The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 6 days

Pages - 448

Publisher - Hodder & Stoughton

Source - Netgalley

Blurb from Waterstones (Goodreads one is so huge)

Dawn is a death doula, and spends her life helping people make the final transition peacefully. But when the plane she's on plummets, she finds herself thinking not of the perfect life she has, but the life she was forced to abandon fifteen years ago - when she left behind a career in Egyptology, and a man she loved.


My Review

The book opens with a plane crashing, Dawn is the main character and survives the crash. As with anyone going through something like this she evaluates her life. Married and with a teenager - job as a death doula, go back to that life, or head back to Egypt to the man she loved and left and her dreams - working on a proper archaeological dig. Her life can go one of two ways, which will Dawn choose?

The book is so busy! There are flashbacks to the past, her life and work in Egypt and of course Wyatt, the one who "got away". We see how they met, clashed, worked together and learn a whole ton of Egyptian stuff which I actually found quite interesting, even if some was a bit over my head. Same with quantum physics, there was a lot to chew over in the book, besides all the relationship/self assessing journey. I Think a glossary would have helped with some of this.

The death doula job was very interesting and emotive, we get to see Dawn in action, what she does for her clients and how hard and special that kind of job is. Examining relationships from her past, present, with her husband, daughter, clients it is a busy busy book.

Really different to what I was expecting, the opening with the plane going down was so well done, my heart was in my mouth. Some of the other topics I found interesting, who doesn't find Egyptian stuff interesting and there was even a picture or two in the arc kindle version. Huge central focus on relationships, many types, if you escaped death - would it change up how you lived your life?
3.5/5 for me this time, I do enjoy Picoult books and have a few on my tbrm still to read.

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