loved this book including all the Egyptology and quantum machanics. The detailed explanations were necessary as you cannot imagine the characters being anything but fully immersed in the love of their subject.
The Book of Two Ways is Jodi Picoult at her very best.

DNF'd at around 20%.

Started this early October 2020 and left it soon after to try something else. It's now November 2021 and I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to finish it.

I have heard so much praise for Jodie Picoult but I found this to be on the whole dry abd boring I found myself every few pages looking at how long was left in the book and sighing.

This book is so heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.
Unfortunately I had to stop reading after a few chapters because it’s a bit too much for me , way too sad for my liking and I just couldn’t carry on reading.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy through and I’m sorry I had to stop.

I really struggled with this book, and unfortunately did not finish it. I gave up at 25 per cent as I found it dragging and there wasn't a lot happening to keep me hooked by this story.

I struggled with The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult. I usually love books by Jodi and I was so disappointed. I was bored very early on, you can tell Jodi did her research on Ancient Egypt but I was looking forward to a novel not a history book. This book was not for me.

For some reason, this just didn't connect with me as much as Picoult's previous works have. I just felt disconnected from the entire plot and all the characters, missing that emotional intensity her works usually have.

One always wonders about what if. What if I did this, rather than that. And this book gives the reader a good insight about where this might take one. This was another brilliant offering by a very talented author. Recommended for anyone who loves a good read.

I feel terrible giving this book such a low rating, as I am a huge Jodi Picoult fan. But this one just didn’t gel with me AT ALL. It’s probably close to a 1.5 star although I truly didn’t enjoy reading this book. A total disappointment.

My love of Jodi Picoult stems from the way she takes hard topics and presents them, forcing you to consider your automatic views and maybe reassess. With this book her focus is on death, with our main character, Dawn working as a death doula after giving up a career as a fledgling Egyptologist.

We are following two portions of the story alternately; one where Dawn is in Boston with her husband and daughter and one where she appears to have returned to her former Dig House in Egypt.

In my honest opinion, this book took on too much. Dawn’s husband Brian works as a physicist and between his constant technical diatribes about alternate universes and Dawn’s flashbacks with in-depth descriptions about the political, religious and hierarchical setup of Egypt, it was far too much. If I had to read ‘the ancient Egyptians believed’ one more time…my eye rolls could not have been any more audible. There was something ‘off’ about the narrative, and it came across like Picoult just wanted to show all she had learned, with only the weakest attempt at blending it into a fictional narrative.

The biggest letdown for me though, beyond all of this was the characters. I literally could not have cared less about them. I thought Dawn was one-dimensional, and the times she showed some form of personality, she came across as self-centred and selfish.

I also didn’t see the relevance of Dawn’s daughter, Meret and the focus on her weight. It was like some form of backwards fat shaming only at one point Meret skinny shames Dawn and I thought…I just cannot.

I like Picoult’s writing style and her ability to tell a story. But this one missed the mark for me. I didn’t feel challenged; I ultimately felt indifferent, and that was a real shame.

I don’t DNF books as a general rule, as I know the time and effort which goes into creating a fictional story, and I want to give the author every opportunity to throw something at me that will make me glad I stuck with it, but there were many times I could have walked away from this book and never gone back to it.

This is an absolutely stonking read. It’s immersive and utterly fascinating, whilst also being incredibly heartbreaking. I can appreciate why some readers might have felt this was too heavy on Egyptology, but this was right up my street.

Thrown into mix were references to quantum mechanics - which almost went over my head! But it’s these very differing fields that you follow as Dawn’s life splits into two, two possible lives where one choice she follows her heart and passion for Egyptology and the other where she rushes back home to care for her dying mum and starts a new life and family. These dual possibilities play out with ease and they are equally immersive - mostly ending on mini-cliff hangers where you’re desperate to learn what happens next. But then you become immersed in where her current life is taking her.

Picoult often tackles very topical or difficult subject matters in her stories - and this is no exception. Death; how we as a society view it, talk about it, respond to it, prepare for it and in some ways fear it. And you can see how, through Dawn’s job as a death doula, each of her clients have affected her, particularly as memories of their deaths come back to her, but none more so than her latest client. I dare you to not be affected by these! I also love the supporting characters in this story - they’re all nuanced and complicated and frustrating and loving. Which is what you would expect from a Picoult novel!

In summary - just brilliant.

As a fan of Jodis previous books I was looking forward to this book, it just want for me unfortunately.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Personally I struggled with how this book focused on death and therefore unfortunately I couldn’t finish it

This took me a while to get into and unfortunately, I didn’t finish it as I just wasn’t enjoying it.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I was intrigued by the Sliding Doors-esque premise of this book, which I think was a main reason why I picked this up as I can't say a book about Egyptology would usually interest me. And this book...it is and it isn't a Sliding Doors story.

Dawn hears the words you never want to hear whilst travelling by plane - "prepare for crash landing." Miraculously she survives the accident, and the airline offers her onward travel to wherever she wants to go. But where is that? Is it home to her husband, teenage daughter, and career as a death doula? Or is it to where her heart went as she was faced with her own death - the Egyptian dig site, where she left her PhD and first love behind when she had to drop her life plans to care for her dying mother and young brother over a decade ago? In this book, we get to follow her as she does both.

We see Dawn in her role as death doula, which I thought was fascinating, and struggling with things as they currently stand in her marriage, which I felt was portrayed really very well. On the other side, we see Dawn as she travels to the dig site to revisit her first loves - both in the shape of Wyatt, her rival and lover in academia, and her passion for the Book of Two Ways (an ancient Egyptian death custom). Through the telling of these strands we come to understand how she came to leave one life and build another, throwing up a lot of interesting issues around missed opportunities, regrets and the paths that lives do and don't take.

I've seen a lot of people criticising the amount of historic information and dives into quantum physics in this book. For me, although I have neither an interest or understanding of either of these, I actually felt the details added a lot to the story. My main quibble was that the "typically English Marquess" who was sooooo English we had to be reminded about it more than was necessary...was called WYATT. Uh, what? You show me any English bloke, let alone some member of the landed gentry, called Wyatt.

Jodi Picoult is a big writer - her backlist is mahoosive and is matched by her fanbase. I've read a couple of her books and have another couple waiting on my shelves, and whilst I've enjoyed what I've read so far, I wouldn't say she's a favourite of mine. This book confirmed that - I enjoyed it, it was interesting, but it didn't blow me away.