Name: The Storyteller
ISBN: 1439102767

The Storyteller

Melissa Palmer

Book #91 Read in 2013
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Sage is a baker who hides away from people because of a scar on her face, which she got in a car accident which killed her mother. Sage has closed herself off from people, finding peace in her baking. She is in a going-nowhere relationship with a married man, Adam. Then an old man comes into her bakery, named Josef, and wants her to agree to help him die. He tells Sage a tale of his past, about how he was a Nazi and the horrible things he did to people. Sage reports him to the government and investigator Leo comes to see if he can try Josef for war crimes. Leo and Sage have an instant connection. As they work together to find out the truth about Josef, they also speak to Sage's grandmother, a Holocaust survivor.

This book was riveting and one of my favorite Picoult books. Told in alternating narration, Picoult's writing style is complex and interesting. Readers will be hooked and want to find out the truth about Josef's past and to see what Sage will do about his request. I loved this book.

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Lauren Grey

I just want to start by saying this book was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Now I am completely bias being a huge Jodi Picoult fan, but she blew me away with this story. I have been waiting for months for it to come out in paperback and it was completely worth the wait! This novel had everything: a little bit of law, romance, suspense, horror, and history; it tugged at your heartstrings as well as making you laugh and gasp at times. It kept my attention from the moment I opened it to the moment I closed it. It tied up all the loose ends and still had the the twist-ending. It is a phenomenal book! 

This book is all about love, forgiveness, family, and tragedy. It opens your eyes to taking things for granted, because at any moment they can be taken from you for absolutely no reason at all. It forces you to realize the power of a situation. It makes you try and understand that people do things just because they can… good or bad. It shows you that family can be brought together and torn apart, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be healed.

But forgiving isn’t something you do for someone else. It’s something you do for yourself.

Forgiveness is a tricky subject. People forgive in all different ways, for all different things, for all different reasons. But honestly when we forgiveness someone do we really forgive them? There is the trite expression “forgive and forget” but majority of people, myself included, do not forget once we have forgiven someone… so does that still make it forgiveness? Or do we say “I’m sorry” just so we can have a clear conscience and say we did, say we aren’t still hanging on to what they did to us, say we don’t go over and over the situation in our heads to see it could have played out. In the end, do we forgive for ourselves or for the other person?

My mother would also tell me that hitting on a woman who’s grieving at her grandmother’s funeral is a one-way ticket to Hell.

I absolutely adored the relationship between Sage and Leo. I loved how it didn’t consume the whole book, that it was important at some parts, quirky at others, and slowly progressed through the book. I pictured Leo to be attractive, but more or less of those cute, but nerdy federal agents; where he didn’t do the job to shoot people, but to actually get justice. I loved how he made her feel beautiful by being outright about her scar; not acting like it wasn’t there, but not acting like it didn’t matter. As cliche as it is he saw her as more than a pretty girl with a messed up face, but for her love, commitment, and passion. They were a fantastic couple and I wish I knew what happened with their relationship… if it goes the way I want, Sage moves up to DC and opens and bakery while also redecorating Leo’s apartment and they live happily ever after.

The research for this book is so thorough and spot-on. The flashbacks to the Holocaust made my skin crawl because of its accuracy. It was horrifying and extremely interesting at the same time. It drew me in and I just wanted to continue reading to see what happened with Minka, her family, Franz. I applaud how amazingly the survivor story was!

Picoult was able to tie up the loose end, the brother, by the twist ending and I was so so glad she did. I felt disgusted at myself for liking Franz, the brother, during Minka’s story, but through his evil toward her, he was able to save her life and for that I liked him. I wondered what happened to him and then in all of Picoult’s brilliance you figure out. You don’t understand why he does what he does. What exactly his reasons are, but in the end I was happy to know both of their fate.

Jessica Ford

I swore off Jodi Picoult books after reading My Sister's Keeper, but I kept hearing about The Storyteller, so I gave it a try. Wow. What a powerful story. The characters were amazing. I keep finding myself thinking about the story, three stories in one, actually. I would highly recommend this book.

Actual Rating: 3.5

To be honest, I havent read a lot of Holocaust books yet. They scared me a little, and they mad me feel sad and nauseous. When I bought this book, I had no idea what was in store for me. By the time I started, Jodie Picoult already had me hooked and I had no choice but to push onward. 

The main character of our story is Sage Singer - a young woman who is still reeling from physical and emotional scars. Due to an accident that kills her mother and damages her face, she acquires scars on the left side of her face that does not only lower her self esteem but also reminds her of her mother's death. I love her character. She's the usual damsel in distress, who thinks she deserves the lesser catch. She finds solitude in baking, and the way she describes is is so unique and wonderful.

What really caught my interest here was the story her grandmother wrote about a fabled girl, Ania. It was a twisted kind of fairy tale, dark and whimsical. I find it wonderful that a girl from that era would be able to write as well as this. The story was somehow allegorical to the main plot, but I also thought it was too confusing.

The flashbacks were also a huge part of the book, one that provided insight on WWII. The detailed and thought out description of the Holocaust, from both the Jew and the Nazi's pov, was gruesome but it also led me to a deeper understanding of it. It was really really sad, and now I look at the Holocaust in a way that I've never seen it before. 

They deal further more with forgiveness, morality, the FBI, and then a killer plot twist. Highly recommended.

Jen Estrella

This story will stay with me for a very long time.

Rachel Benton

This is my first time reading any of Jodi Picoult stories, Overall I thought this was a pretty good story. I am not sure how I can reconcile her helping Joseph at the end? Taking his life. I feel that she lowered herself to the Nazi standards. Plus she gave Joseph what he wanted? He got to choose his death, which can't be said for none of his victim. Plus she was acting from false information from the start? Great twist in the plot by the way, which to me seemed like almost a cruel of the Arthur. I think its different hearing about death- murder and such- then actually doing it. 

I liked the whole forgiveness theme at the end.

I found Sage somewhat annoying, it was her grandmother (Minka) that became a favorite character or mine. I kind of wish that she was more a focal piece of the story then Sage. I did like the developing relationship of Leo and Sage- though I felt that the relationship was a bit rushed.

Shawna Gavas

Jodi Picoult must have a magic pen.

"The Storyteller" is a beautifully written, haunting story focusing on the Holocaust. I always have a difficult time reviewing stories of the Holocaust, mainly because I'm so swept up in the horror of it all that my mind refuses to register anything else. Secondly, I just don't feel comfortable saying I "enjoyed" a story based on human suffering and extermination.

The book made me sick to my stomach and unable to eat. But in my opinion, that makes it a good story because of the subject matter. Picoult paints a picture so vivid of the concentration camps that you can taste the ash in the air, smell the stench of death. It's hard to believe anyone could survive such conditions.