Between the Lines

Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer

Delilah has a fairy-tale that she reads, over and over and over. It has a happy ending, which is what she wants from her life. She falls in love with the main character, but will they be able to be together?

This was a strangely compulsive read. I think it was mainly curiosity on my part to see what solutions Delilah could come up with. I did like the spider. Poor spider.

I seriously could not imagine why someone would want to go into a book. And stay there. For the rest of the book’s existence. WHY? WHY? WHY?

Ok yes, I get that Delilah is an outcast. But really, she could have tried harder. It’s not just that she likes that book before she can see into it. There are plenty of other books with similar story lines of losing a father. Her mother does an awesome job of raising her! I’m irritated that she doesn’t seem to know how lucky she is. I expect high schoolers to be self-centred, but really.

The whole fairytale was a neat idea. I did want to know what happened, and how things would work out. But being told not to fight? Forcing yourself not to? Putting braces on a dragon? Some of that was just sad, in a funny kind of way.

I liked the ideas behind this book, but in practice I’m not sure it entirely worked for me. What about other novels? What if they all have characters stuck? Does Delilah want to go on a quest to rescue other book characters?

This was an exceedingly easy read. I’m not sure I get enough tones from Picoult to say whether this is an accurate measure of her work, but I hope for more collaborations – surely they will be just as strangely compelling.